Facts on Local Court Records

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   Courts with countywide jurisdiction are circuit, chancery, county, and justice of peace. Jurisdiction varies from county to county, but generally circuit courts hear criminal, naturalization, and major civil cases. Chancery courts have jurisdiction over equity, divorce, probate, and adoption cases. County courts have jurisdiction over juvenile, tax, and claim cases, as well as county financial matters. Justice of peace courts hear preliminary criminal and minor contract cases. These records are generally available from the time of the county's organization except in those counties where records were destroyed by fire or other causes. Courts of common pleas existed during the territorial period, but no records remain. The county clerk's office maintains records for all courts functioning in the county. Because jurisdiction varies, check each county for its procedures.

The state supreme court has appellate jurisdiction from lower courts, and its records can be valuable for those counties with record losses. This particular group of records was indexed in Joan Thurman Taunton's Abstracts of Arkansas Reports: January 1837 through January 1861 (Hot Springs, Ark.: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988). Jack Damon Ruple, Genealogists Guide to Arkansas Courthouse Research (N.p., 1989), is also useful.

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Facts on Local Probate Records

   Generally, probate court records in Arkansas are generated by the chancery court and maintained by the county clerk. Wills and records created from probate proceedings for both testate and intestate estates are among the most valuable county records. Bound volumes of probate records include the recorded will, appointments of administrators, court orders for the inventory of an estate, the inventory, estate sale records, guardianship appointments and accounts, administrator/executor accounts, list of heirs, and final accounts.

   Probate records and/or wills for the period prior to 1920 for most of the counties in Arkansas are available on microfilm through the FHL and the Arkansas History Commission. Volumes of published wills or probate records are available for some Arkansas counties.

   Most county clerks also maintain bundles of loose probate records. These packets contain documents, not always in the record books themselves, filed in probate court in connection with estate settlements, guardianships, and insanity cases. Some are arranged in chronological order. Others are organized in semi-alphabetical order regardless of date. Original Pulaski County loose probate packets are at the Arkansas History Commission. In a few cases, other county probate packets have been microfilmed and are available there as well. Guide to Faulkner County, Arkansas loose probate packets, 1873-1917 (Conway, Ark.: Arkansas Research, 1987), was compiled in an attempt to save information from loose probate packets before the records deteriorate. Index to wills and administrations of Arkansas: From the earliest to 1900 (Jonesboro, Ark.: Vowels Printing Co., 1986), is arranged by county, with alphabetical lists within each county, but not statewide.

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Tips for General Court Records

Excerpts From the Book "Family History Made Easy"

   Even today, few people escape mention in court records at some time during their lives as witnesses, litigants, jurors, appointees to office, or as petition signatories. However, Americans of a few generations ago also expected to attend local court proceedings when they were in session.
Arlene H. Eakle, Ph.D. “Research in Court Records”
In The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy

   American court files mirror U.S. history. Buried away in courthouses and archives everywhere are the dreams and frustrations of millions of citizens. The chances are great that your ancestors have left a detailed record of at least some aspects of their lives in court records.

   Most of us don’t think of court records as the rich source of personal history that they are. But America’s English heritage established a tradition of court processes in which the people have a right to participate actively—and we always have. With relative freedom from royal supervision and with court enforcement of religious as well as civil laws, American courts tried many matters that were not subject to court action in other parts of the British empire and that are now considered too minor to warrant criminal action.

   When a person dies, every state has laws that provide for public supervision over the estate that is left, whether or not there is a will. The term “probate records” broadly covers all the records produced by these laws, although, strictly speaking, “probate” applies only when there is a will.

   Family historians use probate case files far more than any other kind of court record. Probate case files are logical sources because they tend to include so much personal data, and because Americans have depended on the courts to settle their estates since North America was colonized. According to Val Greenwood in his Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, “All records which relate to the disposition of an estate after its owner’s death are referred to as probate records. These are many and varied in both content and value, but basically, they fall into two main classes: testate and intestate” (page 255). Probate case files generally provide names, addresses, and biographical data for the deceased, but frequently provide the same information for other relatives named in the papers. Relationships, maiden names of wives, married names of daughters, past residences, and place of origin in a native country are just a few of the details that can be discovered in probate files. And probate files can be found in courthouses and archives across the United States.

   When requesting probate information from the county clerk, it is important not to limit yourself by asking for a person’s “will.” The clerk will usually take you at your word and not copy other papers in the probate file that may have equally important information if there is no will.

   Even if your ancestor is not mentioned in a probate case, consider all of the other procedures which might have resulted in him or her appearing in court records:

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