Learning the RC: Texas History and Census Searching

Of all the Texas history bibliographies, the most straight forward is the Texas Bibliography: a Manual on History Research Materials edited by Cruz and Irby (016.9764 CRU 1983). This is a wonderful place to get started on research when there is perhaps no pre-existing knowledge on the researcher's part. It is divided into 20 chapters and the first is itself a list of other Texas history bibliographies (or a list of lists). The other chapters are organized around historical periods, types of materials, and subjects of interest, such as "folklore of Texas," racial and ethnic groups, art and children's literature. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction and then jumps straight into the lists. Truly a handy guide. I would buy it for my home collection.

Published in 1965, the Cracker Barrel Chronicles: a Bibliography of Texas Town and County Histories by Jenkins (016.9176 JEN) is a five thousand and forty entry list of the books and other materials written on Texas history, divided into the 254 counties of Texas and sorted in alphabetical order by author (or title where there is no attributed author). If you know the town, but not the county, Appendix II will direct you. If you know the title, but need other to locate its entry in the bib list, Appendix III provides page numbers (though perhaps entry numbers would have been better. Finally an author index is included to locate all works by one author.

For genealogy researchers, there are other resources than the US Census (presumably the Ancestry: Library Edition also indexes many of the resources listed in this book, but you know, in case we lose that resource or the computer dies...) to learn names, vital statistics, residence, etc. The Census Substitutes & State Census Records by Dollarhide (016.9293 DOL v. 1 & 2, 2008) compiles a list by state of those extra records. Some entries begin from before the state was a state, with territory listings and records from other countries. Websites are listed as available.

Need to do some Texas history research? Want to know about women in Texas history? A Guide to the History of Texas edited by Cummins and Bailey Jr., published by the Greenwood Press (016.9764 GUI) and part of the Reference Guides to State History and Research series may be just the thing. The book is divided into two parts: the first in chapters around broad subjects of Texas history, the second describes the collections of historic archives. Rather than lists, the individual chapters are written in narrative style, so it may be tedious to locate a specific title and the citation information, but there is a subject and author index in the back for cross referencing. Appendix I is a chronology of TX history from 1519 to 1987.

We have in the collection a booklet titled Imprints on Texas History: 1975-1976: An Annotated Bibliography of General Land Office Publications (1836-1975) (016.9764 NEW). I think the title pretty much sums it up. What is significant about it is that it is handy to remember that government offices can also have lots of primary and secondary resources that they have generated and while we don't have an updated list in the collection, it is worth it to contact the local offices for their research.