Pulaski County Obituary Records
Pulaski County holds more obituary and death record resources than any other county in Arkansas. As the state's most populous county and home to Little Rock, it is where the Arkansas State Archives, the Arkansas Department of Health Vital Records, the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and the Pulaski County Clerk all operate. Whether you need a death notice from last year or want to trace a family line back to 1820, this county has the records, the staff, and the databases to help you find what you need.
Pulaski County Clerk and Circuit Clerk
The Pulaski County Clerk and Circuit Clerk both operate from the Pulaski County Courthouse at 401 W Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72201. The main phone number is 501-340-8500. The county website is at pulaskiclerkar.gov. The County Records Department has a direct line at (501) 340-8766 and email at countyrecords@pulaskiclerk.com. The Circuit Clerk's court records office can be reached at courtrecords@pulaskiclerk.com.
Marriage records in Pulaski County go back to 1838. Probate records run from 1820. Real estate tax records start at 1828 and personal property tax records from 1869. That depth of records makes Pulaski County one of the strongest research counties in the state for historical genealogy work. Land records run from 1819. Voter registration records go back to 1952. These collections span nearly two centuries and touch almost every type of document that can help you reconstruct a person's life and confirm their death.
Court records online are searchable through the Pulaski County Records Search portal. This covers civil, criminal, probate, and domestic case records. County court orders and marriage license searches are also available online. Certified copies cost $5.00 per document and can be picked up in person or mailed. Documents cannot be emailed. Online payment is accepted. You can also mail a check or money order to Pulaski Circuit and County Clerk, County Records, 401 West Markham Street Suite 103, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201.
Pulaski County Court Records Online
The screenshot below shows the Pulaski County court records search portal, where researchers can access civil, probate, and domestic case filings for the county online.
The Pulaski County records portal lets you search by name and pull up case summaries for probate filings, which are one of the most useful secondary sources when searching for death records.
Probate filings are a key source for obituary research. When a Pulaski County resident died with property, an estate case was filed. Those files contain the date of death, the names of heirs, and sometimes additional details about burial location or cause of death that a newspaper notice would not include. With records going back to 1820, the Pulaski County probate collection covers nearly every decade since Arkansas statehood.
For statewide court record access, CourtConnect is the Arkansas judiciary's public search system. It covers probate and civil cases across all Arkansas counties and is free to use for basic name searches.
Pulaski County Clerk Website
The screenshot below shows the Pulaski County Clerk website, the primary online resource for county records, marriage licenses, and probate research in Little Rock.
The Pulaski County Clerk site at pulaskiclerkar.gov provides online access to court records, county court orders, and marriage license searches without requiring an in-person visit to the courthouse.
Beyond probate and court filings, the clerk website links to payment instructions and contact details for both the County Records Department and the Circuit Clerk. If you need certified copies of any document, the site explains the current fee structure and how to submit a written request. The combined online records portal is one of the more developed county-level search systems in Arkansas.
Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock
The Arkansas State Archives, located at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, is the state's primary repository for historical records. Phone is (501) 682-6900 and email is state.archives@arkansas.gov. For Pulaski County researchers, this is a major resource because the Archives holds collections that go back to the earliest years of the county's existence and the state itself.
The Archives "In Remembrance" database covers Arkansas deaths from 1819 to 1920 and indexes records from church publications, cemetery transcriptions, mortality censuses, and newspaper obituaries. It is free and searchable online. For Pulaski County, this database can help you find death records for decades before the state began issuing official certificates in 1914. The Archives also holds the Arkansas Gazette Obituaries Index from 1819 to 1879 with over 14,000 entries, which is particularly useful for early Little Rock-area deaths.
Printed indexes of Arkansas death certificates from 1914 to 1948 and 1967 to 1971 are held at the Archives and can help you confirm whether a specific certificate exists. City death records from Little Rock specifically are among the Archives' holdings, along with funeral home records from Gross Mortuary 1874 to 1922 and cemetery listings. The Arkansas Digital Archives extends these resources online with digitized newspapers, photographs, and genealogical indexes.
CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is at 401 President Clinton Ave, Little Rock, AR 72201. Phone is (501) 320-5700. Hours are Monday through Friday 9 AM to 6 PM and Saturday noon to 4 PM. The Butler Center is one of the most well-equipped genealogy research facilities in the state and is especially strong for Pulaski County records.
The Butler Center holds the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Historical Archive Collection with searchable image editions, the Arkansas Gazette from 1867 to 1991, and the Arkansas Democrat from 1947 to 1992. The Arkansas Gazette Obituaries Index from 1819 to 1879 with 14,329 entries is also available here. For obituary research in Little Rock and Pulaski County, these newspaper archives are essential. Death notices in the Gazette and Democrat cover well over a century of Pulaski County residents and are indexed well enough to make name searches practical.
In-person access at the Butler Center includes Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3 for military records, HeritageQuest, Newspapers.com World Collection, and African American Heritage databases. They also hold county records on microfilm for all 75 Arkansas counties and serve as a FamilySearch Affiliate Library. If you are researching Pulaski County obituaries and can get to Little Rock, the Butler Center is the single most productive place to spend a research day.
Note: The Arkansas State Library at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, also maintains a genealogy collection with access to GenealogyBank, the Arkansas Township Atlas, and other research tools. Their collection and the Butler Center's holdings overlap in some areas but complement each other in others.
Death Certificates and Vital Records
The Arkansas Department of Health Vital Records office is based in Little Rock and handles all state death certificate requests. Records start from February 1, 1914. Some early records from Little Rock and Fort Smith go back to 1881. The fee is $10 for the first certified copy and $8 for each additional copy of the same record ordered together. Walk-in service runs Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with same-day processing. Mail requests take around 4 to 6 weeks.
Under Arkansas Code Title 20, Chapter 18, death certificates are restricted for 50 years from the date of death. After that period, they are public records. Immediate family members can access recent certificates with valid photo identification. The department also provides an online death certificate search for deaths between 1935 and 1961 through their website. For older deaths, check the Archives printed indexes first to confirm a record exists before submitting a formal request.
Cities in Pulaski County
Pulaski County contains several qualifying cities with dedicated pages on this site. Little Rock is the county seat and the largest city in the state. North Little Rock sits just across the Arkansas River. Jacksonville and Maumelle are also in Pulaski County. All courthouse records, probate filings, and county-level resources on this page apply to residents of all these cities.
For city-specific resources, funeral home listings, or local library collections, visit the individual city pages linked above.
Nearby Counties
Pulaski County borders several other central Arkansas counties. If your research crosses county lines, these neighbors have their own records collections:
Families in the Little Rock metro area often had ties to Saline, Lonoke, and Faulkner counties. Checking those jurisdictions can help when Pulaski County records are incomplete for a given time period.