Arkansas, Sebastian County Births and Deaths - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This collection includes records for the years 1877 to 1963.

Record Description
This collection consists of birth and death records from the Sebastian county clerk’s office in Fort Smith, Arkansas and the Fort Smith city clerk’s office. The records are generally handwritten on preprinted pages.

Record Content
Birth records usually include the following information:

• Child’s name • Parent’s names • Birth date • Birth place • Sex • Race • Name of parents • Age of parents • Birth place of parents • Occupations of parents • Number of other children in the family

Death records usually include the following information:

• Name of deceased • Age • Sex • Race • Social Status (Married, divorced, single, widowed) • Occupation • Birth Place • Last Residence • How long in this state • Death place • Death date • Father’s name • Mother’s name • Cause of Death • Duration of illness • Burial place

How to Use the Record
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching the index it is helpful to know the following:

• The place where the birth or death occurred.

• The approximate date the event occurred.

• The name of the individual or individuals such as the names of the the infant, or the deceased.

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Some on-line indexes, such as indexes to FamilySearch Historical Records, will take you directly to an image. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

For example:

• Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.

• Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.

• Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.

• Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.

• Occupations listed can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as military records.

• Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family. • The name of the officiator may be a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. • The name of the undertaker, mortuary, or cemetery could lead you to funeral and cemetery records which often include the names and residences of other family members.

• Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom, this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.

• Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been born, married, or died in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.

• When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Keep in mind:

• The information in the records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.

• Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1900.

• There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another record.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:

• Check for variant spellings of the surnames.

• Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.

• Search the indexes and records of nearby counties.

For a summary of this information see the wiki article: United States, How to Use the Records Summary (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Record History
County and city officials began keeping records from the time the county was formed and the city was incorporated.

Why this Record Was Created
Birth and death records were created to keep track of the vital events happening in the lives of the citizens, to safeguard their legal interests, and for public health reasons.

Record Reliability
The birth and marriage records are usually reliable depending upon the reliability of the informant.

Related Websites
This section of the article is incomplete. You can help FamilySearch Wiki by supplying links to related web sites here.

Related Wiki Articles
Arkansas Vital Records

Arkansas Vital Records Index (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Sources of Information for This Collection
“Arkansas, Sebastian County Births and Deaths, 1877-1929; Including Fort Smith Death Records, 1945-1963,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/); from the Sebastian County Clerk, Forth Smith; Fort Smith City Clerk, Fort Smith. FHL microfilm, 2 reels, Family History Library Salt Lake City, Utah.

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, including how to cite individual archives is found in the following link: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections

Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection
• United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900, digital images, From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: September 29, 2006), Arizona Territory, Maricopa, Township 1, East Gila, Salt River Base and Meridian; sheet 9B, line 71

• Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933, digital images, from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: April 22, 2010), Baptism of Adolfo Fernandez Jimenez, 1 Feb. 1910, San Pedro Apóstol, Cuahimalpa, Distrito Federal, Mexico, film number 0227023