Welcome to the Trinity County TXGenWeb site.  My name is Susanne Waller, I serve as the website coordinator on behalf of the Trinity County Historical Commission (TCHC) and I work at the Trinity County Museum/Hensley Genealogical and Historical Research Center located in the county seat of Groveton, Texas.  It is my job to assist people doing genealogy and historical research in Trinity County.  Besides the County Clerk's office, we are your source for researching your ancestors in Trinity County as we hold a wonderful collection of family histories, records and materials that may aid in your family research.  Though I do not do your family research, with specific requests I will be happy to perform lookups at our center's holdings and can help with researching your Trinity County ancestors.  If you are a Trinity County Researcher and wish to contribute genealogical or historical information to our website, or volunteer, please contact me at tchcmuseum@windstream.net.    Our thanks to all those who have contributed to this website!

Most of our early county records were destroyed by two early courthouse fires that occurred in the late 1800's.  County Records (available at the County Clerk's office) include Birth and Death Records commencing in 1903 to present.  Marriage Records commence in 1876 and are current to present (also available at the Hensley Genealogical and Historical Research Center).  Early Probate Records (1876 -1910) are individually indexed in Volumes A-G.  The Probate Index No. 1 commences coverage in 1911 with Volume H and are current to present.  Property Records are indexed commencing from January 1873 to present.  Divorces from 1893.  Be sure to check our Archives page for Indexes and other interesting contributed materials.

IMPORTANT TRINITY COUNTY RESEARCH INFORMATION:
Trinity became a county from Houston County in 1850 and even though Trinity became a separate county in 1850, the US Federal 1850 Census still enumerated citizens of Trinity County in the Houston County census.  Same for all the Non-Population Schedules for 1850. The first actual US Census for Trinity County citizens is in 1860. 

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has land records for Houston County from the years of the Republic of Texas and of course, into statehood.  I've found these to be very helpful.  This link will take you to the GLO search engine:  https://s3.glo.texas.gov/glo/history/archives/land-grants/index.cfm Once you reach the search site, enter Houston as the county and put in your ancestor's name and search.  Pay particular attention to records in the index labeled "Clerk Returns".  The "Clerk Returns" are mostly "Reports of Unconditional Certificates issued by the Board of Land Commissioners of Houston County" that were issued in the 1840's and into the 1850's.  Some of these records have names, dates of emigration, and sometimes lists witnesses and that may be very useful especially when you are trying to determine when your ancestor arrived in Texas. Of course, you may do the same with running a search in Trinity County.  Trinity County's index does not contain the Clerk Returns because all that happened before we became a county in 1850, but you will still find or may find copies Trinity County's Land Grants and Mexican Land Titles.  Thank you GLO! 

Sign in to your FamilySearch account and search tax records from 1838-1850 in Houston County (and these are still free to browse).  This link will take you to the FamilySearch page for Texas County Tax Rolls, 1837-1910:  https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1827575?collectionNameFilter=false  On that page you can run a search by name, but remember, many of the tax records in these collections are not indexed, so your ancestor may not show up in a search.  But don't get discouraged, below the search box you will see "Browse through all 678,887 images" (a little intimidating) but if you go there you can then choose a county and go to the years that are available for that county and start reading.  (And who hasn't browsed 100's of pages of records to find an ancestor!)  Houston County has tax records beginning in 1838 and Trinity Tax Records begin in 1850.  There is a lot of good information in the tax records!

Be sure to check the new Trinity County Obituary page.  Thank you, Deta Rogillio for transcribing and uploading obituaries weekly! 

I hope this will help with your research in Trinity County and please feel free to contact me at tchcmuseum@windstream.net  if you have any questions.  Follow Trinity County Museum/Hensley Genealogical and Historical Research Center on Facebook!

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