Texas Archives and Libraries

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Texas

Texas Archives and Libraries

These archives, libraries, societies, and museums preserve sources, maintain indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in Texas.

for Microfilm research and public access computers:
2600 West 7th Street
Suite 162
Fort Worth, TX, 76107
Telephone: 817-831-5620
Fax: 817-334-5621

for Archival research using textual records by appointment:

National Archives at Ft. Worth

1400 John Burgess Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76140
Telephone: 817-551-2051
Fax: 817-551-2034

Same website for both Microfilm research and Archival research:
Website

Serves Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.[3] Includes federal censuses of all states, 1790-1930 (and indexes for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920); military service records, pension and bounty land warrant applications; passenger arrivals; Dawes Commision for the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Manuscripts, photos, maps received from federal district and bankruptcy courts and 85 federal agencies in four states. Subjects emphasized are regional and national history, westward expansion and Southwest settlement, American Indians (especially Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles), Revolutionary War, American Civil War and Recontruction, slavery, Chinese exclusion, segregation, World War I, World War II, economic development, oil, U.S. space program, public administration, political science, law, ethnology, and U.S. diplomacy.[4]

Statewide[edit | edit source]

Texas State Library and Archives Commission
1201 Brazos St.
P.O. Box 12927
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: (512) 463-5455
Website
Email

Texas Online Genealogy Records

Links to online databases and indexes that may include vital records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.

Original manuscripts for Texas while a part of Mexico, as a republic, and as a state, including all counties, vital records, newspapers, books, and maps.^[1] Three divisions of the Texas State Library house materials of interest to genealogists: the Information Services, the Archives, and the Local Records divisions. The Information Services Division contains such records as published histories, vital record indexes, census records, and military records. The Archives Division preserves colonial, republic, and state government records, while the Local Records Division maintains valuable city and county government records. Microfilm copies of the city and county records are distributed among 26 Texas repositories.

A helpful guide to important sources at the Texas State Archives is:

*Jean Carefoot, Guide to Genealogical Resources in the Texas State Archives (Austin, Texas: Archives Division, Texas State Library, 1984. FS Catalog book 976.4 A3cj 1984. A 197? edition is on film FS Library film 1036849 item 11.

The Texas State Library will loan selected materials from their Genealogy Collection. For a list of materials available for circulation, see:

*Texas State Library, Texas State Library Circulating Genealogy Duplicates List (Austin, Texas: Texas State Library, 1992). FS Catalog book 976.4 A3t A 1985 edition is available on FS Library fiche 6047934

Briscoe Center for American History
University of Texas at Austin
2313 Red River Street
Austin, Texas 78705 USA
Telephone: Reference 512-495-4532; Information 512-495-4518
Website

This collection is as large as the state archives including newspapers, biographies, private collections, the American South, military history, Western Americana, and photos, and the Website Natchez Trace Collection papers from Mississippi and Louisiana.^[1]

Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research
5300 Caroline
Houston, TX 77004
Telephone: 713-284-1999
Website

One of America's best genealogical collections. Especially strong for Texas, adjoining states, and Tennessee.^[1]

Dallas Public Central Library
1515 Young St.
Dallas, TX 75201-9987
Telephone: 214-670-1400
Website

Outstanding genealogical collection with records for more than Texas, including Oklahoma, the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states.^[1]

The Portal to Texas HistoryLibraries, archives and societies from across the state.

Regional[edit | edit source]

Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library
P.O. Box 1401
San Antonio, TX 78205-1401
Phone: (210) 225-1071
Fax: (210) 212-8514
Website

Especially good collection for the Mexican colonial era in Texas, good resources for the Texas Republic, and genealogical reference works.^[1]

San Antonio Public Library
600 Solidad Plaza
San Antonio, TX 78205
Phone: (210) 207-2500
Website

Good genealogy and Texana collection.^[1]

East Texas Research Center (Stephen F. Austin State University)
1112 North St.,
Nacogdoches TX 75962
Phone: (936) 468-4100
Website

Good genealogy collection including the pre-Civil War period, the East Texas lumber industry, and oral histories.^[1]

Galveston and Texas History Center (Rosenberg Library)
2310 Sealy Avenue
Galveston, TX 77550
Phone: (409) 763-8854
Fax: (409) 763-0275

Their strength is records of ethnic Germans in Texas, and a database of immigrants to the Gulf Coast.^[1]

Fort Worth Public Library (Central Library)
500 W. Third St.
Fort Worth, TX 76102-7305
Phone: (817) 392-7740

Very good genealogy collection of newspapers, obituaries, biographies, histories and genealogies covering the entire Southwest.^[1] Focus is on Texas, the South, the Midwest, and the original thirteen states.

Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center
650 FM 1011
Liberty, TX 77575
Phone: (936) 336-8821

Come here for records of some of the earliest Texas settlers.^[1] Also houses county records of Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange, Polk, San Jacinto, and Tyler counties.

Harrison County Historical Museum
117 East Bowie Street (P.O. Box 1987)
Marshall, Texas 75671
Phone: 903-938-2680
Website
Email

A key repository for locating selected early Missouri and Texas settlers. This was a center for Missouri Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It has a great collection of family folders, books, letters, diaries, journals, and surname lists for northeast Texas.^[2] ^[3]

University of Texas Arlington Central Library
702 Planetarium Place
Arlington, TX 76019
Telephone: 888-565-9023
Website
Email

Good Texas newspapers collection, including many online.

Baylor University
Texas Collection
P.O. Box 97142
Waco, TX 76798-7142
Phone:1-800-229-5678

Texas State Genealogical Society
c/o Scott Fitzgerald Email
PO Box 7308
Tyler, TX 75711-7308
Phone: (903) 539-5572
Fax: (903) 592-6782
Email

Out of State[edit | edit source]

Natchitoches Genealogical and Historical Association in Louisiana
2nd Floor
Old Parish Courthouse
Natchitoches, LA 71458-1349
Phone: (318) 357-2235.
Email

"French" records from the early 1700's, with an index by the Parish Clerk. The collection has many references to Americans bound for Texas.^[1]

FamilySearch Centers. Some of the collections described above are at least partially available on microfilms at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, and through thousands of its branch FamilySearch Centers.

Guides[edit | edit source]

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of Texas counties, use the 24 inventories of the county archives produced by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. The FamilySearch Library has copies of all of these inventories.

The Texas County Records Inventory Project of North Texas State University Center for Community Services has produced more recent inventories of the records of about a third of the state's counties. These can be purchased from the Texas State Archives. The FamilySearch Library has copies of most of these inventories which are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under

TEXAS, [COUNTY] - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES.

References[edit | edit source]

↑ ^1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 Dollarhide and Bremer, 107.
↑ Dollarhide and Bremer, 67.
↑ Our Collection in Harrison County Museum (accessed 7 March 2014).

[DB107-1] 1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 Dollarhide and Bremer, 107.

[2] Dollarhide and Bremer, 67.

[3] Our Collection in Harrison County Museum (accessed 7 March 2014).

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Online Resources[edit | edit source]

Wiki Articles on Major Repositories in Texas[edit | edit source]

National Archives[edit | edit source]

Statewide[edit | edit source]

Regional[edit | edit source]

Out of State[edit | edit source]

Guides[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]