Arkansas Fast Facts and Key Resources

Statehood: 1836

US territory status: 1819 (part of Louisiana Territory in 1803, then Missouri Territory in 1812)

First federal census:1830, as Arkansas Territory

Statewide birth and death records begin: 1914

Statewide marriage records begin: 1817

Public-land state

Counties: five in 1819; 75 today

Contact for vital records:

Arkansas Department of Health
Division of Vital Records,
4815 W. Markham St., Slot 44
Little Rock, AR 72205, (800) 637-9314

healthy.arkansas.gov/programs-services/program/certificates-and-records

Websites

• Arkansas GenWeb Project
• Cyndi’s List: Arkansas 
• Indian Removal Through Arkansas, 1830-1849

Publications

• Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Arkansas Historical Association, included with annual membership)
• Colonial Arkansas, 1686-1804: A Social and Cultural History by Morris S. Arnold (University of Arkansas Press)
• Confederate Arkansas: The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime by Michael B. Dougan (University of Alabama Press)
• Historical Atlas of Arkansas by Gerald T. Hanson and Carl H. Moneyhon (University of Oklahoma Press)
• The Old South Frontier: Cotton Plantations and the Formation of Arkansas Society, 1819-1861 by Donald P. McNeilly (University of Arkansas Press)

Archives & Organizations

Arkansas Genealogical Society
Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221, agsgenealogy.org

Arkansas Historical Association
416 Old Main, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, (479) 575-5884, arkansashistoricalassociation.org

Arkansas State Archives
1 Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201,
(501) 682-6900, ark-ives.com

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
401 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, AR 72201,
(501) 320-5700, butlercenter.org

Fort Smith Public Library
Genealogy Department, 3201 Rogers Ave.,
Fort Smith, AR 72903, (479) 783-0229,fortsmithlibrary.org/genmain.html

National Archives at Fort Worth
1400 John Burgess Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76140,
(817) 551-2051, <archives.gov/fort-worth>

Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society
405 S. Main St., Bentonville, AR 72712, (479) 271-6820, rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arnwags

Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives
201 Highway 195 South, Box 134, Washington,
AR 71862, (870) 983-2633, archives.arkansas.gov/sara/sara-about-us.aspx

For more Arkansas resources, visit:

State Research Guide: Arkansas
What’s Hot in Arkansas?

From the May/June 2018 issue of Family Tree Magazine.