Ashley County, Arkansas Genealogy

United States Arkansas  Ashley_County

Guide to Ashley County, Arkansas ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
Ashley County Courthouse 215 E Jefferson Street Hamburg, AR 71646 Phone: 870.853.2020 County Clerk has marriage, probate, and land records from 1848. Clerk Circuit Court has divorce records.

Parent County

 * 1848--Ashley County was created 30 November 1848 from Chicot, Union and Drew Counties.

County seat: Hamburg

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Arkansas county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Arkansas County Boundary Maps" (1813-1925) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
For a list of record loss in Arkansas counties see: Arkansas Counties with Burned Courthouses

Populated Places
Town/city records in the FamilySearch Catalog



Neighboring Counties
Bradley •  Chicot  •  Drew  •  Morehouse Parish, Louisiana  •  Union  •  Union Parish, Louisiana  •  West Carroll Parish, Louisiana

African Americans

 * 1865-1868 — Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, Hamburg at FamilySearch.org — browsable images only; Register of contracts, letters

Biographies

 * Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas. Chicago, IL, USA: Goodspeed Publishing, 1890.
 * Online at Ancestry.com ($/Free )

Guardianship

 * Probate Records 1849-1893 Part of the collection: Arkansas Probate Records, 1817-1979 at FamilySearch Historical Collections (Free, browse images)
 * Includes Administration accounts 1849-1889; Dockets 1872-1893; Letters of administration and guardianship 1849-1868.

Local Histories

 * Etheridge, Y. W. History of Ashley County, Arkansas. Van Buren, Ark. : Press-Argus, 1959.
 * Online at FamilySearch (Free); and at Ancestry.com ($/Free )


 * Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas. Chicago, IL, USA: Goodspeed Publishing, 1890.
 * Online at Ancestry.com ($/Free )

History Timeline
Emphasis for this timeline is on events that affected migration, records, or record-keeping. Unless otherwise mentioned, the events below were gleaned from Ashland County - The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History &amp; Culture


 * The area that is now Ashley County contained farming settlements dating back thousands of years.
 * The mound at Lake Enterprise, near Wilmot, is possibly the oldest mound in Arkansas, belonging to the Archaic Period (9500—650 BC).
 * By AD 1700, the area had no permanent villages.
 * 1818 - The Quapaw ceded what would be Ashley County to the United States government.
 * 1826 - When U.S. surveyor Nicholas Rightor entered the Arkansas Territory, he found settlers who had come to a land that they found to be abundantly fertile and in which game and fish were plentiful.
 * 1848 - November 30 - Ashley County was organized.
 * 1855 - By this time, many farms were producing cotton, corn, wheat, potatoes, and livestock. Timber was rafted down the Saline River.
 * Ashley County experienced solid growth in the years leading up to the Civil War. From a population of 2,058 in 1850, the county had grown to 8,590 in 1860. The Civil War interrupted this growth, so that by 1870, the population had dropped to 8,042.
 * Congress’s 1867 passage of “An Act for the More Efficient Government of the Rebel States” divided the South into five districts and implemented martial law in 1868.
 * 1868 - When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, Arkansas refused to ratify it.
 * 1890's - The beginning of what was to become one of Arkansas’s most important economic developments: the wood products industry.

Maps

 * Family Maps of Ashley County, Arkansas (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.
 * How to order Arkansas Vital Records

Civil War

 * - 2nd Battalion, Arkansas Calvalry (Confederate), Company E
 * - 3rd Consolidated Regiment, Arkansas Infantry (Confederate)
 * - 8th Battalion, Arkansas Infantry (Confederate), Company F
 * - 8th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry (Confederate)

Men from this county served in the 3rd Regiment, Arkansas Infantry (Confederate).

Captain Calvin L. Collier. They'll Do To Tie To by, USAF (Little Rock, Arkansas: Civil War Round Table Associates, 1959) p. 10

Probate Records
Online Probate Records
 * 1783 – 1998 Arkansas Wills and Probate Records 1783-1998 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1817 – 1979 at FamilySearch — images
 * Probate Records 1849-1893 Part of the collection: Arkansas Probate Records, 1817-1979 at FamilySearch Historical Collections (Free, browse images)
 * Includes Administration accounts 1849-1889; Dockets 1872-1893; Letters of administration and guardianship 1849-1868.

Vital Records
See also How to order Arkansas Vital Records

Marriage

 * 1848-1920 - Ashley County Marriage Books AA-T Index 1848-1920 in International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch - free.
 * 1913-1951 - Arkansas County Marriage Books AA-T, 1-18 Index 1913-1951 in at FamilySearch - free.

Genealogy Societies and Libraries

 * List of Arkansas Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical &amp; Genealogical Societies

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers