Denton County was created in 1846 and formed from Fannin County. Denton County was named for John Bunyan Denton, a preacher, lawyer, and soldier killed during a raid on a Native American camp. The County Seat is Denton. The Official County website is located at http://dentoncounty.com. See also Extended History for more historical details.
The Denton County courthouse was built in 1896 in grand Second Empire Style. W.C. Dodson was the architect of this stone and pink granite courthouse, and Tom Lovell contracted it.
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.
Denton County Clerk has Court Records from 1877, Land Records from 1854, Probate Records from 1876 , Marriage Records from 1875 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at P.O.
Box 2187,
Denton, TX 76202-2187; Telephone:
(940) 565-8501 . 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 Denton County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton 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 Denton 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 Denton County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Maps. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Denton 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 Denton County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Denton 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.
Anglo settlement began after William S. Peters, of Louisville, Kentucky, and several others, obtained a land grant from the Texas Congress in 1841. The land settled by their company, the Texian Land and Immigration Company, became known as the Peters colony. Their grant included all of the future Denton County, as well as parts or all of several other future counties. The earliest settlement in what became Denton County was in the southeastern section, near the site of present Hebron, and most of the early residents took up land in the Cross Timbers.
Although a few came from the lower South, most antebellum settlers in the area came from the upper South. In 1850, 40 percent gave Tennessee and Kentucky as their state of birth. Immigration from the upper South predominated because of the Kentucky-based Peters Company. The county was also limited to subsistence agriculture due to a lack of water transportation. Consequently, there were only 106 slaves in the county in 1850; in 1860, eighty-seven slaveholders owned 251 slaves.
In the 1840s Denton County was the site of the Icarian colony, a French utopian settlement north of the site of present Justin. The Icarians gave up and left after a few months of sickness and disappointment and made virtually no lasting mark on the county. The same cannot be said of the German community of Blue Mound, on the prairie a few miles northwest of Denton. Descendants of many of the German families that began settling there in the 1870s were still among the residents of the community a century later. Most were from Saxony, via Illinois or Missouri.
In 1846, the Texas legislature formed Denton County out of what had been a much larger Fannin County. It was named for John Bunyan Denton, an eastern Fannin County Methodist preacher and lawyer, who was killed in a raid against Indians in northern Tarrant County on May 22, 1841. A county seat, named Pinckneyville, was located near the center of the county, at a spot about a mile southeast of the present center of Denton. Although county officials were elected in 1846, no courthouse was built, and less than two years later a site named Alton, three or four miles to the southeast, was made county seat. Because water was not readily available, in 1850 the legislature allowed Alton to be moved about two miles south to Alexander Cannon's homestead near Hickory Creek. A log courthouse, the first in the county, was built there. Alton soon had stores, residences, and a hotel and was a regular stage stop. In the summer of 1856, however, county residents voted to establish a new county seat near the center of the county on a 100-acre tract donated by Hiram Cisco, William Loving, and William Woodruff. The new town, named Denton, was established the next year, but was not incorporated as a city until 1866.
Denton County grew slowly until after the Civil War. In 1860 it had 4,780 residents, slightly more than 10,000 acres of improved land, and a few more than 20,000 cattle, 6,000 of which belonged to John S. Chisum, who began ranching in the northwestern part of the county in 1854. Almost all residents were still engaged in subsistence agriculture. Cotton ginned that year totaled only two bales. Growth was rapid, however, in the decade of the 1870s, when the population grew from 7,251 to 18,143. Many new residents began farms, and in 1880 almost 50 percent of the county was in cultivation.
Railroads entered the county in the 1880s and had a great economic and demographic effect. Production of such subsistence crops as corn and vegetables declined, acreage in cotton and wheat increased rapidly, and the number of cattle grazing the prairies shrank substantially. Cotton acreage, 29,785 acres in 1880, peaked at 115,078 in 1920, but declined to insignificance in the 1980s. The Grand Prairie of Denton County was ideal for wheat culture, and between 1880 and 1900, wheat acreage increased by more than 80,000 acres. From 1890 to 1920 the county ranked either first or second in wheat production among the counties of the state, behind Collin County. Krum, a village near Denton, was reputed in 1900 to be the largest inland wheat market in the United States. Between 1880 and 1920 the number of beef cattle declined from 49,008 to 12,123, and 89 percent of county land was in cultivation at the latter date. Railroads also determined town location up to the 1970s, when only one town of any size was not on one of the railroad lines built in the 1880s.
Although Denton County's railroads made the county a significant agricultural producer, they did not make it an important commercial or manufacturing center. Consequently, population expansion in the twentieth century, slow in response to agriculture after 1900, depended to a great extent on other forms of transportation and on higher education. The county's population growth and its economic and cultural life were much influenced by the location in Denton of two large state-supported universities. The University of North Texas, established as Texas Normal College in 1890, had an enrollment of more than 20,000 in 1993. At the same time, Texas Woman's University, which originated in 1903 as Girls' Industrial College, had an enrollment of about 5,000 at the Denton campus.
Rubber-tired transportation and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the location of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, played a large part in the growth of Denton County after 1940. During World War II the county began to serve noticeably as a bedroom area for Dallas-Fort Worth. Completion of Interstate Highway 35 in the 1950s increased commuting, and in the 1980s Interstate highways 35E and 35W forked in Denton. All of the towns and cities of the county had a significant commuter element, but the southeastern portion, growing most rapidly, was virtually an extension of Dallas-Fort Worth. Lewisville, The Colony, and the part of Carrollton in Denton County were all population centers because they were suburbs of Dallas. The population of Denton had also grown because of the city's proximity to Dallas and because of the growth of the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University.
The county population grew from 47,432 in 1960 to 143,126 in 1980. Many new rural residents owned small spreads, and mobile homes vied with expensive, sprawling ranchhouses for space. Large horse ranches were scattered through the county; in 1983 horses brought in $17,207,400, a significantly larger income than that from any other agricultural product (see HORSE AND MULE INDUSTRY). Newcomers and many older residents returned much of Denton County's rich cropland to pasture, and by the 1980s rural areas, almost depopulated by the rural-to-urban shift after World War II, had probably returned to their 1920s level in density of population.
Denton County voters supported Democratic candidates through 1948 with the exception of Herbert Hoover in 1928. From 1952 through 1992 they shifted their allegiance to the Republican party, again with only a single exception, Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968. In 1990 the population of Denton County was 273,525. The largest towns were Denton (66,270) and Lewisville (45,966 in Denton County). Attractions included Lewisville and Grapevine lakes, the annual Jazzfest held in September, and the North Texas State Fair in August.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29