Texas Archives and Libraries

United States Texas  Archives and Libraries

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

National
National Archives Southwest Region (Ft. Worth)


 * 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: [[Image:NARA Fort Worth.jpg|border|right|250px|NARA Fort Worth.jpg]]1400 John Burgess Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76140 Telephone: 817-551-2051 Fax: 817-551-2034

Internet for both: http://www.archives.gov/southwest

Subject specialties include censuses, westward expansion into the Southwest and settlement of Native Americans (especially Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles), slavery, bankruptcy court, ethnology, genealogy, military service records, pension and bounty land warrant applications, passenger lists and Dawes census cards and enrollment jackets for the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma.


 * For further information, see  National Archives Southwest Region (Ft. Worth).

State
Texas State Library and Archives Building F 1201 Brazos P.O. Box 12927 Austin, TX 78711 Phone: (512) 463-5460 Fax: (512) 463-5436 Original manuscripts for Texas under Mexico, as a republic, and as a state, including all counties, vital records, newspapers, books, and maps. 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 Briscoe Center for American History (University of Texas at Austin) 2300 Red River St. Sid Richardson Hall, Unit 2 Room 2.106 Austin, Texas 78712-1426

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 Natchez Trace Collection papers from Mississippi and Louisiana.

Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research 5300 Caroline Houston, TX 77004 Telephone: 713-284-1999 Internet: http://www2.houstonlibrary.org/clayton/ One of America's best genealogical collections. Especially strong for Texas, adjoining states, and Tennessee.

Dallas Public Central Library 1515 Young St. Dallas, TX 75201-9987 Telephone: 214-670-1400 Internet: http://dallaslibrary2.org/genealogy/index.php Outstanding genealogical collection with records for more than Texas, including Oklahoma, the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states.

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

Especially good collection for the Mexican colonial era in Texas, some resources for the Texas Republic, and good genealogical reference works.

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

Good genealogy and Texana collection.

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

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

Fort Worth Public Library

Sam Houston Regional Library

Natchitoches Genealogical and Historical Association

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

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

Further 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.

Archive Inventories
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.