Union County Genealogy Records

Union County genealogy records begin in 1830, when this south Arkansas county was formed from Clark and Hempstead counties. The county seat is El Dorado, and the courthouse holds marriage registers, probate files, and land records for family history research in this oil-country county of south Arkansas.

Union County Courthouse Genealogy Records

The Union County Clerk's office is at 101 N. Washington Street, El Dorado, AR 71730, phone (870) 864-1910. The Clerk holds marriage records from 1830 and probate records from 1830. Union County was created on November 2, 1829, from Clark County and Hempstead County, with courthouse records beginning in 1830. The Circuit Court Clerk at the courthouse holds divorce filings, court records, and land records. Birth and death records at the county level begin in 1914.

Union County sits in the timberlands of south Arkansas, and El Dorado became a major city after the 1921 oil boom transformed the economy of this corner of the state. But for genealogical purposes, the county's record base goes back nearly two centuries, with founding families documented in the courthouse from 1830. Those early settlers came through the older counties of south Arkansas, and tracing them backward means looking at Clark County records at Arkadelphia and Hempstead County records at Hope.

Union County was the parent county for Ouachita County, formed in 1842. Families living in the Ouachita County area before 1842 would have their earliest Arkansas records in the Union County courthouse at El Dorado. The county also contributed territory to Columbia County and Calhoun County as south Arkansas was carved into smaller units during the mid-nineteenth century. Researchers with family lines that moved across this corner of Arkansas should check the formation dates of each county against the timeline of their ancestor's residence.

Union County Genealogy on FamilySearch

The FamilySearch Union County wiki lists available records and links to digitized collections. Marriage records from 1830 are in the statewide Arkansas marriage index on FamilySearch. Probate records are indexed for the county, and census records run from 1830 through 1940.

The 1830 census is the first federal census for Union County, taken shortly after the county was formed. It gives early household counts from the founding period. The 1850 census, naming all household members with ages and birthplaces, is the most useful antebellum document and traces Union County settlers back to Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas. The 1860 Slave Schedule for Union County documents enslaved people by age and sex, and combined with the 1870 census and Freedmen's Bureau records, it forms the standard research chain for African American genealogy in this part of south Arkansas.

FamilySearch has indexed Civil War records for Union County. South Arkansas was Confederate territory, and Union County sent men into Confederate service. Confederate pension files and service records are relevant here. After the war, the Freedmen's Bureau established a presence in south Arkansas, and those records often contain family information useful for bridging the antebellum and postwar periods for Black families in Union County.

ARGenWeb Union County Resources

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

Union County cemeteries document families from the 1830s through the present. The ARGenWeb volunteers have transcribed a range of these burial sites, including community cemeteries in El Dorado and smaller family plots on private land throughout the county's townships.


The ARGenWeb Union County page provides cemetery records, family history submissions, and genealogical resources for researchers tracing families in this south Arkansas county.

Family histories on the ARGenWeb site for Union County trace connections across the south Arkansas county cluster, reflecting the overlapping formation history of Union, Ouachita, Columbia, and Calhoun counties. Compiled genealogies sometimes document family lines across multiple generations in this region before and after the counties were organized.

Union County Clerk Records

The Union County Clerk's office is located in El Dorado at 101 N. Washington Street. The office holds the county's full record collection from 1830, including marriage bonds and licenses, probate files, and estate inventories.


The Union County Clerk's office holds marriage records from 1830, probate records from 1830, and land records for this south Arkansas county going back to the county's founding.

The city of El Dorado is the county seat and holds the main courthouse. The El Dorado Public Library has local history collections relevant to Union County genealogy research, including newspaper files and family history materials that supplement the courthouse records.

Vital Records and State Archives

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

The Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock holds Confederate pension files, military records, and microfilmed county materials for Union County. Federal records are at the National Archives at Fort Worth, 501 W Felix Street, Fort Worth, TX 76115, phone (817) 831-5620.

Nearby Counties

Union County borders Ouachita County, Calhoun County, Columbia County, Lafayette County, and Ashley County. The southern border meets Louisiana. Clark County at Arkadelphia and Hempstead County at Hope are the parent counties holding pre-1829 records for Union County families.