Greene County Genealogy Records

Greene County genealogy records go back to 1834, making this one of the older documented counties in northeast Arkansas. The county seat is Paragould, and the courthouse holds marriage registers, probate files, and land records for family history research spanning nearly 190 years of settlement in this part of the state near the Missouri border.

Greene County Courthouse Genealogy Records

The Greene County Clerk's office is at 320 W. Court Street, Paragould, AR 72450, phone (870) 239-6311. The Clerk holds marriage records from 1834 and probate records from 1834. Greene County was created on November 5, 1833, from Lawrence 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 1834. Birth and death records at the county level begin in 1914.

Greene County was formed from Lawrence County, one of the older counties in Arkansas, and its 1834 record start date means that researchers can trace families in the courthouse from very early in the Arkansas statehood period (Arkansas became a state in 1836). The county seat, Paragould, was established later and named after two railroad magnates. The early courthouse records predate the town, and family research in Greene County often requires looking at records from the rural townships before Paragould became the center of county life.

Greene County borders Missouri to the north, and families frequently crossed between Arkansas and the adjacent Missouri counties of Dunklin, Stoddard, and New Madrid over the generations. If your Greene County ancestor disappears from Arkansas records, checking those Missouri counties is a logical next step. Some families also had connections to Clay County, which was formed from Greene and Randolph counties in 1873.

Greene County Genealogy on FamilySearch

The FamilySearch Greene County wiki lists available records and links to digitized collections. Marriage records from 1834 are in the statewide Arkansas marriage index on FamilySearch. Probate records are indexed for the county, and census records run from 1840 through 1940.

The 1840 census is the first federal census for Greene County and captures the founding generation of settlers from just six years after the county was formed. It lists heads of household with ages and gives a picture of the families who were establishing the county in its earliest years. The 1840 and 1850 censuses are particularly valuable for Greene County because they document the pioneer generation whose children and grandchildren built most of the county's established families. Many of these founding families came from Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, or Missouri, and the census data helps trace them to those earlier homes.

FamilySearch also provides military records for Arkansas including Civil War pension files for Greene County veterans. The county had men serving on both sides during the war, and the pension applications contain detailed family history information. For Greene County researchers, the 1880 mortality schedule — which lists people who died in the census year — is another useful FamilySearch tool, since it predates state death records and can provide death dates and causes for ancestors who died before 1914.

ARGenWeb Greene County Resources

The ARGenWeb Greene County page provides free genealogical resources compiled by volunteers. Cemetery surveys, family history submissions, and historical documents are available for this northeast Arkansas county.

Greene County has many historical cemeteries, some dating back to the 1830s when the county was first organized. The ARGenWeb volunteer transcriptions cover a range of burial sites across the county, from church cemeteries in Paragould to rural family plots on private farmland. Some of the oldest stones document families from the territorial and early statehood periods and preserve family connections that are not recorded in any surviving courthouse document.


The ARGenWeb Greene County page provides cemetery records, family history submissions, and genealogical resources for researchers tracing families in northeast Arkansas.

Family histories on the ARGenWeb site for Greene County sometimes trace families from their origins in older states through the Lawrence County period and into Greene County after 1833. Given the county's relatively early records starting in 1834, some family histories cover six or seven generations of county residents. Searching by surname is worth doing before starting a courthouse search.

Vital Records and State Archives

The Arkansas Department of Health holds birth and death records for Greene County from 1914. The state marriage index starts in January 1917. For events before those dates, the county courthouse in Paragould is the primary 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 records, and microfilmed county materials for Greene County. The Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA) in Powhatan is the closer regional repository for northeast Arkansas records and may hold supplementary materials for Greene County research. 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.

Cities in Greene County

The qualifying city in Greene County for this site is Paragould, the county seat and the largest city in northeast Arkansas outside of Jonesboro. Paragould has its own page with city-specific genealogy resources and courthouse information.

Nearby Counties

Greene County borders Lawrence County, Randolph County, Clay County, Craighead County, Mississippi County, Jackson County, and Sharp County. The northern border meets Missouri. Lawrence County, as the parent county, holds pre-1834 records for families who lived in the Greene County area.