Fulton County Genealogy Records

Fulton County genealogy records begin in 1845, three years after the county was formed from Izard County. The county seat is Salem in the Ozark hills of north-central Arkansas, and the courthouse holds marriage registers, probate files, and land records for family history research in this rural Ozark county near the Missouri border.

Fulton County Courthouse Genealogy Records

The Fulton County Clerk's office is at 123 S. Main Street, Salem, AR 72576, phone (870) 895-3310. The Clerk holds marriage records from 1845 and probate records from 1845. Fulton County was created on December 21, 1842, from Izard County, with courthouse records beginning in 1845. The Circuit Court Clerk at the same courthouse holds divorce filings, court records, and land records also from 1845. Birth and death records at the county level begin in 1914.

Fulton County sits in the Ozark hills along the Missouri border, and families in this part of north Arkansas frequently crossed between Arkansas and Missouri counties over the generations. The county's north border abuts Oregon and Ozark counties in Missouri, and some families who appear in Fulton County records may also have records in those Missouri counties. If a family disappears from Arkansas records, checking Missouri border county records is often productive.

Because Fulton County was formed from Izard County, pre-1845 records for families who lived in this area are in the Izard County courthouse at Melbourne, Arkansas. Izard County records begin in 1829. Many families who were in Fulton County in 1845 and 1850 had been in Izard County in the years just before, and the Izard County probate and deed records can extend your research back another decade or more before the Fulton County courthouse began keeping records.

Fulton County Genealogy on FamilySearch

The FamilySearch Fulton County wiki lists available records and links to digitized collections. Marriage records from 1845 are 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 available for Fulton County and lists heads of household with ages, birthplaces, and occupations from the founding generation of settlers. Many Fulton County families in 1850 were born in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, or Missouri, and the census birthplace data helps you trace them back to those pre-Arkansas origins. Cross-referencing the 1850 census against the early marriage and probate records from 1845 onward helps confirm family relationships and identify siblings who may have settled in different parts of the county.

FamilySearch also links to military records for Arkansas including Civil War pension files. Fulton County was part of the contested Ozark region during the Civil War, and many families had members who served on both sides. The Union pension files are particularly important for Fulton County because the area had significant Unionist sentiment, and many men from the county served in Union regiments. Searching FamilySearch military collections for Fulton County veterans can uncover family history details not available in any courthouse record.

ARGenWeb Fulton County Resources

The ARGenWeb Fulton County page provides free genealogical resources compiled by volunteers. Cemetery records, family history submissions, and historical documents are available for this north-central Ozark county.

Fulton County has many small family cemeteries scattered across the Ozark hills, established on private farmland during the 19th century. Some of these are in remote locations and are not always accessible to researchers today. The ARGenWeb volunteers have transcribed a number of these rural burial sites, preserving stone readings for markers that have weathered or been disturbed since the surveys were made.


The ARGenWeb Fulton County page provides cemetery records, family history submissions, and genealogical resources for researchers tracing families in the north Arkansas Ozarks.

Family histories on the ARGenWeb site sometimes trace Fulton County families from their pre-Arkansas origins through their settlement in Izard County and then Fulton County. If your family has a long history in the north Arkansas Ozarks, the family history submissions on ARGenWeb are worth checking before you start from scratch at the courthouse.

Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives

The Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA) at the Lawrence County Courthouse in Powhatan, phone (870) 869-2064, covers Fulton County and other north and northeast Arkansas counties. NEARA holds county records, newspaper collections, and local history materials from this region. For Fulton County researchers, NEARA is a closer alternative to the main State Archives in Little Rock and may hold supplementary materials for this part of the Ozarks.

The Arkansas State Archives at 1100 North Street, Little Rock, (501) 682-6900, holds Confederate pension files, military records, and microfilmed county materials for Fulton County. The Archives is free 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.

Land Records and Federal Resources

The Bureau of Land Management database holds federal land patents for Fulton County from the 1840s onward. Many of these patents were issued shortly after the county was formed and can establish when your ancestor first acquired land in this part of the Ozarks. The BLM database is free to search online.

Federal records for Fulton County are at the National Archives at Fort Worth, 501 W Felix Street, Fort Worth, TX 76115, phone (817) 831-5620. Military pension files and federal census records for Arkansas are available there. The Civil War pension files for Fulton County veterans, including both Confederate and Union applications, are especially useful for this part of the state where many men served in Union forces and their families filed for pensions after the war.

Nearby Counties

Fulton County borders Izard County, Sharp County, Randolph County, and Baxter County. The northern border of Fulton County meets Missouri. Izard County, as the parent county, holds pre-1845 records for Fulton County families.