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Genealogy and Local History Department
The Genealogy and Local History Department of Fort Bend County Libraries is known throughout the region as an excellent source for research in these subjects. The main library, George Memorial Library in Richmond, houses the Genealogy and Local History Department's collections and resources.
The department's resources focus on the southeastern United States and include materials relating to the history of the South, federal censuses, genealogy, and the Civil War.
Over many years, the Genealogy Department’s Volunteers and staff have compiled a Fort Bend County Burial Records database, which has become a major tool for genealogy researchers. The database was published in five volumes in 1997, as the Registry of Cemeteries in Fort Bend County, Texas. A supplement was published in 2004, and another supplement is currently being compiled. The printed volumes are housed in the Genealogy Department at George Memorial Library, the database will be soon be available online.
PRINTED SOURCES (selected listing)
- Census indexes
- Civil War collection
- DAR lineage books and indexes
- Fort Bend County photo collection
- Fort Bend County vertical files (biographies, cemeteries, churches, history, and obituaries)
- Genealogies (family histories)
- Genealogical research materials (emphasis on Fort Bend County: deed, probate, marriage, cemetery files for Fort Bend County)
- Guidebooks (how to do research)
- Immigration records (published passenger lists)
- Local histories (county, state, and city & town histories for southeastern U.S.)
- Periodicals (genealogical, historical and family publications)
- Special collection of the Czech Heritage Society of Texas
MICROFORMS (selected listing)
- Census Schedules for the southeastern U.S., from statehood through 1930
- Alabama
- Arkanas
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Soundex indexes, 1880-1920 for Texas only. There is presently no finding aid for the 1930 census.
- Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics: birth and death indexes
- Non-current government records and indexes for Austin, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Matagorda, Waller and Wharton counties
- Military records with indexes (Revolutionary War and Civil War)
- General Index to Compiled Service Records for the Revolutionary War
- Revolutionary War Service Records
- American Revolution War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application files
- Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the Mexican War
- Index to Confederate Soldiers
- Texas Confederate Compiled Service Records
- Confederate Prisoners of War
- Newspapers
(Fort Bend County only, starting with 1911; Brookshire Times 1899-1984; Galveston Daily News 1865-1917; and Telegraph & Texas Register, Houston, Texas 1835-1875)
GENEALOGY DATABASE (online resource)
Information contained in the burial records includes name, birth and death dates, cemetery of burial, and notes. In addition, a growing number of records contain .jpg images of obituaries that were published in the Fort Bend Herald from August 1, 2007, to the present. Online database.
Links to other useful Genealogy Resources
Ancestry Library Edition (Proquest)
Heritage Quest
Texas Digital Sanborn Maps
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