Returning from St. Louis, I visited my newly matched DNA cousin in north Arkansas and proceeded to Little Rock. There, I visited the Arkansas History Commission (their state archives), located in the shadow of the state capitol in a multi-agency building.
They have county records on microfilm, a library of published county-related books, and computer access to some information. Many manuscript records and images have been digitized. It’s always best to research ahead of time to save your time and theirs.
Check ark-ives.com. It's open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Free parking nearby is limited and availability is not guaranteed. There is a snack room in the building.
The next day, I visited the Lafayette County Courthouse in Lewisville. You know you are in the South when the county clerk greets you with, “Hi, sweetie, how can I help?”
While the main probate records are now digitized on familysearch.org, the office has lots of nooks and crannies to check out, filled with things not found online. Having viewed the probate records from home, I saved time while there. As the clerk noted, using my smartphone to take a few quick shots was easier on the big book than putting it on the copier.
I checked the other side of the courthouse, the Circuit Court, for anything on the 1887 murder of my cousin’s ancestor. The clerk then scurried to their “archives” in the basement and found no case file, which a retired judge whom she called attributed to the files not having been saved when they built a new courthouse around 1903.
But you also never know what might lurk in a further search. It’s always an adventure to visit a courthouse, but it also makes you appreciate the new ways we can research today. I picked up a county map, visited the cemetery, took pictures, and then headed home.
Slavery and freedom in Savannah
Leslie M. Harris of Emory University will speak on her book “Slavery and Freedom in Savannah” (University of Georgia Press, 2014) at the Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn seminar at noon July 10.
The seminar is free; bring your own lunch. For further information, check georgiaarchives.org or call 678-364-3710.
Books online
Check ancestry.com for published books covering any state. Go to the U.S. map on the home page, click on the state, and at the end of the list of resources will be books on hand. For Georgia, there are 62, and you can search within each of them.
