Arkansas Research Guide Digital Download

You'll love this if:

• You're getting started tracing your ancestors in Arkansas
• You want new ideas and resources to get past a Arkansas brick wall
• Your genealogy search is focused mainly on Arkansas—you don't need the full State Research Guides collection

Trace your Arkansas ancestors with the advice and resources in our State Research Guide! This four-page download includes:

• a how-to article detailing Arkansas' history and records, with helpful advice on tracking your family there
• the best websites, books and other resources for Arkansas research, handpicked by our editors and experts
• listings of key libraries, archives and organizations that hold the records you need
• timeline of key events in the state's history

Here's a sampling of the helpful tips you'll get in the Arkansas guide:

• In 1686, the French founded Arkansas Post, the state's first permanent white settlement. France and Spain took turns occupying Arkansas until 1803, when the United States acquired it in the Louisiana Purchase.
• Arkansas began mandating vital record-keeping relatively late (1914, with some locales holding out until the 1930s). Privacy laws restrict access to birth records less than 100 years old and death records less than 50 years old, but the state has a free searchable index of death records.
• Find Arkansas newspapers from 1819 to the present at the digital archives.

Plus, each guide contains active web links for one-click access to every recommended online resource. You can view this PDF on your computer and print pages for reference.