Angelina County was created on 1846
and formed from Nacogdoches County. Angelina County was named for a Hainai Native American woman who assisted early Spanish missionaries and was named Angelina by them; Angelina County is the only county in Texas named for a woman. The County Seat is Lufkin. The Official County website is located at http://www.angelinacounty.net/.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Angelina County Clerk has Court Records from 1847, Land Records from 1846, Probate Records from 1850, Marriage Records from 1846 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at P.O.
Box 908,
Lufkin, TX 75902-0908;
(409) 634-8339 The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Texas Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Records,1100 West 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756, Please allow up to approximately 6-8 weeks for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present. For births that occurred within the past 75 years, copies can be requested only by the immediate family of the person whose name is on the birth certificate.
Cost: The cost of a birth record is $22.00. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $22.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Death Certificates: Death records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present.
For deaths that occurred in the past 25 years, copies can be requested only by immediate family members of the deceased.
Cost: The cost of a certified death certificate is $20.00 for the first copy and $3.00 for each additional copy issued at the same time for the same certificate. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $20.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage Verifications from Jan 1966 and Divorce Verifications from Jan 1968. Certified copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees are only available from the county clerk (marriage) or district clerk (divorce) in the county or district in which the event occurred. Marriage verification or divorce verification letters can now be ordered ELECTRONICALLY
Cost: $20 - Fee is for verification only.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Order In Person: The certificates may be ordered by coming into this office. If you want the copy the same day, our hours for same day service are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday. The Texas Vital Statistics Office in Austin is located at 1100 W. 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756.
Order By Mail: Mail a check or money order (no cash) payable to the "Texas Vital Records " along with the necessary information to the following address: Texas Vital Records, Department of State Health Services, PO Box 12040,
Austin TX 78711-2040. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Texas newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29 - Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If you're unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu. These records can be searched by father's first and last names, mother's first and maiden names, year, county, and city. The certificates include the child and parents' full names, residence, occupations, age, time and date of the birth, and the name of the physician attending the birth.
Texas Death Certificates, 1890-1976 - These records are searchable by first and last name of the deceased, year, county, and city. A certificate may include the decedent's date, place, and cause of death; age; date of birth; last residence; and marital status. If known, it will also include occupation, birth place, parents' names, and place of burial. Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu.
Click Here to Search Texas Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Angelina County, Texas are 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The Texas State Library holds microfilm editions for all of Texas' federal censuses. Although the 1850, 1860, and part of the 1870 mortality schedules have been published, all the original mortality schedules are at the Texas State Library and on microfilm The 1830 territorial census of Miller County, Arkansas, enumerates an area that is in today's Texas boundaries. The remaining 1890 population schedules which exist for Texas include: Ellis County (Justice Precinct 6, Mountain Peak, and Ovilla Precinct); Hood County (Precinct 5); Rusk County (No. 6 and Justice Precinct No. 7); Trinity County (town of Trinity and Justice Precinct 2); and Kaufman County (Kaufman). Although Greer County in present-day Oklahoma functioned as part of Texas between 1886 and 1896, the 1890 census for this county was enumerated under Oklahoma Territory.
Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Angelina County, Texas are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Arkansas and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Maps. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Texas Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Texas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.
Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927 Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Historical Commision The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.
Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.
Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).
Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Angelina County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Angelina County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Texas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Angelina
County is on U.S. Highways 59 and 68 northeast
of Houston in the East Texas Timberlands
region of northeast Texas. Lufkin, the county
seat and largest town, is ninety-six miles
northwest of Beaumont and 120 miles northeast
of Houston. The county is bounded on the
north by the Angelina River and on the south
by the Neches River.
The
area that is now Angelina County was
originally occupied by agricultural Indians
of Caddoan and Atakapan-related stock.
The county was named for a Hainai Indian
girl who, according to Spanish legend,
helped early Spanish missionaries of
the area around 1690. Settlers who came
to the county in the early nineteenth
century found Indians of the Hasinai
branch of the Caddo confederacies. The
Hasinai, to which the Indian girl's group
belonged, had an abundant food supply,
a relatively dense population, and a
complex social organization. The settlement
by whites in the future Angelina County
began before the Texas Revolutionqv of
1836. The first deed on record, dated
May 10, 1801, conveyed 5½ leagues
of land to Vincente Micheli from Surdo,
chief of the Bedias Indians, in exchange
for a white shirt, eight brass bracelets,
a handful of vermilion, a fathom of ribbon,
a gun, and fifty charges of powder and
ball. The first Anglo settlers in the
district were the Burris family, who
in 1820 settled in the northern part
of what is now Lufkin at a place then
called Burris Prairie. Within a few years
other families came from Alto and Nacogdoches,
and from other states, to settle along
the rivers. Mexican authorities made
land grants in the area in 1834-35. Settlement
was still thin when Texas won its independence.
Angelina County was organized on April
22, 1846, when Nacogdoches County was
divided. The first permanent settler
after the county was formed is thought
to have been George W. Collins. The population
increased quickly thereafter due to the
good farming land and to the rivers,
which made steamboat transportation possible.
The population reached 1,165, 196 of
whom were slaves, in 1850. The first
county seat was Marion; successively,
Jonesville became county seat in 1854,
Homer in 1858, and Lufkin in 1892. Lufkin
was favored by the route of the Houston,
East and West Texas Railway (now the
Southern Pacific), which had been built
in 1882 from Houston to Shreveport. Angelina
County was settled predominantly by natives
of the southern United States, some of
them slaveowners who established plantations
in their new Texas home. Large plantations
were owned by the Stearns, Oates, Kalty,
Stovall, and Ewing families. However,
many Angelina County farmers were relatively
poor men who owned no slaves. In 1847
slaves numbered 154, out of a total population
of 834. In 1859 the number of slaves
had grown to 427, valued at $269,550,
and the total population was 4,271. Cotton
culture,qv however, occupied only 2,048
acres of county land in 1858, a relatively
small area for East Texas. Between 1850
and 1860 improved land in the county
increased from about 3,000 to about 16,000
acres. In 1861 Angelina County was the
only county in East Texas, and one of
only a handful of other Texas counties,
to reject secession.qv This election
result was startling when compared with
that of Angelina County's neighbor to
the immediate south, Tyler County, which
supported secession by a 99 percent vote.
Angelina County had also given the Constitutional
Union partyqv candidate, John Bell, a
strong minority vote in the 1860 election.
Two companies of county men were organized
to fight in the Civil War,qv but they
saw only limited action; only nineteen
Angelina County men lost their lives
in the war, and no Union soldiers entered
the county before 1866. Before the war,
a principal source of wealth in Angelina
County was the raising of livestock,
since most of the early settlers were
not slaveholding planters able to concentrate
on agriculture. After the war, livestock
was largely supplanted by the lumber
industry,qv and therefore the numbers
of cattle did not increase proportionately
with the population. Residents declined
by 1870 to 3,985, but in 1880 they numbered
5,239. In 1890 the population was 6,306;
in 1900, 13,481; and in 1910, 17,705,
2,435 of whom were black. Economically
Angelina County improved greatly in the
1880s because of the arrival of the railroads.
Exploitation of the county's pine and
hardwood timber became possible, and
lumber began quickly to return a bonanza.
The construction in 1882 of the Houston,
East and West Texas Railway was followed
in a few years by the Kansas and Gulf
Short Line, which later became the Cotton
Belt. Other railroads of the county included
the St. Louis and Southwestern, the Texas
Southeastern, the Shreveport, Houston
and Gulf, the Groveton, Lufkin and Northern,
and the Texas and New Orleans, as well
as many small tram lines for lumbering.
Lufkin is the hub at which most of these
rail lines met.
The
Great Depressionqv hit Angelina County
quite hard. By 1933 more than 2,500 residents
were on relief rolls-about 10 percent
of the county population. This was mainly
because the timber industry in Texas
was particularly vulnerable to the depression.
The boom in housing and other businesses
that depended on lumber ceased abruptly
with the failure of banks and lending
institutions and with unemployment. Many
Angelina County lumber companies were
forced to close or to decrease their
activities sharply. County inhabitants
turned back to small farming and stock
raising to feed themselves; the 1935
census numbered more than 18,000 cattle
and 17,000 hogs. The Civilian Conservation
Corpsqv for East Texas was headquartered
in Lufkin during the depression. It served
twenty-six counties and seventeen camps
in efforts to bring about financial recovery.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29