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County Records on Microfilm
ref@tsl.texas.gov
or
512-463-5455
There is great genealogical and historical value in records of local governments. Information found in Texas county records can include deed and property transactions, probate and wills, naturalizations, vital statistics, voter registrations, school records, tax payments, court records, and more.
Every county differs in how older records were maintained. The TSLAC Regional Historical Resource Depository Program (RHRD), in collaboration with the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch), microfilmed many of these records between the 1970s and the early 1990s to facilitate preservation and access through local depositories.
These Texas county records on microfilm are available to genealogy researchers through twenty-three depositories in Texas, including the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) Genealogy Collection in Austin and the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty.
Not all Texas counties, and not all of the records held in each county were filmed. See our online guide to county records for details about the types of records that were filmed and what kind of information can be found in them.
Check for the county you are researching below to see the types of records filmed. If you locate records of interest, see the Microfilm Access and Online Access sections below.
TSLAC is the microfilm depository for the following Texas counties. Select a county below to see which records have been filmed:
| Atascosa | Bandera |
| Bastrop | Bexar |
| Blanco | Caldwell |
| Comal | Frio |
| Galveston | Gillespie |
| Grayson | Guadalupe |
| Harris | Hays |
| Karnes | Kendall |
| Kerr | Kinney |
| Llano | McMullen |
| Medina | Uvalde |
| Wilson |
Film for the following counties are housed at depositories throughout Texas. Select a county below to see which records have been filmed:
County records on microfilm may be available view in person at the depository that houses the reels or to borrow through interlibrary loan (ILL).
In person use. For microfilm held at TSLAC, call 512-463-5455 or email ref@tsl.texas.gov with the county name and reel number to confirm availability in advance of your visit. We can hold five (5) reels one week. Staff are unable to search the microfilm on your behalf or provide you with copies.
Other repositories may allow on-site access to the county records on microfilm they hold. Contact each repository directly to confirm in-person access options.
Interlibrary loan. Contact your local library about placing an ILL request to borrow microfilm from the repository that holds the reels. Include the county name(s) and reel number(s) with your request. Find Texas libraries near you using our Find a Library tool.
Individuals may request to borrow microfilm as a patron of TSLAC. Please review our ILL policies for registration and placing requests.
Loan Policies for Libraries. Each depository sets its own policy regarding the loan of county records on microfilm; not all depositories lend these reels.
Libraries may borrow reels held by TSLAC. Please call 512-463-5455 or email ill@tsl.texas.gov to place an ILL request.
- No more than five (5) reels of microfilm may be on loan to the same researcher at the same time.
- Microfilm can be loaned for fourteen (14) days, but loans may be extended for an additional fourteen days if no other request for the microfilm has been received.
- The microfilm is for in-library use only and cannot be removed by the researcher from the premises of the requesting institution.
Many county records from the RHRD program have been digitized and are available on the FamilySearch website.
- Texas county genealogy research guides with links to digitized indexes and records are available through the FamilySearch Research Wiki. Use the clickable Texas county map
to find a Wiki for the county you are researching. - Search for collections on the FamilySearch catalog by county name using the “Place” field or by reel number using the “Film/Fiche Number” field.
Some of the digital records are available to access online with a free FamilySearch account. Other records must be accessed through a Family History Center or FamilySearch Affiliate Library .
TSLAC’s Austin and Liberty locations are FamilySearch affiliate libraries and provide on-site access to digitized images of many of these reels.
TSLAC and requesting institutions are not permitted to provide certified copies of documents on microfilm. If a certified copy is needed, the researcher should obtain it from the county clerk or district clerk who is the custodian of the original record. The current custodian of the records of the county superintendents of schools is the county clerk.
Though the filming process attempts to capture the best possible image of each page of each document, the result may not be microfilm that is easy to read due to the original condition of the record. Known issues include:
- Nineteenth century iron-based inks can chip away, leaving a faint reddish-brown "ghost" script that is extremely difficult to read.
- Aged handwriting on blue paper, popular with nineteenth century paper manufacturers, can be nearly illegible, even to the naked eye.
- Sharp legibility may be sacrificed during filming to avoid damaging original records.
Researchers should attempt to see the original document in those instances in which the quality of the microfilm is poor. Contact the county clerk or district clerk who is the custodian of the original record.
Not all county records have been microfilmed. Additional records may be available through these county and local resources.
- Regional Historical Records Depository (RHRD): Each county has a designated RHRD and may have additional records. For example, the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center is the RHRD for Southeast Texas and has many paper records for those counties. See a list of Local Records Available at the Sam Houston Center.
- County offices : including the county clerk, district clerk , and county archives.
- Local history repositories, such as public libraries and historical societies that serve the county. Search for Texas libraries using our Find a Library page.
- Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org : Some records may have been digitized and available to search on third-party databases.
Our “Locating County Records” webinar from October 22, 2021 includes helpful tips for finding county records on microfilm, online, and through local agencies. The recording and slides from this webinar are posted on our Research Webinar Series webpage.