Texas Archives and Libraries

United States Texas  Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful to genealogical researchers.

Texas State Library


 * State Archives and Library Building F 1201 Brazos P.O. Box 12927 Austin, TX 78711 Phone: (512) 463-5460 Fax: (512) 463-5436

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. A 197? edition is on film

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. A 1985 edition is available on

National Archives Southwest Region (Ft. Worth) 501 West Felix Street, Building 1 Fort Worth, TX 76115-3405 Phone: (817) 831-5620 Fax: 817-551-2034

Texas State Genealogical Society c/o Scott Fitzgerald, Treasurer [scottfitzgerald at tyler.net] PO Box 7308 Tyler, TX 75711-7308 Phone: (903) 539-5572 Fax: (903) 592-6782

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

Rosenberg Library Archives 2310 Sealy Avenue Galveston, TX 77550 Phone: (409) 763-8854 Fax: (409) 763-0275

Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research Houston Public Library 5300 Caroline Houston, TX 77004-6896 Phone: (832) 393-2600

The Clayton Library has produced a series of subject guides to their collection. The Family History Library has copies of a number of these guides.

Houston Metropolitan Research Center Houston Public Library 500 McKinney Street Houston, TX 77002 Telephone: 832-393-1313

Dallas Public Central Library 1515 Young Street Dallas, TX 75201 Phone: (214) 670-1400

Center for American History The University of Texas Sid Richardson Hall, 2.101 Austin, TX 78712 Phone: (512) 495-4515 Fax: (512) 495-4542

Baylor University Texas Collection P.O. Box 97142 Waco, TX 76798-7142

 Stephen F. Austin State University Ralph W. Steen Library East Texas Research Center 1936 North St., Nacogdoches TX 75962

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 Family History 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 Family History Library has copies of most of these inventories. They are listed in the catalog under TEXAS, [COUNTY] - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES.

Texas Digital Collections
has statewide online database links which may include vital records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.

Web Sites
You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from Texas in a variety of sources at local, state, national, and international levels. The list of sources is growing rapidly. Most of the information is available at no cost. Addresses on the Internet change frequently. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:

USGenWeb

A cooperative effort by many volunteers to list genealogical databases, libraries, bulletin boards, and other resources available on the Internet for each county, state, and country.

Roots-L

A useful list of sites and resources. Includes a large, regularly-updated research coordination list.

FamilySearch™

FamilySearch is a collection of computer files containing several million names. FamilySearch is a good place to begin your research. Some of the records come from compiled sources; some have been automated from original sources.