Obituary Searches - Other Resources

While we are happy to do obituary searches here at the Arkansas State Library, we only have access to one newspaper - the Arkansas Gazette (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) here at the library. For many years, the paper really only covered deaths in Little Rock, so if your relative died in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, or Helena, they are probably not listed. This is especially true if they lived in a very small town in the country.

All is not necessarily lost, however. Many of the towns and counties in Arkansas had their own papers, and the Arkansas History Commission has a large collection of those papers available on microfilm. Using their online newspaper database, you can search for a specific city or county, and see what papers they have available for what dates. According to their website, the History Commission does not do research for patrons, so you will probably need to visit yourself to search the microfilm. If you live out of state and that is not possible, you will need to contact them directly to see if they can find the obituary for you, or if you will need to hire a proxy researcher. Their phone number is 501-682-6900.

Genealogy Resources in Little Rock

One set of questions we get asked a lot are genealogical questions - a request for an obituary, a birth or death record, any other information about a particular person or family history. Sadly, we cannot answer most of these questions, because we do not have many of the genealogical resources needed to do so.  We can do obituary searches, but only in the Arkansas Gazette/Democrat-Gazette and only if we are provided with an exact date of death. Unfortunately, in many cases the chances of us finding a very old obituary are fairly low, especially if the deceased was outside of the Little Rock area, was not a well-known state figure, or was poor or African-American.

So who should you contact for more information?

• For birth and death records after 1914, the Vital Records and Statistics office of the Arkansas Department of Health should be on your list. Prior to 1914, you may be able to get information from the local county courthouse where the birth or death took place, but that is not always the case. It may take more digging on your part.
• If you are looking for Civil War records, some county records, newspapers from around the state, and other state government-related genealogical materials, the Arkansas History Commission and State Archives is a good place to start.
• Another genealogical resource that also has a wide range of Arkansas-related historical material is the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Part of the Arkansas Studies Institute and a department of the Central Arkansas Library System, the Butler Center was created " for the purpose of promoting a greater understanding and appreciation of Arkansas history, literature, art, and culture" and has "more than 10 million documents and photographs on Arkansas history available for public use."

Find Your Roots

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is meeting in Little Rock this week for their annual conference. Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend the Librarian's Day sessions and learn more about doing genealogical research in libraries. Although most of the documents necessary for doing in-depth genealogical research into Arkansas history are at the Arkansas History Commission, Arkansas State Library does have books to help guide beginning genealogists. Here are just two:

• The Genealogist's Companion and Sourcebook by Emily Anne Croom (CS 47 .C75 2003) - A guidebook to the numerous sources available to genealogists, including Federal Census records, county and courthouse records, and libraries. There is one chapter on documents unique to African-American genealogy and one chapter on Native American genealogy.
• Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy James M. Rose an Alice Eichholz (CS 21 .R57 2003) - African-American genealogy poses some unique and difficult challenges, but Rose and Eichholz have provided and in-depth, state-by-state look at what documents are available.

In addition to books, there are now many genealogy websites that can facilitate your genealogical search. One of the most well known is ancestry.com. While you must become a subscriber to make use of all the features on the website, there are still many resources available for free. There are special collections for African-American and Jewish family history, as well as reference works and search tips.

We can help you find the books listed here to guide you, as well as others in our collection, and we can do some obituary searches. Take advantage of these and other resource to start searching your family tree today.