Place:Jefferson, Alabama, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Jefferson County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama, with its county seat being located in Birmingham. As of the 2010 census, the population of Jefferson County was 658,466. Jefferson County is the principal and most populous county in the Birmingham metropolitan area.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Jefferson County was established on December 13, 1819, by the Alabama Legislature.^[1] It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.^[1] The county is located in the north-central portion of the state, on the southmost edge of the Appalachian Mountains, in the center of the (former) iron, coal, and limestone mining belt of the Southern United States. Jefferson County is bordered by Blount County, Bibb County, St. Clair County, Shelby County, Tuscaloosa County, and Walker County, in Alabama. Jefferson County has a land area of about . Well-before Birmingham was even founded (in 1871), the county seat of Jefferson County was located at Carrollsville (1819 – 21) and Elyton (1821 – 73), and since 1873 it has been located in Birmingham, which was named for the English city of the same name in Warwickshire. That city had long been a center of iron and steel production in Great Britain. Note that Elyton has long been a part of Birmingham itself, since Birmingham was established by the merger of three towns, and the city has a long history of annexing its neighboring towns and villages, including North Birmingham.

2011 Bankruptcy filing

On November 9, 2011, Jefferson County filed for bankruptcy, the most expensive municipal bankruptcy ever in the US, at $4.2 billion, with debts of $3.14 billion relating to sewer work. It requested Chapter 9 relief under federal statute 11 USC §921. The case was filed in the Northern District of Alabama Bankruptcy Court as case number 11-05736. The county is represented by Kenneth N. Klee, a partner in the firm Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern.

, Jefferson County has slashed expenses and reduced employment of county government workers by more than 700.

Timeline

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Research Tips

The Tannehill Iron Works (on Tannehill Parkway, Lat: 33.2487264, Long: -87.0694386) is included in the Ghost Town USA's Guide to the Ghost Towns of Alabama, hosted on RootsWeb.