Resources
Where to look, and what each place is actually good for.
A short, opinionated list. Most of it is free. We have left out the sites that look impressive and then hand you somebody else's unsourced tree.
Start here
Free record collections worth your evening
FamilySearch
The largest free collection of digitised records anywhere, run by a non profit. Census, parish registers, probate, and an enormous microfilm backlog that keeps being published. A free account is required.
Chronicling America
Digitised American newspapers from the Library of Congress. Obituaries, land notices, and the small town gossip column that tells you a daughter married and moved to Waco.
FindAGrave and BillionGraves
Photographs of headstones with volunteer transcriptions. Treat the dates as a lead and not as proof, because a stone is only as accurate as whoever ordered it.
National Archives catalogue
Military service and pension files, land patents, and naturalisation records. The catalogue is clumsy to search, and the files behind it are worth the fight.
Texas specific
If your family passed through Texas
Portal to Texas History
Hosted by the University of North Texas. Local newspapers, county histories, school yearbooks, and photographs, much of it from small archives that have nothing else online.
Texas General Land Office
Original land grants and survey maps back to the Republic. If you want to know exactly which piece of dirt your family farmed, this is where you find out.
Texas State Library and Archives
Probate, county court, and state agency records, plus a genealogy collection that will answer questions by email.
County clerk offices
Not glamorous and frequently the answer. Deeds and probate files that were never digitised, held a short drive away, and clerks who are often glad to help.
Doing it properly
Standards, citation, and where to go deeper
A word about the paid sites
The big subscription services hold real records you cannot get elsewhere, and they are worth paying for in short bursts when you know what you are after.
They are not worth paying for indefinitely while you click hints. Many public libraries provide free access from inside the building, which is usually enough.
Know a good one
Tell us what we have missed
Especially small county archives and local society collections. Those are the ones nobody lists, and they are often the ones that break a wall.