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Texas Counties H Hill County
Guide to Hill County Texas genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.
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Contents |
County Courthouse
PO Box 398
Hillsboro, TX 76645-0398
Phone: 254.582.4030
County Clerk has birth and marriage records1876,
probate reocrds from 1879 and land records
from 1853; District Clerk has divorce records[1]
Hill County Courthouse in Hillsboro, the county seat, was completed in 1890 built of white Limestone, by the architect W. C. Dodson. This structure was designated at a Texas Historical Landmark in 1971. The courthouse was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1993. The four limestone walls and the iron staircases were all that was left standing. The courthouse been completely restored by the residents and elected officials during the late 1990s. For more, including photos, see Hill County Texas County Courthouse in the Road Trip Destination Guide website.
History
Early settlement followed the establishment of Fort Graham in 1848 to suppress Indian hostility. Hill County was formed in 1853 from Navarro County.
Parent County
1853--Hill County was created 7 February 1853 from Navarro County. County seat: Hillsboro [2]
Boundary Changes
Record Loss
1872--The Hill County Courthouse caught fire on 18 Sept 1872. Many county records were destroyed.[3]
1993--The Hill County Courthouse, built in 1890, caught fire on 1 Jan 1993, destroying most of the building.
Places / Localities
Populated Places
Cities and Towns:
- Abbott | Abbott in Handbook of Texas | Wikipedia page
- Aquilla | Wikipedia page | Aquilla Lake Wikipedia page
- Birome (unincorporated) | Wikipedia page
- Blum | Blum | Wikipedia page
- Brandon (unincorporated) | Wikipedia page
- Bynum | Wikipedia page
- Carl's Corner | Wikipedia page
- Covington | Wikipedia page
- Hillsboro (county seat) | Hillsboro | Convention & Visitors Bureau | official city site | Wikipedia page
- Hubbard | Wikipedia page
- Irene (unincorporated) | Irene in Handbook of Texas | Irene history in Texas Escapes | Wikipedia page
- Itasca | Itasca | town website | Wikipedia page
- Malone | Wikipedia page
- Mertens | Wikipedia page
- Mount Calm | Mount Calm | Wikipedia page
- Penelope | town website | Wikipedia page
- Peoria (unincorporated)
- Whitney | Wikipedia page
Neighboring Counties
Resources
General
- Hill County Records Available on Microfilm from Baylor University (Texas State Library & Archives)
Cemeteries
| Online Grave Transcripts | Published Grave Transcripts | County Cemetery Directories |
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Additional Cemetery Sources
- Atchison, Mrs. Joe. Peoria Cemetery 1826-1978; Hill County, Texas. Waco, TX: Self-published, 1979. Peoria Cemetery 1826 - 1978
- Bessire, Royal C. Hill County Cemetery Index. S.I.: S.n., 2008. | WorldCat page
- Bryan, J.L. Confederate Veterans Buried in Hill County, Texas. Quinlan, TX: Solis/Bryan Researches, 1988. | WorldCat page
- Cemeteries (Hill County) (Linkpendium)
- Cemeteries of Hill County, Texas (Cemeteries of Texas Project)
- Cemetery Index (Hill County Genealogical Society)
- Derden Cemetery, Hill County, Texas: From the Beginning thru 1999. S.I.: S.n., 1999. | WorldCat page
- Dodd, Celeste Varnell. Inventory of Gravestones and Inscriptions in the "Old Cemetery" Located at Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas. [Hillsboro, TX?:] C.V. Dodd, 1972. | WorldCat page
- Fort Graham Cemetery Records, Hill County, Texas. TX: Fort Graham Cemetery Assn., 1989. | WorldCat page
- Freeman, Martha Doty, Douglas K. Boyd, and Texas Antiquities Committee. Historical and Archaeological Excavations of a Possible Historic Cemetery, 41HI294, in Hill County, Texas. Austin, TX: Prewitt and Associates, 2006. | World Cat page
- Hill County Archives: Cemeteries (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
- Hill County, Texas Cemeteries (Cathy Shelley)
- Hill County, Texas Cemeteries (Historic Texas Cemeteries)
- Hill County, Texas Cemetery Records (Interment.net)
- Itasca Cemetery, Itasca BillionGraves. Google map, headstone photos, matched to data which is searchable from its page and the site itself as a whole.
- Mount Calm Cemeteries: The town of Mount Calm is located in Hill County, and the Mount Calm Cemetery is located about 3/4 miles southwest of town (map). An older Mount Calm cemetery is located about 1-3/4 miles south of town in Limestone County, near the original location of the town, which was picked up and moved north when the railroad came through (map).
- Peoria Cemetery: See Atchison, Mrs. Joe, above.
- Simmons Cemetery: The Forgotten Cemetery (Cathy Shelley)
- Thompson, K., and B. Thedford, Hill County Texas Cemeteries. Moore, OK: Self-published, 1995?. | WorldCat page
Census
- Acker, Karen Ladd. Abstracts of Post Returns for Fort Graham, Texas, April 1849-October 1853: With a List of Soldiers Enumerated on the 1850 U.S. Census of Navarro County. Houston, TX: Self-published, 2008. (Contains records of personnel changes at Fort Graham in Navarro County, present-day Hill County, which closed in 1853.) | WorldCat page
- Census Records and Indexes (Hill County) (Linkpendium)
- Hill County Archives: Census Records (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
- Layman, Helen. Czech Families in Hill County, Texas in 1900 & 1910: Extractions from the United States Census. Houston, TX: Czech Heritage Society of Texas, 2001. | World Cat page
Church
Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death/burial date and place. For general information about Texas denominations, view the Texas Church Records wiki page.
- Daniel, J.C. A History of the Baptists of Hill County, Texas. 1907.
- Leak, Jim. Median River Baptist Association Also Known as Hill County Baptist Association: 1888-2008 - 120 Years. TX: Hill County Baptist Assn., 2009. | WorldCat page
Court
- Hill County Archives: Court Records (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
Land
After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions, including deeds and mortgages, have been recorded by the county. You can obtain copies of these land records by writing to the county clerk at the county courthouse. For more information, see Texas Land and Property.
The Family History Library Catalog lists microfilm copies of deeds, trust deeds, and mortgages of many counties.
- Deed records on microfilm at FHL: Land and property deeds with index 1853 - 1901
- Hill County, Texas Original Land Owners (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
- Hill County, Texas Miscellaneous Deeds (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
Local Histories
- Bailey, Ellis, A History of Hill County, Texas, 1838-1965.
- The Heritage of Hill County, Texas. Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing, 2006. | WorldCat
- The Heritage of Hill County, Texas, Vol. 2. Lexington, KY: Heritage Publishing, 2010 | WorldCat page
- A History of Hill County, Texas, 1853-1980. Hill County Historical Commission, 1980.
- Kirkpatrick, A.Y. The Early Settlers' Life in Texas, and the Organization of Hill County. 1963.
- A Memorial and Biographical History of Johnson and Hill Counties, Texas: Containing the Early History of this Important Section of the Great State of Texas Together with Glimpses of its Future Prospects... Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1892. | digital copy of Vol. 1 in Internet Archive | Google Books page (no preview)
- Simpson, Harold B. Hill County Trilogy. Hillsboro, TX: Hill College Press, 1986. | WorldCat page
Maps
Texas Counties Map. Click on the county to go to the Texas Genweb site
Current State of Texas Map of Counties
Military
General/Miscellaneous
- Acker, Karen Ladd. Abstracts of Post Returns for Fort Graham, Texas, April 1849-October 1853: With a List of Soldiers Enumerated on the 1850 U.S. Census of Navarro County. Houston, TX: Self-published, 2008. (Contains records of personnel changes at Fort Graham in Navarro County, present-day Hill County, which closed in 1853.) | WorldCat page
- Hill County Honor Roll: World War I, World War II, Korean War. Hillsboro, TX: American Legion Post No. 4, 1963. | WorldCat page
Civil War
- Bryan, J.L. Confederate Veterans Buried in Hill County, Texas. Quinlan, TX: Solis/Bryan Researches, 1988. | WorldCat page
- Confederate Reunion (Cathy Shelley)
- Hill County, Texas Confederate Pension Applications (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
World War I
- Military Discharges (WWI) (Cathy Shelley)
Newspapers
Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Hill County, Texas newspapers in online catalogs like:
- WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
- Do a Hill County, Texas Place-name search for these and other records in the Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).
- Bessire, Royal C. Obituaries Hill County, Texas: 1886 to 1900. Hewitt, TX: Self-published, 2006. | WorldCat page
- Funeral Announcements (Cathy Shelley)
- Hill County Archives: Obituaries (U.S. GenWeb Archives)
- Hill County, Texas Obituaries (Cathy Shelley)
- The Hillsboro Reporter
- Just the News - Surnames (Cathy Shelley)
Probate
Probate records of Texas have been kept by the probate clerk in each county courthouse. You can obtain copies of the records from the clerk's office. In most counties, all information pertaining to a probate case is recorded in the "probate minutes."
Content: Probate Records may give the decedent's date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their places of residence.
Record types: Wills, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, marriage, adoption, and birth and death records.
See the Wiki page Texas Probate Records for information about how to use probate records.
Probate minutes 1853 to 1934 with index
Taxation
Texas tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information, see the wiki page Texas Taxation.
Texas County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910 lists FHL films with county tax lists. The lists vary by county and year. Most records are between the years of 1846 - 1910.
Texas county tax rolls, 1846-1910, by the Texas Comptrollers Office
Vital Records
See Texas Vital Records for more information about Vital records in Texas. Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents. United States Vital Records has additional research guidance on researching and using vital records.
A copy or an extract of most original records can be purchased from the Texas Vital Records State Department of Health or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred.
Births
Marriages
- Hill County, Texas, marriage records, 1873-1934; index, 1873-1941
- Hill County, Texas Marriage Records A (CensusDiggins.com)
- Hill County, Texas Marriages A to Z, Part 1 (Cathy Shelley)
- Hill County, Texas Marriages Z to Z, Part 2 (Cathy Shelley)
- Ingmire, Frances Terry. Hill County, Texas Marriage Records, 1873-1880. St. Louis: Self-published, 1981. | WorldCat page
Deaths
- Death records, 1903-1956
- Texas Death Index 1964 to 1998 Texas, Death Index, 1964-1998 (FamilySearch Historical Records) Name index to Texas Statewide Death Certificates or four million people who have died since 1964.
- Texas Death Records 1890 – 1976 [with images]
Name index and images of statewide death certificates, 1890-1976. The name index has been created by FamilySearch and is tied to images of the Texas death certificates. Few certificates are available prior to 1903.
Societies and Libraries
Family History Centers
Web Sites
- Family History Library Catalog
- Hill County, Texas (Handbook of Texas)
- Hill County, Texas (official site)
- Hill County, Texas (RootsWeb)
- Hill County, Texas Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
- Hill County, Texas Genealogy Data (Cathy Shelley)
- Hill County, Texas Genealogy Forum (GenForum)
- Hill County, Texas GenWeb (currently appears to contain no content)
- Hill County, Texas USGenWeb Archives
- Profile for Hill County, Texas (includes genealogy; ePodunk)
- Texas GenWeb: May have maps, name indices, history or other information for Hill County.
References
- ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Hill County, Texas. Page 666 At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
- ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
- ↑ GenDisasters.com - Hillsboro, TX Hill County Courthouse Fire, Sept 1872 http://www3.gendisasters.com/texas/17827/hillsboro-tx-hill-county-courthouse-fire-sept-1872
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- This page was last modified on 26 April 2013, at 17:14.
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