Arizona Genealogy

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Arizona Genealogy Research Guide

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Arizona Genealogy Research Guide

Quick Facts

Arizona was the last of the contiguous states to join the Union, admitted on February 14, 1912. Its recorded history reaches back much further — through Arizona Territory, a long stretch as part of New Mexico Territory, and, before the United States acquired the region, Spanish and Mexican Sonora. Because most of the land passed directly from the federal government to settlers, and because civil registration came late, Arizona research leans heavily on federal land records, county courthouses, and the church and voter records that stand in for scarce early vital records.

• Capital: Phoenix. The territorial capital moved several times — Prescott (1864), Tucson (1867), back to Prescott (1877), and finally Phoenix (1889), which remained the capital at statehood.
• Statehood: February 14, 1912, the 48th state, formed from Arizona Territory (organized February 24, 1863).
• Counties: 15. The original four — Yavapai, Yuma, Mohave, and Pima — were created by the first territorial legislature in 1864; the last, La Paz County, was split from Yuma County in 1983, the only Arizona county established after statehood.
• Land type: Arizona is a federal (public-domain) state, not a state-land state. Title to most land passed from the United States through the General Land Office, so federal land-patent records apply here, alongside a distinctive group of Spanish and Mexican land grants in the south that predate American sovereignty.
• Nickname and motto: the Grand Canyon State; the state motto is Ditat Deus ("God Enriches").
• Where records live: most genealogical records — deeds, probate, marriages, and court files — are kept at the county level by the County Recorder and the Clerk of the Superior Court, while birth and death records have been registered statewide since 1909 and are held by the state health department.

Libraries and Archives

Arizona's government records concentrate in Phoenix, and its deepest manuscript and photographic collections in Tucson; county courthouses, university special collections, and local museums hold material for their own regions. The principal repositories include:

• Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records (the Arizona State Archives, in Phoenix) — the official repository for permanent state and local government records: territorial and state governors' papers, court and naturalization records, county recorder and assessor records, tax rolls, military service abstracts, and vital-record indexes.
• The State of Arizona Research Library — published genealogies, county and local histories, territorial newspapers, city directories, and maps.
• Arizona Historical Society — manuscripts, biographical files, and photographs, with branch collections in Tucson, Tempe, Flagstaff, and Yuma.
• Sharlot Hall Museum (Prescott) — territorial-era manuscripts, photographs, and records of central and northern Arizona.
• National Archives at Riverside — federal court, naturalization, land-entry, military, and Bureau of Indian Affairs records for Arizona.
• University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections — the Catholic Diocese of Tucson sacramental registers, Hispanic and borderlands manuscripts, and mining and ranching records.
• Arizona State University Library and the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University — regional manuscripts, photographs, and Colorado Plateau collections.
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson — the diocesan archive for later parish sacramental records across southern Arizona.
• Phoenix Public Library and the Pima County Public Library (Tucson) — Arizona local-history collections, newspapers, and directories.
• The FamilySearch Library and its worldwide FamilySearch Centers hold extensive Arizona microfilm and digital collections, and the Family History Society of Arizona supports research statewide.
• Arizona Archives Online gathers finding aids from repositories across the state.

Major Websites

These sites host digitized Arizona records and indexes. Subscription sites are marked ($).

• FamilySearch — free; the backbone finding aid, with the FamilySearch Wiki, catalog, and large digitized collections of Arizona vital, land, probate, court, and church records.
• Ancestry ($) — extensive Arizona vital, census, voter, naturalization, land, military, and probate collections, many drawn from the Arizona State Archives.
• MyHeritage ($) — Arizona birth and death certificates, newspapers, and immigration collections.
• Findmypast ($) — Arizona marriage and other record sets.
• Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates — free; the Arizona Department of Health Services' searchable images of older birth and death certificates.
• Arizona Memory Project — free; digitized records, photographs, maps, newspapers, and territorial statutes from repositories across the state.
• Chronicling America — free; the Library of Congress newspaper archive, including many Arizona titles.
• Internet Archive and HathiTrust — free; digitized Arizona histories, biographical records, and territorial law books.
• Find a Grave and BillionGraves — free; cemetery listings, photographs, and transcriptions.

Law and Government

Arizona's territorial laws and legislative records explain the jurisdictions and offices that produced genealogical records, and the foundational texts have been digitized and are free to read.

• The Howell Code — the first code of laws, adopted by the First Legislative Assembly at Prescott in 1864; free on the Internet Archive.
• The Compiled Laws of the Territory of Arizona, including the Howell Code and the session laws from 1864 to 1871 — free on the Arizona Memory Project, within its Historic Arizona Statutes law collection, which also holds the later compiled laws of 1864–1877.
• The Revised Statutes of Arizona and the annual session laws (Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Assembly) are digitized on HathiTrust and the Internet Archive.
• The Arizona State Archives holds the territorial and state legislative records, including the journals of the Legislative Assembly and the acts and memorials of each session.

Vital Records (Birth, Marriage, Death)

Statewide civil registration of births and deaths began in July 1909, administered by what is now the Arizona Department of Health Services; compliance was uneven for the first decade or so, and many earlier events were never registered by the state. Some delayed birth certificates reach back into the mid-1800s, and scattered county death records survive from the territorial period. Marriage has never been registered statewide — an 1864 territorial law made it a county responsibility, and marriage records are kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court (before 1912, by the probate court) in the county where the license was issued.

Access follows Arizona's status as a "closed record" state: birth certificates open to the public roughly 75 years after the birth, and death certificates roughly 50 years after the death; more recent records are restricted to immediate family and others who qualify, and a fee applies for certified copies from the state or county. Arizona is unusual in offering free online images of its older certificates. Use these indexes and image collections:

• Births: free images of older birth certificates are on the state's Arizona Genealogy site; the FamilySearch collections of Arizona births and christenings and county birth certificates are free; and the Arizona Birth Certificates, 1880–1935 ($) index and images are on Ancestry, with a companion Arizona Birth Certificates, 1887–1935 ($) on MyHeritage.
• Deaths: free images of older death certificates are on Arizona Genealogy; the Arizona Deaths collection is free on FamilySearch; and the Arizona Death Records, 1887–1968 ($) are on Ancestry, with Arizona Death Certificates, 1870–1963 ($) on MyHeritage.
• Marriages: the Arizona, County Marriages, 1871–1964 collection is free on FamilySearch (with a companion index of 1865–1949 marriages); the Arizona Marriage Collection, 1864–1982 ($) is on Ancestry; and an index of Arizona marriages is on Findmypast ($). For the original license, apply to the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county of the marriage.

History and Timeline of Major Events

Key dates that shaped Arizona's jurisdictions and records:

• 1691–1692 — Father Eusebio Kino establishes the missions of Tumacácori and San Xavier del Bac among the O'odham of the Santa Cruz Valley.
• 1752 and 1775 — Spain founds the presidios of Tubac and, later, Tucson.
• 1821 — Mexico wins independence, and Arizona becomes part of the Mexican state of Sonora.
• 1848 — the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War and transfers the land north of the Gila River to the United States.
• 1854 — the Gadsden Purchase adds the region south of the Gila, completing Arizona's present boundaries.
• 1850–1863 — Arizona is administered as part of New Mexico Territory.
• 1862 — a Confederate Territory of Arizona is proclaimed, and the Battle of Picacho Pass, the westernmost engagement of the Civil War, is fought near Tucson.
• February 24, 1863 — Arizona Territory is organized separately from New Mexico.
• 1864 — the first territorial legislature meets at Prescott, adopts the Howell Code, creates the original four counties, and orders the first territorial census.
• 1867 and 1877 — the capital moves to Tucson, then back to Prescott.
• 1880 — the Southern Pacific Railroad reaches Tucson, opening the territory to rapid settlement.
• 1886 — the surrender of Geronimo ends the major Apache campaigns.
• 1889 — the capital moves permanently to Phoenix.
• 1909 — statewide registration of births and deaths begins.
• February 14, 1912 — Arizona is admitted as the 48th state, and the county Superior Courts take over probate and other court functions.
• 1983 — La Paz County is created from northern Yuma County, the only county established since statehood.

Census Records and Substitutes

Federal censuses reach Arizona from the start: the area was enumerated as part of New Mexico Territory in 1850 and 1860, then separately every ten years from 1870 through 1950 (the 1890 federal census was almost entirely destroyed nationwide). They are free on FamilySearch and on the National Archives 1950 census site, and are also searchable on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).

Territorial censuses are a distinctive Arizona resource, taken at intervals between statehood-era federal counts and helping bridge the thin pre-statehood decades. Surviving schedules are gathered in the Arizona Territorial Census Records, 1864–1882 ($) collection, with originals at the Arizona State Archives. What each records varies by year:

• 1864: the first territorial census, taken across settlements, mining camps, and ranches soon after the territory was organized; it names residents and is a foundational substitute for the years before Arizona appears separately in the federal census.
• 1866 and 1867: special territorial censuses giving the name of the head of each family, whether that person heads a household, counts of household members by age group, and remarks.
• 1874 and 1876: further territorial enumerations in the same head-of-family form.
• 1882: the last territorial census, which lists names only, without the earlier household detail.

Substitutes. Because these censuses are partial, voter and tax records carry much of the weight for placing a family in a given year. The Great Registers of voters, kept from 1866 onward, list adult men with their age, occupation, nativity, naturalization status, and often a physical description, and are searchable in the Arizona Voter Registrations, 1866–1955 ($) collection, with county voting registers free on FamilySearch. City directories, territorial and county tax rolls, and the school census of 1910–1917 further fill the gaps.

Church Records

Because civil registration is late, church records are the most important substitute for vital records before 1909. Catholic registers are the oldest, reaching back to the Spanish mission era and central to Hispanic families of the south; Latter-day Saint records document the northern and eastern settlements founded from the 1870s; and Protestant registers matter for later-arriving families.

• Roman Catholic: the missions of San Xavier del Bac and Tumacácori and the parishes that followed kept baptism, marriage, and burial registers from the 1720s onward. The Diocese of Tucson sacramental registers are preserved at the University of Arizona Libraries, with later parish records held by the Diocese of Tucson.
• Latter-day Saints: settlers along the Little Colorado and in the Gila and Salt River valleys founded St. Johns, Snowflake, Mesa, and other towns in the 1870s and 1880s; ward and membership records are on FamilySearch.
• Protestant: Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations grew with the railroad towns; the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona registers are filmed in the FamilySearch catalog, and national Presbyterian and Lutheran collections on Ancestry include Arizona congregations.

Court Records

Arizona's courts reorganized at statehood, and their records reach well beyond lawsuits into estates, guardianships, naturalizations, and name changes. The main courts a researcher encounters are:

• District Courts (territorial, 1864–1912) — the principal trial courts for civil, criminal, and, before federalization, naturalization business; surviving files are at the Arizona State Archives and, for federal matters, the National Archives at Riverside.
• Probate Courts (territorial) — a court in each county handled wills, administrations, and guardianships until 1912.
• Superior Court (county, since 1912) — the Clerk of the Superior Court holds probate, civil, marriage, and naturalization records for each county.

The Arizona State Archives holds territorial court records, and current case information is available through the Arizona Judicial Branch.

Ethnic/Minority Records

Arizona has been a meeting ground of Native, Hispanic, and later Anglo, Chinese, and African American communities, and knowing where a group settled points to the records most likely to document a family.

• Native peoples. The Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham (Pima) of the southern deserts and river valleys, the Navajo (Diné) and Hopi of the northeast, the Apache (White Mountain, San Carlos, and others), and the Yavapai, Hualapai, Havasupai, and Colorado River tribes each generated agency, school, allotment, and census records through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1940 ($) index the annual reservation rolls (also free on FamilySearch), and the original agency records are held by the National Archives at Riverside.
• Hispanic and Mexican American. The oldest non-Native population settled the Santa Cruz Valley and Tucson under Spain and Mexico; their families are documented in Catholic sacramental registers, the Spanish and Mexican land grants of the south, and the manuscript collections of the University of Arizona and the Arizona Historical Society.
• Chinese. Chinese laborers came with the railroads and mines of the 1880s and settled in Tucson and the mining towns; Chinese Exclusion Act case files are among the federal records at the National Archives at Riverside.
• African American. Black soldiers of the U.S. Army — the Buffalo Soldiers, stationed at Fort Huachuca and other posts — and mining- and railroad-town residents appear in military records, the Great Registers of voters, and territorial newspapers.

The Library of Congress Arizona local history and genealogy guide gathers additional community resources.

Immigration and Naturalization

Arizona's immigrants came chiefly overland from Mexico and by railroad. Because it is a border territory, its land border-crossing records are an important and often overlooked source, documenting arrivals at Arizona ports such as Nogales, Douglas, Naco, San Luis, and Sasabe from the early 1900s onward.

• The U.S. Border Crossings from Mexico to the U.S., 1895–1964 ($) index manifests from the Arizona ports; the early Texas and Arizona arrivals (1903–1910) and port-specific crossings are free on FamilySearch.

Naturalization. Before 1906 any court of record — territorial district, county, or probate court — could naturalize, so early records are scattered; after 1906 the process was federalized. The Arizona State Archives holds many territorial and state court naturalizations (its State Court Naturalization Records, 1869–1993, are also on Ancestry), the county Clerks of the Superior Court hold others, and the federal records are at the National Archives at Riverside. The Arizona Naturalization Records, 1909–1991 ($) cover the post-statehood era, and the district court naturalizations (1870–1955) are free on FamilySearch.

Land Records

As a federal (public-domain) state, Arizona had most of its original land granted by the United States rather than by the state, so the first transfer of title is usually a federal land patent. Later transfers between individuals are recorded as deeds at the county level.

Where the records are kept.

• Federal patents: the Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records site provides free searchable images of the original cash, homestead, and other patents that first conveyed land out of the public domain.
• County level: deeds, mortgages, and later transfers are recorded by the County Recorder in each county.
• State level: the Arizona State Land Department administers the state trust lands granted to Arizona at statehood, and the Arizona State Archives holds surveyor-general and related territorial land papers.

The Spanish and Mexican land grants. Southern Arizona, acquired through the Gadsden Purchase, contained a group of private land grants made by Spain and Mexico. Their titles were adjudicated by the U.S. Surveyor General and then the Court of Private Land Claims (1891–1904), which confirmed only a fraction of the acreage claimed; knowing which grant a family's land fell in tells you where the earliest records survive.

• San Ignacio de la Canoa (1821): granted to Tomás and Ignacio Ortiz along the Santa Cruz between Tubac and present-day Sahuarita.
• San José de Sonoita (1825): the smallest of the confirmed grants, in the Sonoita Creek valley; the claim was reduced where it overlapped a later selection.
• San Rafael de la Zanja (1825): a large grant in the upper Santa Cruz straddling the modern border, later the core of a great cattle ranch.
• San Ignacio del Babocomari: granted to the Elías family in the San Pedro–Babocomari valleys, one of the earliest ranching grants.
• San Bernardino (1822): granted to Ignacio Pérez in the far southeast, extending across the line into Sonora.
• Additional grants include María Santísima del Carmen (Buena Vista), San Juan de las Boquillas y Nogales, San Rafael del Valle, and Otero, together with the American-era Baca Float selections placed in Arizona in lieu of a New Mexico grant.

Online, homestead and other land-entry files can be traced through the BLM General Land Office patent search, and FamilySearch Full-Text Search makes many deeds, patents, and land papers searchable by every name they contain, including grantors, grantees, witnesses, and neighbors.

Military Records

Arizona's soil saw Spanish, Mexican, Confederate, Union, and frontier-army service, and its men served in every later American conflict.

• Spanish and Mexican service: the presidios of Tubac (1752) and Tucson (1775) garrisoned soldier-settler families whose descendants remained in the region; their records survive in Spanish and Mexican archives and in mission registers.
• Civil War: the California Column of Union volunteers occupied the territory in 1862 after the brief Confederate Territory of Arizona; federal service records and rolls are on FamilySearch, Fold3, and Ancestry.
• Apache Wars and the frontier army: posts such as Fort Bowie, Fort Apache, Fort Huachuca, Fort Verde, and Camp Grant generated post returns and muster records held by the National Archives and filmed on the major sites.
• Spanish-American War and later: Arizona men served in the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (the "Rough Riders") in 1898 and in the National Guard and federal forces of the World War I era; muster-roll and service-record abstracts and World War I draft cards are held by the Arizona State Archives and filmed on FamilySearch and Ancestry.

Probate Records

Probate — wills, administrations of intestate estates, and guardianships of minors — is among the richest sources for family relationships. The key dividing line is 1912.

• Before 1912: a probate court in each county proved wills, granted administrations, and appointed guardians during the territorial period; surviving records are at the county courthouse and the Arizona State Archives.
• Since 1912: the county Superior Court handles probate; the estate file — petition, will or administration, bond, and inventory — usually names the heirs.

Online, Arizona Wills and Probate Records, 1803–1995 ($) is name-searchable across most counties, and FamilySearch Full-Text Search makes many unindexed wills and estate files searchable by every name they contain. The original packets are held by the Clerk of the Superior Court or the Arizona State Archives.

Tax Records

Tax lists place a family in a specific county and year and are valuable substitutes where censuses or deeds are missing; several consecutive years can reveal when a young man came of age, moved, or died and left heirs.

• Territorial and county assessment rolls: real and personal property tax rolls for the territorial and early state years are held by the Arizona State Archives and at the county level, and several county tax rolls are digitized on the Arizona Memory Project.
• Federal assessment lists: the U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862–1918 ($) include the Arizona district records of the Civil War–era and later federal taxes, with the earliest assessment lists also free on FamilySearch; the originals are among the federal records at the National Archives at Riverside.