The Texas State Archives | Texas State Library and Archives Commission has digitized collections for genealogy and family history research including military records, maps, pension records, prison records, passport records, photographs, and more.

Residence Records

Maps

Fire Insurance Maps – Searchable database of fire insurance maps and/or Sanborn maps listed by the location mapped. The maps date from the mid-1920s to the 1970s.

Map Collection – The Texas State Archives Map Collection contains original, photoreproduced, and compiled maps covering the period from the early seventeenth century through to the late twentieth century. This database allows searching by place, subject, title, type of map, cartographer, year, publisher, and specific map number. In addition to detailed information about each map, if it is available, a digitized copy of the map is provided.

Passport Records

Republic of Texas Passports – On the Texas Digital Archive – Alphabetical listing with images of records relating to individual passport files in the Republic of Texas, including requests for passports, orders to issue passports, and one proclamation granting entrance to the Republic.

Pension Records

Republic Claims – Searchable index of Comptroller’s records submitted by citizens to the Republic of Texas government from 1835 -1846, including claims for payment, reimbursement, or restitution. It also includes records relating to Republic pensions and claims against the Republic submitted as public debt claims after 1846.

Index to Conderate Pensions

Voter Records

1867 Voters’ Registration, for Texas residents only

Daily Life Records

Business & Industry

Texas Parks Civilian Conservation Corps Drawings – In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to create the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the “New Deal.” The program provided jobs to young people with families in need, while allowing Texas to preserve land and establish its state parks system. Between 1933 and 1942, the government invested more than 20 million dollars into developing 41 Texas state parks, of which 29 still exist. This online collection is a searchable database of over 3,900 drawings documenting parks development and construction activities by the Civilian Conservation Corps in Texas from 1933 to 1958.

Court Records

Texas Judiciary

Government Records

Andrew Jackson Houston Collection database – Searchable index to approximately 4,800 items containing correspondence, reports, resolutions, proclamations, and depositions dated, primarily, between 1835 and 1859.

Texas Senate Recordings, 1972-2006 – The Texas Senate began to systematically record committee hearings and floor debates during the 4th Called Session (C.S.) of the 62nd Legislature (1972), and has continued to do so to the present day. Recordings in the Senate records collection range from the 62nd Legislature, 4th Called Session, through the 79th Legislature. This searchable database includes digitized audio of approximately 25,000 original cassette tapes.

Texas Legislature

Texas State Agencies

Sam Houston Center Collections

Republic of Texas

Military Records

Texas Military Records

Texas Adjutant General Service Records, 1836-1935 – The Service Records series of the Texas Adjutant General records (now the Texas Military Department) combines both official service record files from the Adjutant General’s Office and alphabetical files created by other agencies that contain records related to an individual’s service in a military unit. Information in individual files can vary considerably. This index includes digital images of the original records as well as the name of the organization they served under and a call number. If an individual is not found in the index, they may have served but no records are represented in this specific series.

US Civil War

Index to Conderate Pensions

Confederate Indigent Families Lists “While the number of dependents is always provided, additional information may include some of the following elements: name of the soldier; currently in service; disabled or killed in service; unit; acting head of household.”

Texas Rangers

1919 Texas Rangers Investigation (Canales investigation) – In 1918, Texas state representative José T. Canales of Brownsville launched an investigation into the conduct of the Texas Rangers during the border wars and filed nineteen charges of misconduct against the Rangers. The following year, the Texas legislature formed a joint House-Senate committee to look into Canales’s charges. They heard testimony for two weeks. As a result of the investigation, the Loyalty Rangers were abolished, and the Texas Rangers were reduced in force. The transcript for the investigation is available in three digitized volumes:

World War I

World War I

World War II

Texas Digital Archive Manuscript Collections

Texas State Library and Archives Commission