Follow the Boundaries
Texas Genealogy Maps
Place Matters
Find the Texas Your Ancestor Knew
County lines, communities, roads, land grants, and political boundaries changed dramatically as Texas developed. Historical maps can help determine which county held the records at the time your ancestor lived there.
TXGenWeb Historical Maps
Maps preserved on TXGenWeb for understanding early Texas and changing county boundaries.
- * 1835 Map of Spanish TexasAn early map reproduced from Early Laws of Texas, 1731–1876.
- * Texas County Formation Maps, 1836–1930Follow Texas county boundaries at ten-year intervals from the Republic era through 1930.
Find a TXGenWeb County
Use these maps when you know approximately where an ancestor lived but need to identify the modern county or county website.
- * Regional County Identification MapsChoose a region of Texas and narrow the location to individual counties.
- * Interactive County Selection MapSelect a Texas county visually and continue to its TXGenWeb county site.
- * County DirectoryPrefer names to maps? Browse all Texas counties alphabetically.
Historic Texas Map Collections
Large outside collections are especially useful when you need a map from a specific year, county, town, survey, or historical period.
- Texas State Archives Map Collection ExternalSearch maps from the early seventeenth through the late twentieth centuries by subject, title, cartographer, year, and more.
- Texas General Land Office Map & Archival Collections ExternalHistorical Texas maps, county maps, land-grant maps, surveys, and other records from Spanish rule to the present.
- GLO Historic County Maps at the Portal to Texas History ExternalDigitized historic county maps that can reveal towns, surveys, roads, and changing landscapes.
County Formation & Boundary Tools
These outside tools provide additional ways to visualize how Texas counties changed over time.
- Map of US: Texas County Formation Maps ExternalAnimated and historical county-boundary maps covering Texas history.
- Texas GLO GIS Maps & Data ExternalModern interactive mapping tools and authoritative geographic datasets from the Texas General Land Office.
Why County Formation Matters in Genealogy
Your ancestor may have lived in the same house for decades while the county name changed around them. When a record seems to disappear, check the county boundaries for the year of the event and then search the courthouse or repository responsible for that place at that time.
Defunct & Historical Counties Return to Research