Arkansas Archives, Libraries, and Societies

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This entry was originally written by Wendy Bebout Elliott, Ph.D., FUGA for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

This article is part of
Arkansas sil.png
the Arkansas Family History Research series.
History of Arkansas
Arkansas Vital Records
Census Records for Arkansas
Background Sources for Arkansas
Arkansas Maps
Arkansas Land Records
Arkansas Probate Records
Arkansas Court Records
Arkansas Tax Records
Arkansas Cemetery Records
Arkansas Church Records
Arkansas Military Records
Arkansas Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
Arkansas Archives, Libraries, and Societies
Arkansas Naturalization
Native Americans of Arkansas
African Americans of Arkansas
Arkansas County Resources
Map of Arkansas


Arkansas History Commission

One Capitol Mall
Little Rock, AR 72201
www.ark-ives.com

Indubitably the finest in Arkansas and one of the oldest state agencies, this excellent repository maintains territorial, state, and county records for each county and region. It is the state's official repository for legislative records, acts of Arkansas, senate and house journals, journals of constitutional conventions, and various special studies and reports, all from 1819 to date. It is a public research facility that makes an extensive array of material available. Research materials are not limited to those examples described in the various sections of this chapter.

The commission maintains selected copies of records for seventy-five counties from 1797 to 1920, including records of marriage, estates, deeds, county courts, inventories, and some indexes. A valuable guide to the collection is available (see Arkansas County Resources). Some sources and lists are available online through its website www.ark-ives.com/selected_materials/index.php. An example is its list of 3,000 newspapers from 250 places within the state from 1819 to the present.

Arkansas Genealogical Society

P.O. Box 17653
Little Rock, AR 72212
www.rootsweb.com/~args

Publishes Arkansas Family Historian. Send requests to <[email protected]>.

Downtown Branch Central Arkansas Library System

700 S. Louisiana
Little Rock, AR 72203
www.cals.lib.ar.us

This branch holds an extensive genealogy section.

Orphan Train Heritage Society of America

P.O. Box 322
Concordia, KS 66901
www.orphantrainriders.com

A national organization, previously based in Arkansas, publishes The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America Newsletter.

Professional Genealogists of Arkansas, Inc.

P.O. Box 1807
Conway, AR 72032

As a statewide society of professionals, it publishes PGA Newsletter.

Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives

Old Washington Historic State Park
Washington, AR 71862

A few records for counties in this region are located here.

University of Arkansas

Special Collections Library
Fayetteville, AR 72701
http://libinfo.uark.edu/

Maps, manuscripts, and census records can be found here.

There are approximately forty county genealogical/ historical societies in Arkansas. An excellent guide to these is Genealogists' Arkansas Address Book (Conway, Ark.: Professional Genealogists of Arkansas, 1989). It also has information concerning statewide sources, courthouse addresses, funeral homes, libraries, chambers of commerce, and newspapers.