Texas, Matagorda County, School Census Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Texas Matagorda County

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of school census records for Matagorda County, Texas for the years 1923 to 1946. The records are arranged by race, "colored" and "white", and then alphabetically by surname. Additional images will be published to this collection as they become available.

The listing of school-aged children is a common practice throughout the United States. The records are usually compiled on a yearly basis. School records helped local governments determine funding needs for individual schools. The information is usually reliable although the ages are sometimes off by a year and legal guardians may be confused with parents.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. Images in this collection are available for viewing if you are a registered FamilySearch user. You can register for a free FamilySearch account here.

For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

Collection Content
School Census Records may include the following information:


 * Name of county, town and school district
 * Surname and Christian name of child
 * Child's date of birth, age and gender
 * Names of parents or guardians
 * Parents' residence or post office address

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know the following:

Additional information will help you navigate through the lists:
 * Approximate years a child might have attended school
 * Race
 * Name of the child
 * Parents names

Searching the Collection
To browse by image: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the "Year, Race, Surname Range" category which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestor. For example:


 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the age or birth date along with the parents’ names and residence to find the family in other census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents.
 * If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile the entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents.
 * Continue to search the birth records to identify other relatives such as cousins who attended the same school or other nearby schools.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after 1885.

What If I Can't Find Who I'm Looking For?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation: Image citation: