Looking for my Grandfather

In my last entry, I talked about how to arrange and preserve your family archives. This time I will give you some sources for finding out more about your family. These are by no means all of the resources available to those researching their family. For information about ancestors who fought in the Civil War a good starting place is the National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html . Here you can find information about what unit they were in and information on the unit. The Texas General Land Office Searchable Texas Land Grant Database allows you to see if family members have received a Texas land grant. The grants in the database go back to the Texas Republic. http://www.glo.state.tx.us/archives/landgrant.html

The Texas State Archives and Library Commission genealogy page at: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/genfirst.html offers links to several searchable databases. One of those that are helpful to genealogists is the County Records on Microfilm http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/local/index.html The majority of the counties in Texas have had their records microfilmed. The microfilm is held at various depositories throughout the state and can be borrowed through Inter Library Loan (ILL), if you cannot visit the repository. Just click on the link above for a list of counties, and then click on the county you are interested in for a list of the records and where the microfilm is held. When requesting microfilm through ILL you need to provide the name of the county, the roll number, and the title of the roll.

Other databases at the Texas State archives site are listed below:

• Index to Confederate pension applications http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/pensions/index.php
• Confederate Indigent families lists (1863-1865) http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/cif/index.html
• Index to Republic Claims http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/repclaims/index.php
• Index to Texas Adjutant General Service Records 1836-1935 National Archives and Records Administration http://www.archives.gov/ has many helpful links for genealogical researchers and those requesting military records of family members.

There are too many links to list in this brief blog, but I will mention a few. In the most requested box on the home page listed above are links to military records where a person can request a copy of the DD Form 214 report of Separation and other records electronically, by fax, or mail. Clicking on the genealogy/getting started link takes you to a wealth sources at the National Archives many of which are searchable online including the Dawes Rolls Index and Final Roll for those researching their Native American ancestry.

Hope these tips will help you and if you have any questions contact me at: spurr@tarleton.edu