Beatrice C asked:
My family was primarily from South Texas and I traced them back to the 1860’s, but I am stuck. Any suggestions
Julio
My family was primarily from South Texas and I traced them back to the 1860’s, but I am stuck. Any suggestions
Julio
Its a pay site but not too expensive … Ive had lot of luck using
Genealogy Bank…not only does it have old newspapers but a lot of other useful things you can search with keywords, historical books, historical documents , obituaries etc.
you can check it out for free and it will give you a little snippet of the article but to read the whole thing you have to subscribe
There aren’t a lot of Texas newspapers that go back that far.
Check this site for the most comprehensive list:
You can also go to and look at their holdings and see which microfilm your newspaper is on, then contact your nearest LDS Church Family Center and have them order this microfilm for you. It will cost About 3 dollars for you to rent it for 2 weeks (where you go there to look at it).
Go to your local library and ask for an interloan library loan of the microfilm. They might have a way to find the roll number of the newspaper and which other library might have it to borrow.
Go to the county site and have someone do a look up for you. go to Texas then the county
Something alternate to think about..
If you are talking about 1860… you are talking about IF THERE was a newspaper in the locality or not. I’d not assume that there is. Here’s the reason why.. in Texas history, this is barely 15 yrs after it became a state, and many areas were very sparsely settled. The largest “spike” in settlement would be after 1846, although some few families were in the area while still under Mexican rule. You also have the Civil War affecting things 1860-1865, and many areas kind of went into suspended activity during that time. Another factor is date for county creation. Example, Navarro would be original county, which later had other counties (like Dallas) “cut out” from it, all of which can happen in this time frame. This means a person might live in Dallas in 1860, but a land record COULD be in the parent county.
I am assuming that you have census records for these persons? Either 1860 or 1870 will give you the group, where you can use the birthplaces of the children to determine migration (origin) and narrow down the date. Land records are probably more likely to exist than newspapers. If there is an original land grant, those can be searched online at the Texas General land office site. I am trying to give you ideas on sources OTHER THAN just newspapers, which are more common. If they are among the really earliest settlers, there have been various books published on them.
Please don’t overlook us here. If you post the specific “problem” that has got you stumped.. then someone here may be able to give better specifics. Several of us live here in Texas, so we have familiarity with what there is.