If you know which Arkansas county the adoption occurred in, that county's vital records files will be a useful resource.
There are a number of ways to access information about family relationships in any jurisdiction. Here we focus on a specific inquiry: find stepparent adoption records in the state of Arkansas. With the help of your local county clerk and several online resources, you should be able to document this relationship.
Instructions
1. Go to your local county clerk's office. If the person you are researching is still living and if you have reason to suspect that she was adopted while living in your area, records of the adoption may be available at a local court clerk's office. Every county in Arkansas has a clerk's office. This is where records of court proceedings, land sales and marriages are kept. You can also access records of the legal status of familial relationships such as stepparent-stepchild relationships. Some clerk's offices maintain websites that offer access court records online. In a smaller county, you will have to visit the clerk's office in person to access records. One benefit of making use of these clerk's offices is that they are free and open to the public.
2. Access vital records online. If the person you are researching lived decades ago or if you do not know which county she was adopted in, you may benefit from using a more general source of vital records. There are online services that offer searches of vital records such as records of birth, marriage, adoption and death. However, these are business enterprises and they charge fees for their services.
3. Join an online genealogy community. For a subscription fee, you will be able to access various types of vital records, including federal and state census records, which are instrumental in establishing family relationships in circumstances where other vital records cannot be located.
4. Familiarize yourself with the relevant message boards. There are online message boards where users share information about adoptions. Most of the people who share information on the boards are seeking information about birth parents rather than stepparent-stepchild relationships; however, these boards do constitute free, state-specific sources of information on adoptions.
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