Project Improves Access to the Robert Bruce Blake Collection

Access to an important historical and genealogical source at the DRT Library is being greatly improved through the efforts of volunteer Dr. Rita Foudray. Since April 2007, she has been working on creating an index of names mentioned in each of the the ninety-one volumes – each approximately 400 pages in length – that comprise the Robert Bruce Blake Collection. So far, Dr. Foudray has finished indexing the first twenty-four volumes. Because the index includes every name mentioned in the volumes, it is an invaluable source for researchers, especially genealogists seeking to trace their family in early Texas.

Dr. Rita Foudray, DRT Library volunteer, received her doctorate in Information Science at the University of North Texas. She last worked at Palo Alto College and before that was employed at Arthur Andersen and the Dallas Public Library.

The ninety-one volumes of the collection are the product of historian Robert Bruce Blake’s thirty-year effort to compile, translate, and transcribe documents he selected from the massive Nacogdoches Archives and Bexar Archives and some family collections. These materials document the history of Spanish and Mexican Texas, an area bordered by Nacogdoches on the east and San Antonio on the west. Spanning the period 1744 to 1837, the documents include a variety of materials such as letters, financial records, censuses, muster rolls, family papers, and proclamations. Also included are legal papers such as jury verdicts, subpoenas, petitions, affidavits, summonses, bills of slave sales, orders, records of civil and criminal proceedings, bonds, minutes, and writs. Blake’s volumes, containing his transcriptions of these records, are what fellow historian Charles A. Bacarisse called “the bedrock for a history of East Texas.”

The complete collections of the Nacogdoches and Bexar Archives, from which the Blake collection was derived, and guides to these materials are also available to researchers. The Nacogdoches Archives is currently held by the Texas State Archives in Austin, which provides access to microfilm copies of the records and an online guide to the collection. The original records comprising the Bexar Archives are now located in one of two places. Most of the collection is housed at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, where it has been since 1899. The university also maintains a calendar listing, if known, the place of origin, author, recipient, and content of many manuscripts in the Bexar Archives. At the time the materials were transferred to the university, Bexar County retained legal records – including deeds, marriage records, deeds and estates, and Spanish mission records – thought to be of continued importance to the local government; these documents remain in San Antonio. Several resources that describe the history of and provide access to the Bexar Archives are available at the DRT Library, including:

• an online finding aid (or inventory) for the collection at UT.

• a microfilm version of the UT collection, comprised of 172 reels, together with the Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Bexar Archives, 1717-1836 by Chester V. Kielman.

• a microfilm copy of documents translated from the UT collection, comprised of 26 reels, together with the Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Bexar Archives Tranlations by Paul L. Kesaris

• The Bexar Archives (1717-1836): A Name Guide compiled and edited by Adán Benavides, Jr., which contains many, but by no means all, names from many documents in the collection.

• Carlos Eduardo Castañeda’s A Report on the Spanish Archives in San Antonio, Texas, which inventories those records in the Bexar Archives that have remained in San Antonio, specifically in the Bexar County Clerk’s Office.

To access the index to the Blake collection or the other materials mentioned above, please contact or visit the library.

Texas Genealogical Sources

Many patrons visit the DRT Library seeking genealogical information. Whether you are just beginning to explore your family tree or you are an experienced researcher needing additional information on a particular ancestor, we have many sources about Texas history and families that can assist you in your research. A description of a selection of these materials is included below.

Muster Rolls: Muster rolls are lists of names in a military unit. The library has these lists for the Texas Revolution, the American Revolution, and specific military units. The lists show the date the individual enlisted and his rank. Also, sometimes the lists state how long the individual was enlisted and include remarks such as why someone was discharged or what unit they were transferred to.

U.S. Census: The library has access to an online database of U.S. Census records for the years 1790­ through 1930, although this source does not include data for 1830, 1840, and 1850. The library also has a print version of the U.S. Census taken in Texas in 1850. The information included in the census varies depending on the year it was taken, but most provide the name of the head of household, as well as the name of a wife, if applicable. Some also include children’s names or at least the number of children in a household. Respondents’ places of birth and occupations as well as parents’ places of birth are also sometimes listed.

Land Grants: These documents list men who were given land in return for military service. They include the amount of time served, the amount of land given, and the location of the land. If the man died during service, the records say that his heirs received the land, although the heirs are not listed. The library’s most frequently used book of land grants contains Texas grants from 1835 to 1888.

Tax Rolls: These records contain the names of heads of households by county, the amount of land that they own, and any additional property that they might own (e.g. cattle, carriages, slaves, and other land). The library has Texas tax rolls from 1840 as well as tax rolls for specific counties in other years.

Founders and Patriots of the Republic of Texas: This source lists the names of Daughters of the Republic of Texas as well as their ancestral lineage that they used to gain entry into the organization. Each volume also has an ancestor index. Not all members are listed, as some choose to not be published. This is a great source for finding ancestors if you know that a relative joined the DRT.

Review of the Family History Seminar, “Bursting Through Brick Walls”

From left to right, Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director; Connie Impelman, Library Committee Chairman; and Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck.

This past Saturday, the DRT Library held its eighth annual Family History Seminar. This year’s speaker was Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck, an award-winning and well-respected librarian, author, lecturer, and genealogist. Mr. Bockstruck has been a librarian at the Dallas Public Library since 1973 and currently serves as the supervisor of its genealogy department. He has also been a faculty member at the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, since 1974.

Mr. Bockstruck began the seminar by establishing a general framework or approach to genealogical research. He posed four questions to which both novice and experienced genealogists should return as they investigate their family’s history:

• What do I want to find out or prove/document?
• What kind of record would contain that information?
• Where is that record located today?
• How do I access those records?

These questions hint at one of the ideas underlying Mr. Bockstruck’s talk, namely the need for genealogists to think about the connection between an event in the past and how that event is represented in recorded history. He urged seminar participants to use record-generating events in their ancestors’ lives to guide their investigations. While typically family history researchers focus on an ancestor’s birth, marriage, and death, other events such as buying or selling land, attending school, serving in the military, and being involved in court disputes also generate records that contain information about an ancestor’s life.

Mr. Bockstruck answers a question during one of his presentations.

The title of this year’s symposium was “Bursting Through Brick Walls,” and Mr. Bockstruck’s four presentations focused on illegitimacy; substitutes for birth and death records; pitfalls commonly encountered by genealogists; and onomatology, or the study of names. Individually and collectively, these talks offered guidance to participants on how to solve problems that might derail further genealogical investigation or prevent continued progress.

Mr. Bockstruck described many types of archival records that may contain information of importance to family history researchers. These include records of schools and universities, churches, and courts as well as newspapers, wills and probate documents, letters, and diaries. Records of federal, state, and local governments also contain a wealth of information for genealogists, who can utilize, for example, records pertaining to adoption, military service, voting, land transactions, coroners’ investigations, and each branch of government.

Seminar participants await the beginning of Mr. Bockstruck's presentation.

Once a genealogist has located and accessed a record, he or she then faces the challenge of interpreting its content. To successfully accomplish this, Mr. Bockstruck argued, a genealogist needs to become familiar with the time and place in which his or her ancestor lived, i.e. the historical context in which the original records were created. Specifically, Mr. Bockstruck emphasized how interpreting legal circumstances and word usage in older documents from a twenty-first-century perspective can result in a genealogist drawing incorrect conclusions from a record and spending a significant amount of time pursuing irrelevant lines of inquiry. Thus, Mr. Bockstruck urged participants to familiarize themselves with the customs that were known to and practiced by people living in the past.

Many thanks to Mr. Bockstruck for providing such thought-provoking information and to the participants who attended this year’s Family History Seminar.