How would I find a dead relative from a small town of Hughes Arkansas?

Question

I wanted to find information on my Great Grandmother. She's from Hughes Ar and I believe was share-cropper or a farmer there; back in the 1920's-1930's maybe earlier.

I got most of the information from older relatives but it gets harder to get information out of them the older they get.

I tried calling the local city hall for city records and they said that they don't exist.

How would I go by finding this information?

Answer 1

Well, that's very sketchy info, but I'll try to give a few leads for ya.

I went to http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/c... and typed in "Hughes AR" (without the quotes). Hughes is in St. Francis County (this is very important, always find the correct county to search in).

This lead me to http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/U... . There are some resources listed there for finding on-line info. I noticed there's not too many good links for this county though.

Also try any search engine or go to www.google.com and find info that way. Put in your family's name, the state, county, anything that might pertain to your search. Be sure to allow for spelling variations in the surname.

I hope this helps. The answer is out there if you just keep trying. Good luck! ♥ ∞

Answer 2

As it so happens, I'm IN Arkansas! lol  In fact, my sister lives not too far from Hughes, which, FYI, is on I 40 between Little Rock and Memphis.    Now, the reason why the city hall person told you that is it's the truth - all records here are in the county courthouses, and much of that data was handwritten back then. Here in Arkansas, a lot of the cities are not large enough to have extensive records, therefore, they are all kept in the county seat. The older records are horrible to try to read!!

BUT the Arkansas Department of Records has an archive at Capitol Mall, below the State Capitol in Little Rock. Since you're looking for 1920s, that data should now be on microfiche. Every ten years another batch of records is transferred to microfiche, and then we're able to read them in the archives. This is all over the U.S.

I'd say find out if there is a club in your area that does geneological research. Usually, they will have access or know where you can go to see locally held records. If they have the capability to read the microfiche, they can then contact Little Rock and have a copy sent there, if they don't have one already. Also, there is Ancestor.com and similar sites that help persons do research, for a fee, of course.  

Answer 3

A big thumbs up to Computer Gal for the best advice in a long time on this board. Always check the State Capitol when the local towns don't have records. The State can afford to film and store what local governments can't afford to keep...and visiting them is free...copying is a quarter...and they hold every record in the State at the State Archives.

Answer 4

Here is a link to research in St. Francis Co., where Hughes is located.

http://www.argenweb.net/stfrancis/

You can also get a free membership to heritagequest online at your local library.  They have census records.  

Answer 5

rootsweb.com and familysearch.org are free sites for genealogy research.

If you post her name (including her maiden name), birth & death dates, husbands name and names of her children, here, perhaps an ancestry.com member will be kind enough to do a basic search for you.

Answer 6

If we had the information, starting with her name, we might be able to help.  Ancestry--entered 1920 census for St. Francis Co., Arkansas--there are 28,438 names to search.

  

Answer 7

Edit your question.  Give us her name and dates of birth-death.  We can try and look it up for you at ancestry.com

Try http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsear...

It is free