Texas Historical Societies

This directory lists 30 historical societies, museums, and archives in Texas, including the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, The Alamo in San Antonio, and the Sophienburg Museum and Archives in New Braunfels. The guide below is built for researchers who need to move between the Texas State Library and Archives, the General Land Office, county clerks, and the Portal to Texas History, and it flags the records that exist only in Texas, such as Republic-era claims and Spanish land titles.

Texas passed through Spanish and Mexican rule, a decade as the Republic of Texas, and admission as the twenty-eighth state on December 29, 1845. When it joined the Union it kept its public lands, so Texas is a state-land state and its General Land Office, not the federal government, holds the original grants back to 1720. Statewide registration of births and deaths began in 1903, and the state never took a census after 1845, which makes county clerk, tax, and land records unusually important for the nineteenth century.

Featured Historical Societies

Major repositories in Texas

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), 1201 Brazos St., Austin, maintains more than 200 million pages of archival documents and two million printed volumes. Its genealogy pages are the right entry point, and its Texas Digital Archive serves scanned originals, including Republic of Texas passports (1836-1858) and the Republic Claims files. Reference staff answer questions at ref@tsl.texas.gov or 512-463-5455.

• Texas General Land Office Archives, 1700 N. Congress Ave., Austin: 37 million documents and maps tracing Texas land from Spanish rule to the present, more than 6 million of them digitized since 2000 (see the land section below).
• Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, Sid Richardson Hall, 2300 Red River St.: the university's archive for Texas history, with reading room hours Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (briscoecenter.org).
• Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Houston Public Library, 5300 Caroline St.: established in 1968 in the former home of William Lockhart Clayton, and one of the top genealogical collections in the country, covering all fifty states as well as Texas.
• Houston History Research Center, Julia Ideson Building, Houston Public Library: books, maps, building plans, photographs, and oral histories for the city, which makes it a key stop for Houston house research (houstonlibrary.org/hrc).

Texas birth, death, marriage, and divorce records

Statewide registration of births and deaths began in 1903. Certificates are issued by the Vital Statistics Section of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), which also keeps marriage applications and divorce reports; orders can be placed online or by phone at 888-963-7111. For research, work from the indexes first. TSLAC holds the state's vital statistics indexes on microfilm and on-site in Austin: births 1903-2010, deaths 1903-2010, marriages 1966-2005, and divorces 1968-2005, several of which are also searchable through the Texas Digital Archive and FamilySearch. DSHS sells its own digital index files (births from 1925, deaths from 1965) at $10 per year per event type, with microfiche indexes for earlier years back to 1903; see its birth and death indexes page. TSLAC does not hold the certificates themselves; those come from DSHS or from the county or district clerk.

Marriage licenses and registers have been kept by the County Clerk since the Republic period; registers from 1837 to 1966 for most counties have been microfilmed and many are online. Divorces have been district court cases since 1846, and the decree is held by the District Clerk in the county where it was granted. The TSLAC statewide marriage and divorce indexes only begin in the late 1960s, so for earlier cases you must know the county.

Land grants, deeds, and property records

Texas kept its public domain at annexation, so every chain of title runs back to a grant from one of four sovereigns: Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, or the State of Texas. The originals are at the General Land Office Archives in Austin. The Spanish Collection holds more than 4,200 titles issued by Spain and Mexico between 1720 and 1836 covering about 26 million acres, including the empresario colonies such as Stephen F. Austin's (1823-1830). Republic and state grants follow in distinct series: headright grants (1836-1842), organized by the class of the settler's arrival date; bounty and donation grants for military service (1836-1888), including Confederate scrip for disabled veterans and widows; and school lands sold from 1874 onward. The GLO's Land Grant Database indexes these files, and the Surname Index lists grantees and patentees alphabetically, including those in the Spanish Collection. Historic maps, including county and survey maps, are at historictexasmaps.com.

Once land was patented, every deed, mortgage, and plat has been recorded by the County Clerk of the county where the land lies. Texas has 254 counties, and county boundaries shifted repeatedly in the nineteenth century, so identify the parent county for the date of the deed. TSLAC's microfilmed county tax rolls are the quickest way to confirm how much land and personal property a person held in a given year before you order deeds. Our guide to tracing a property's deed history covers grantor and grantee indexes.

Newspapers and city directories

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program, run by the University of North Texas Libraries and delivered through The Portal to Texas History, holds 1,149,590 items from 2,092 newspaper titles contributed by 251 partner institutions. Coverage runs from the 1810s to the 2020s, with the densest run between 1910 and 1949. It is free and full-text searchable, and because the program digitizes for small-town publishers and libraries, it is often the only place a weekly from a county seat of two thousand people can be read. Funding has come from the National Endowment for the Humanities, TSLAC, and the Tocker Foundation.

Chronicling America at the Library of Congress carries the Texas titles digitized under the National Digital Newspaper Program. For city directories, which trace a family's addresses between censuses, start with the public library of the city concerned (the Houston History Research Center and the Clayton Library in Houston are strong) and read our article on using old city directories.

Census, military, and Republic-era records

Texas first appears in the federal census in 1850, and the state took no censuses of its own after annexation. Earlier counts exist from the Spanish, Mexican, and Republic periods: the 1757 censuses of Las Villas del Norte along the lower Rio Grande (Laredo, Dolores, Revilla, Mier, Camargo, and Reynosa), the 1826 Atascosito census, the 1830 Citizens of Texas compilation, and the 1840 census of the Republic of Texas, all available through FamilySearch. Federal returns survive for every decade from 1850 except 1890.

• Confederate pension applications: TSLAC's index covers some 54,634 approved, rejected, and home pensions issued by Texas between 1899 and 1975, giving name, county, and pension number (index).
• Republic Claims: requests for payment or reimbursement made to the Republic of Texas government, 1835-1846, with public debt claims to 1873 and pension records to 1920; the Texas Digital Archive indexes more than 48,500 names and serves the images (tsl.texas.gov/arc/republicclaims).
• Republic of Texas passports, 1836-1858, in the Texas Digital Archive.
• County records on microfilm: TSLAC filmed county clerk and district clerk records and distributes them through its Regional Historical Resource Depository libraries around the state.

Researching a house or building in Texas

The Texas Historical Commission is the State Historic Preservation Office. Its Texas Historic Sites Atlas is the single most useful starting point: it maps National Register properties, Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks, and the Official Texas Historical Markers that stand in all 254 counties, searchable by keyword and county, with the marker text and often the application file. Marker, cemetery, and landmark applications are filed through the Commission (markers@thc.texas.gov, 512-463-8769), and each county has a County Historical Commission appointed by the commissioners court that reviews local applications and frequently keeps its own survey of historic buildings.

For the building itself:

• Pull the chain of title at the County Clerk back to the original grant, then read the grant file at the General Land Office.
• Check TSLAC county tax rolls for the first year improvements were assessed on the parcel; our article on finding when a house was built explains how to interpret a jump in value.
• Look for Sanborn fire insurance maps of Texas cities, which the University of Texas Perry-Castaneda Library has digitized for 1877-1922 (open to UT and TexShare library users, with some sheets open to all), and for building plans at the Houston History Research Center if the property is in Houston.
• For commercial and civic buildings, follow the checklist in researching an old building's history.

Tips for working with Texas historical societies and commissions

Texas local history has an official and an unofficial layer. The official one is the County Historical Commission in each of the 254 counties, which handles marker applications and usually knows who holds the county's photographs and survey files. The unofficial layer is the county and city historical societies listed in this directory, such as the Gillespie County Historical Society in Fredericksburg, the Harris County Historical Society in Houston, and the El Paso County Historical Society; these hold family files, church records, and German, Czech, or Tejano community material that never reached Austin. Write with the family name, the county, and a date range. The Clayton Library in Houston is open Tuesday through Saturday and welcomes walk-in researchers, while the General Land Office archives and the Briscoe Center serve researchers by appointment or during posted reading-room hours.

Additional Texas History Resources

• Texas State Library and Archives Commission - State archives in Austin: county microfilm, tax rolls, vital indexes, Republic records
• TSLAC Genealogy Resources - Starting page for family history research at the state archives
• Confederate Pension Applications Index - Index to 54,634 Texas Confederate pensions, 1899-1975
• Texas Digital Archive - Scanned Republic Claims, passports, and other TSLAC originals
• Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Statistics - Birth and death certificates from 1903, marriage and divorce verifications
• Texas General Land Office Archives - Spanish, Mexican, Republic, and state land grants from 1720; maps
• GLO Surname Index - Alphabetical list of grantees and patentees
• Texas Digital Newspaper Program - More than 1.1 million free newspaper items from 2,092 Texas titles
• Texas Historic Sites Atlas - Map search of historical markers, landmarks, and National Register properties
• Texas Historical Commission - State Historic Preservation Office; marker and landmark programs

Frequently Asked Questions

How far back do Texas death records go?

Statewide registration began in 1903. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission holds death indexes for 1903-2010 and birth indexes for 1903-2010, and the Department of State Health Services issues the certificates. Before 1903 there is no state record; use county, church, cemetery, and newspaper sources.

How do I find a Spanish or Mexican land grant in Texas?

Search the Texas General Land Office Land Grant Database and its Surname Index. The GLO's Spanish Collection holds more than 4,200 original titles issued by Spain and Mexico between 1720 and 1836, covering about 26 million acres, and the original documents are kept at the GLO Archives in Austin.

Did Texas take state censuses?

No state census was taken after annexation in 1845; Texas first appears in the federal census of 1850. Earlier counts from the Spanish, Mexican, and Republic periods survive, including the 1826 Atascosito census, the 1830 Citizens of Texas list, and the 1840 census of the Republic of Texas, all available through FamilySearch.

Where are Texas Confederate pension records?

At the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin. Its online index covers about 54,634 approved, rejected, and home pensions issued between 1899 and 1975, listing name, county of residence, and pension number, from which the full application file can be requested.