Drew County Genealogy Records

Drew County genealogy records begin in 1847, a year after the county was formed from Bradley, Chicot, Desha, and Union counties. The county seat is Monticello in southeast Arkansas, and the courthouse holds marriage registers, probate files, and land records for family history research spanning nearly 180 years of settlement in this part of the state.

Drew County Courthouse Genealogy Records

The Drew County Clerk's office is at 210 S. Main Street, Monticello, AR 71655, phone (870) 460-6170. The Clerk holds marriage records from 1847 and probate records from 1847. Drew County was created on November 26, 1846, from parts of Bradley County, Chicot County, Desha County, and Union County, with courthouse records beginning the following year. The Circuit Court Clerk at the same courthouse holds divorce filings, court records, and land records from 1847. Birth and death records at the county level begin in 1914.

Drew County was formed from four parent counties, which means that pre-1847 records for families in this area are spread across four different courthouses. Bradley County records begin in 1843, Chicot County in 1839, Desha County in 1840, and Union County in 1829. Knowing which part of present-day Drew County your ancestor lived in before 1847 will tell you which parent county to check for earlier records. Township maps and old census records can help identify the right parent county.

The county's early economy was based on agriculture, and families in Drew County before the Civil War were often involved in cotton and timber. Probate records from the antebellum period are detailed and include inventories of land, tools, livestock, and in some cases the names and values of enslaved people. These records are public and are an important source for tracing both white and Black families who were in Drew County in the 1840s through 1860s.

Drew County Genealogy on FamilySearch

The FamilySearch Drew County wiki lists available records and links to digitized collections. Marriage records from 1847 are included in the statewide Arkansas marriage index on FamilySearch. Probate records are indexed for the county, and census records run from 1850 through 1940.

The 1850 census is the first federal census for Drew County, taken just three years after the county was formed. It lists heads of household with ages, birthplaces, and occupations, and can be cross-referenced with the early courthouse records to build detailed family groups. Many Drew County families in 1850 were recent arrivals from Bradley, Chicot, Desha, or Union counties, and their birthplace entries in the census can trace them back to older southern states like Tennessee, Georgia, or the Carolinas before they came to Arkansas.

FamilySearch also has indexed the antebellum Slave Schedules for Drew County. These separate census forms list enslaved people by age and sex under the enslaving household's name and are searchable on FamilySearch. Comparing the Slave Schedules against the 1870 regular population census — the first to name formerly enslaved people — and the Freedmen's Bureau records from 1865 to 1872 is the standard research strategy for tracing Black families in Drew County from before emancipation.

ARGenWeb Drew County Resources

The ARGenWeb Drew County page provides free genealogical resources compiled by volunteers. Cemetery surveys, family history submissions, and historical documents for this southeast Arkansas county are on the site.

Cemetery records are especially important for Drew County research because they can document family relationships that courthouse records do not directly address. Many Drew County cemeteries were established on private farmland in the 19th century and are not always easy to locate or visit today. The ARGenWeb volunteers have transcribed a number of these rural burial sites, preserving stone readings for markers that have weathered significantly.

Family history submissions on the ARGenWeb site for Drew County sometimes trace multiple generations of families from the parent county period through the founding of Drew County and into the 20th century. If another researcher has already worked on your family line in Drew County, their notes may be posted on the site and can save you significant research time. Searching by surname on the ARGenWeb site is always worth doing as an early step in your research.

Vital Records and State Archives

The Arkansas Department of Health maintains birth and death records for Drew County from 1914. The state marriage index starts in January 1917. For events before those dates, the county courthouse in Monticello is the official source. Birth certificates cost $12 and death certificates are $10 per copy from the state.

The Arkansas State Archives at 1100 North Street, Little Rock, (501) 682-6900, holds Confederate pension files, military discharge records, and microfilmed county materials for Drew County. The Archives is free to visit and open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., plus the first and third Saturday of each month. The BLM land records database holds federal land patents for Drew County from the 1840s and can document original land acquisitions in the county.

Federal Archives and Freedmen's Bureau

Federal records for Drew County are at the National Archives at Fort Worth, 501 W Felix Street, Fort Worth, TX 76115, phone (817) 831-5620. Military pension files, Freedmen's Bureau records from 1865 to 1872, and federal court records for Arkansas are available there. The Freedmen's Bureau collection for south Arkansas covers Drew County and includes labor contracts, marriage registers, and registers of freedpeople that are essential for tracing African American families in the county after the Civil War.

Nearby Counties

Drew County borders Bradley County, Chicot County, Desha County, Lincoln County, and Ashley County. The four parent counties — Bradley, Chicot, Desha, and Union — are all important for pre-1847 Drew County research depending on which township your ancestor lived in.