Find Obituaries in Hot Spring County
Hot Spring County obituary records and death notices are held across several offices and archives in and around Malvern, the county seat. This page covers the key resources for searching historical obituaries, recent death notices, and probate records in Hot Spring County, Arkansas. Note that this is the county, not the city of Hot Springs, which sits in Garland County. Records for Hot Spring County are centered in Malvern, roughly 45 miles southwest of Little Rock.
Hot Spring County Clerk Office
The Hot Spring County Clerk is located at 210 Locust Street, Malvern, AR 72104. The phone number is (501) 332-2281. The Clerk maintains marriage records from 1829, probate records from 1829, land records from 1829, and court and divorce records from 1829. That makes this one of the deeper record sets in the state, covering nearly 200 years of county life.
Online records are available through a free public search at arcountydata.com, which is sponsored by the county. Marriage records are searchable through this portal without visiting the office. This is a useful first step if you are not sure what years are relevant or want to confirm a record exists before ordering a copy.
For in-person visits, the office is open Monday through Friday during standard business hours. Mail requests should include the names involved, approximate dates, the type of record needed, and payment. Call ahead to confirm current fee schedules.
Historical Society Obituary Lists
The Hot Spring County Arkansas Historical Society publishes "The Heritage," an annual journal that has included obituary lists every year since 2019. Volumes 46 through 51 (covering 2019 to 2024) each have a "Hot Spring County Obituary List" for the prior calendar year. The lists include names, birth and death years, and place of interment. This is a well-organized local resource that covers recent deaths not yet in major online databases.
Complete obituaries are available in book form at the Malvern-Hot Spring County Library. The society's website is at hschistoricalsociety.tripod.com/. The obituary lists are compiled by Melissa Phillips of the society. If you need a specific entry or want to confirm details, contacting the society directly is a good approach.
The 2021 Obituary List was published in Volume 49-2022 and the 2022 Obituary List appeared in Volume 50-2023. Each volume covers the previous year, so you need to look one volume ahead of the year you are researching. For older obituaries, the society may have earlier issues of the journal that predate the formal obituary list format.
Note: The Malvern-Hot Spring County Library at 202 E. 3rd Street, Malvern, AR 72104, phone (501) 332-5443, holds the full run of "The Heritage" journal in book form. You can also access the Arkansas archives search at ark-ives.com through the library.
ARGenWeb and Online Databases
The ARGenWeb project maintains a page for Hot Spring County with links to transcribed records and local genealogy resources. Volunteers have indexed obituaries, cemetery records, and family histories over several decades. This is a free resource and one of the better starting points for pre-1950 deaths in the county.
The screenshot below shows the ARGenWeb Hot Spring County page, a free volunteer genealogy resource with transcribed obituary and death records.
The ARGenWeb page for Hot Spring County connects researchers to indexed death records, cemetery listings, and local historical materials contributed by volunteers.
GenealogyTrails also hosts transcribed Hot Spring County obituaries from various sources. These are not complete collections, but they can turn up records that the major databases miss. FamilySearch has Arkansas Probate Records from 1817 to 1979 and is free to search. The Arkansas Death Index 1914 to 1950 on FamilySearch lists around 594,000 deaths and can confirm a death before you order a certificate from the state.
Circuit Clerk and Court Records
The Hot Spring County Circuit Clerk is at the same address as the County Clerk, 210 Locust Street, Malvern, AR 72104. Online case search is available through the AOC CourtConnect system with records searchable by case number or party name at no charge. This is worth checking for any estate cases filed after a death, which often contain more biographical detail than a newspaper obituary.
Probate filings, estate inventories, and guardian records are part of the circuit court record set and frequently name the deceased, surviving family members, and property held at the time of death. For research on families that owned land or had debts, these records can fill gaps that obituary columns leave out. Court records go back to 1829 in Hot Spring County, giving you a long record window for older research.
State Vital Records and Death Certificates
Official death certificates for Hot Spring County deaths are filed with the Arkansas Department of Health Vital Records office. Records start from February 1, 1914. The first certified copy costs $10.00 and additional copies ordered at the same time are $8.00 each. Walk-in service is at the state office in Little Rock, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Mail requests take 4-6 weeks.
Under Arkansas Code Title 20, Chapter 18, death certificates are restricted for 50 years. After that point, they are public record. Immediate family members can get certificates for more recent deaths with proper photo ID. Online ordering is available through VitalChek with additional service fees.
The Arkansas State Archives holds printed death certificate indexes from 1914 to 1948 and 1967 to 1971. The "In Remembrance" database at the Archives covers deaths from 1819 to 1920 and may include Hot Spring County records from church publications, cemetery records, and early newspapers. The Arkansas Digital Archives has digitized newspapers that may include death columns from Malvern-area papers in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Additional Research Resources
The Arkansas Genealogical Society serves the whole state and maintains resources, publications, and a network of county volunteers. Their quarterly publication "Arkansas Family Historian" has been in print since 1962 and covers genealogical records across all Arkansas counties. Membership gives you access to their library and indexes.
The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock holds newspaper microfilm for Arkansas papers going back to the 1800s. If local Malvern papers are not available digitally, the Butler Center may have microfilm copies. Their collection also includes the Arkansas Gazette Obituaries Index 1819 to 1879 with more than 14,000 entries. For deaths in the 1800s, this index can identify a record and give you a publication date to search for the full text.
FamilySearch has Arkansas Probate Records from 1817 to 1979 and Arkansas Wills and Probate Records from 1783 to 1998, both free to search. Ancestry holds digitized Arkansas Death Certificates from 1914 to 1969, which are also free to view at Arkansas State Archives research rooms. For cemetery research, Find a Grave and BillionGraves both cover Hot Spring County cemeteries.
Cities in Hot Spring County
Malvern is the county seat of Hot Spring County and the center of county records. It does not meet the population threshold for a dedicated city page on this site. Other communities in Hot Spring County include Bismarck, Rockport, Donaldson, and Perla. Records for these smaller towns are handled through the county offices in Malvern. Keep in mind that Hot Springs, the well-known resort city, is in neighboring Garland County, not in Hot Spring County.
Hot Springs is in Garland County and has its own city page on this site. If you are searching for Hot Springs records, you will need to look at Garland County resources rather than Hot Spring County.
Nearby Counties
These counties share borders with Hot Spring County and may have related records for families with ties to the area:
Families in central Arkansas frequently crossed county lines. Checking neighboring counties is a smart move when records in Hot Spring County are incomplete for a given time period.