Have a book "Guide to Microfilmed County Records At the Arkansas History Commission" by Russell Pierce Baker. =================== These microfilmed records can be found at your nearest LDS Family History Library (if they don't have the record there they can order from Salt Lake City for you). ==================== Even though courthouses were destroyed by fire and during Civil War, there are many Early Tax and Deed Records still available. The Tax Collector made sure the property owners established their land records so taxes could be collected. So if you are looking for early records, your ancestors records might be in an earlier county or the parent county. ============= The dates given below are for Microfilmed County Records ============== BOONE COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 9 April 1869 Parent counties: Carroll and Marion County boundary changes: Line with Marion defined 9 Dec 1875. So records start basically 1869 ===================== CARROLL COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 1 Nov 1833 Parent County: Izard Progeny Counties: Boone 1869, Madison 1836, Newton 1842 Early Tax Records start 1834 Rest of the records start basically 1866 to 1870 time period Courthouse fire in 1870. =============== CRAWFORD COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 18 Oct 1820 Parent County: Pulaski They have early tax records starting 1821. Rest of records basically start 1851(Deed Index) Progeny Counties: Franklin 1837; Lovely 1827, Pope 1829, Scott 1833, Sebastian 1851, Washington 1828. So early Pope County records from 1820 to 1829 MAY be at Crawford County. ============= CRITTENDEN COUNTY, ARKANSAS created 22 Oct 1825 Parent county: Independence Progeny Counties: Cross 1862,Lee 1873,Mississippi 1833 Circuit Court Records 1826-1910 County Court Records 1826-1878 Marriage Records 1837-1921 Will Records 1826-1946 =============================== IZARD COUNTY, ARKANSAS Parent County: Independence Created 27 Oct 1825 Progeny Counties: Baxter 1873, Carroll 1833, Fulton 1842, Marion 1836, Stone 1873, Van Buren 1833. Early Tax records start 1829. Basically rest of the tax records start 1889. Courthouse fire in 1889. ============================= JOHNSON COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 16 Nov 1833 Parent County: Pope Progeny County: Logan 1871 County Boundary Changes: Line with Franklin defined 14 Dec 1833. South boundary defined 2 Nov 1835. East Boundary defined 5 Oct 1836. Line with Pope defined 19 Feb 1859, 25 Mar 1871, 16 Mar 1875 and 9 Mar 1877. Early tax records start 1834 Marriage records 1855 Circuit Court records 1848 Indexes to Deeds 1838 Probate records 1844 ============================== MADISON COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 30 Sept 1836 Parent Counties: Washington, Carroll County Boundary Changes: West boundary changed 30 Nov 1838. Line with Carroll defined 1 Jan and 20 Jan 1843. Line with Newton defined 21 Dec 1848. Line with Carroll defined 29 Dec 1854 and 15 Jan 1857. Part annexed to Carroll 8 April 1869 Indexes to deeds starts 1848 Deeds start 1843 Early Tax records start 1837. Marriage records start 1896 Courthouse fire in 1902. ============================== NEWTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS Created 14 Dec 1842 Parent County: Carroll Court records basically start from 1866 Courthouse fire in 1866. County Boundary Changes: Line with Madison defined 21 Dec 1841, line with Pope County defined 10 Jan 1853. The 1880 Newton County Census, Boston Township seems to be in the Boston Township of Madison County. During the war, the courthouse was destroyed about 1863. Early tax records start 1850. ========================= MANY RECORDS DESTROYED DURING CIVIL WAR IN ALL COUNTIES, SO MANY COUNTIES DO NOT HAVE EARLY RECORDS