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 Telephone: 512-463-5460 Fax: 512-463-5436 Internet: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/

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; FHL book 976.4 A3cj 1984; a 197? edition is on 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; (Family History Library book 976.4 A3t; 1985 edition is on fiche 6047934.)

National Archives—Fort Worth Branch 501 West Felix Street, Building 1 Fort Worth, TX 76115-3405 Telephone: 817-831-5620 Fax: 817-551-2034 Internet: http://www.archives.gov/southwest/

Texas State Genealogical Society 2507 Tannehill Houston, TX 77008-3052 Telephone: 713-864-6862 Fax: 713-864-3540 Internet: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/

Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library P.O. Box 1401 San Antonio, TX 78205-1401 Telephone: 210-225-1071 Fax: 210-212-8514 Internet: http://drtl.org/

Rosenberg Library Archives 2310 Sealy Avenue Galveston, TX 77550 Telephone: 409-763-8854 Fax: 409-763-0275 Internet: http://www.gthcenter.org/

Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research 5300 Caroline Houston, TX 77004-6896 Telephone: 713-524-0101 Internet: http://www.houstonlibrary.org/clayton/

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 Public Library
Houston Metropolitan Research Center 500 McKinney Street Houston, TX 77002 Telephone: 713-236-1313 Internet: http://www.houstonlibrary.org/research/hmrc.html

Dallas Public Library 1515 Young Street Dallas, TX 75201 Telephone: 214-670-1400 Internet: http://dallaslibrary.org/

Center for American History The University of Texas Sid Richardson Hall, 2.101 Austin, TX 78712 Telephone: 512-495-4515 Fax: 512-495-4542 Internet: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/

Baylor University Texas Collection P.O. Box 97142 Waco, TX 76798-7142 Internet: http://www3.baylor.edu/Library/

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.

Computer Networks and Bulletin Boards
Computers with modems can be useful tools for obtaining information from selected archives and libraries. In a way, computer networks themselves serve as a library. The Internet, certain computer bulletin boards, and commercial online services help family history researchers:


 * Locate other researchers
 * Post queries
 * Send and receive e-mail
 * Search large databases
 * Search computer libraries
 * Join in computer chat and lecture sessions

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. As of April 1997, the following sites are important gateways linking you to many more network and bulletin board sites:

USGenWeb

 * http://www.usgenweb.com/

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

 * http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/usa/

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

For further details about using computer networks, bulletin boards, and news groups for family history research, see the United States Research Outline, 2nd ed., "Archives and Libraries" section.

FamilySearch™

 * www.familysearch.org

The Family History Library and some Family History Centers have computers with 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.