Arkansas, U.S., Divorce Index, 1923-1939

This database is an index to divorces that were filed in Arkansas from 1923-1927 and 1934-1939. Information that may be found in this database includes plaintiff's name, defendant's name, date of divorce, county of divorce, and reference information for locating the divorce certificate, including a volume number, docket number, and certificate number (the certificate number will only be listed for the 1934-1939 divorces).

It is important that you use the information found in this database to locate your relative in the original records that this index references. Usually more information is available in the records themselves than is found in an index. For example, divorce records may list date and place of marriage, birth information, or the cause for divorce in addition to the information provided in this index.

Copies of divorce records may be obtained from the Arkansas Department of Health. For information on how to order these copies please visit the Arkansas Department of Health website.

Divorce is a court action recorded in court records: dockets that list plaintiff and defendant and the specific term or day of the court; minute books, which record court judgments and case descriptions (often in terse legal language); and case files, which provide affidavits, lists of children with their ages, property inventories, and other data. The date and place of marriage, ages or dates of birth of the couple, places of birth, and the grounds for divorce are usually included. In addition, the children may be in the custody of grandparents, uncles, or close family friends.

Taken from Johni Cerny and Sandra H. Luebking, "Research in Marriage and Divorce Records," The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).