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Arkansas Research Outline |
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Table of Contents
Records Of The Family History Library
Family History Library Catalog
Archives And Libraries
Bible Records
Biography
Cemeteries
Census
Church Records
Court Records
Directories
Emigration And Immigration
Gazetteers
Genealogy
History
Land And Property
Maps
Military Records
War Of 1812 (1812-1815)
Civil War (1861-1865)
World War I (1917-1918)
Naturalization And Citizenship
Newspapers
Periodicals
Probate Records
Taxation
Vital Records
For Further Reading
Comments And Suggestions
COURT RECORDS Major Arkansas courts that have kept records of genealogical value include the following:
Circuit courts Chancery courts Courts of common pleas County courts Justice of the peace courts Original court records are kept by the clerks in each county courthouse. Copies of records at the Family History Library often date from the creation of a county to about 1900, and some indexes are available through the 1970s. Court records are also available at the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives.
Directories
Very few Europeans came to the Arkansas area during the years of French and Spanish rule, 1686 to 1803. The 1810 census of the Louisiana Territory listed only 1,062 non-Indian residents in the entire District of Arkansas.
Immigration began in earnest with the cotton boom of 1818. Many families of Scottish, Scotch-Irish About 1867, the rich land between the Arkansas and White rivers beckoned to large groups of Southern European emigrants. Many families from Poland settled in Pulaski County. A number of Italians located in the northwestern part of the state.
The last Indian tribes had been removed from Arkansas to present-day Oklahoma by 1835. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been transcribed in Jack D. Baker, Cherokee Emigration Rolls, 1817-1835 (Oklahoma City: Baker Pub., 1977; FHL book 970.3 C424be).
Some immigrants landed at New Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi River to Arkansas. The Family History Library has passenger lists
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have countywide jurisdiction over criminal cases, naturalization, and major civil cases. The Family History Library has copies of many circuit court records.
have countywide jurisdiction over equity, divorce, probates, and adoptions. The Family History Library has some chancery court records. For Pulaski County, for example, the library has copies of the records from 1839 to 1877.
have countywide jurisdiction over non-real estate civil matters. The Family History Library has some courts of common pleas records.
have countywide jurisdiction over juvenile matters, taxes, claims, and county expenditures. The Family History Library has some county court records, including Pulaski County files from 1846 to 1878.
have countywide jurisdiction over preliminary hearings of criminal cases and minor contract matters. The Family History Library has some justice of the peace records, such as the Pulaski County files from 1873 to 1917.
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DIRECTORIES
of heads of households have been published for major cities of Arkansas. For example, the Family History Library has the following directories for Little Rock:
1871-1935
FHL films 1376975-79
1913, 1915, 1916,1930, 1940, 1956, 1983
FHL books 976.773 E4p
1930, 1940
FHL film 425665 item 1 & 2
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EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION
, and English descent moved overland from Virginia and the Carolinas through Tennessee and Mississippi or Missouri. They often brought slaves with them. In 1860, Black slaves comprised over one fourth of the population. Most Arkansans today are descended from Anglo-Saxon and Black families who came from older southern states before 1900.
for New Orleans from 1820 to 1921 and indexes from 1820 to 1952. The National Archives has passenger lists through 1945 and indexes to 1952. More detailed information on immigration sources is in the United States Research Outline.
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Version of Data: 6/8/2001]