AUSTIN — The Texas General Land Office (GLO) is proud to announce the donation of $5,000 from the Texas State Genealogical Society to the Save Texas History Program. The funds will be used for the continued conservation of important Republic of Texas records in the Texas General Land Office Archives. With this most recent donation, the Texas State Genealogical Society has contributed a total of $50,000 to the Texas General Land Office’s conservation efforts since 2009.

“The Texas State Genealogical Society has been a great partner with the Texas General Land Office when it comes to conserving early records of our ancestors,” said Commissioner George P. Bush. “It is because of the help of the Texas State Genealogical Society, and other groups like them, that the Save Texas History program has been a success. I hope that other non-profits, individuals, foundations, and the private sector will be inspired to make their own donations to the Save Texas History program so that the General Land Office can continue to conserve historic documents for future generations."

The Texas State Genealogical Society is working to adopt the entirety of the Clerk Returns Collection of the Texas General Land Office, comprised of fifty boxes of documents. Clerk Returns were created by clerks for the local county board of land commissioners during the 19^th century to record information associated with the issuance of a land certificate. A copy of each return was then sent to the GLO and was used to confirm the legal issuance of the land certificate and to check for fraud. Today, the collection is primarily used by genealogists. Clerk Returns contain the name of every person to whom a certificate was given, the amount of land granted to each person, the time of their emigration to the country, and the name(s) of the witness(es) who endorsed the claimants.

“The Texas State Genealogical Society is pleased to continue our ongoing support of this project that preserves and provides access to these important and unique records not previously available to family historians. This donation raises our total commitment to this project to $50,000,” said John Wylie, Texas State Genealogical Society President.

About the Texas State Genealogical Society

The TSGS is organized and operated as a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation. The mission of TSGS is to research, record, accumulate, reproduce, distribute, and circulate genealogical and historical material; assist in making such material available to those who are, or may be encouraged to be, in family and Texas history; perpetuate the memory of Texans and their ancestors; stress the importance of accuracy through the careful documentation of research; make donations by acquisition or memorial to research collections which are open to the public; disseminate knowledge by sponsoring conferences, workshops, and seminars; publish useful to research for genealogists; and, sponsor awards for writing and honors recognizing the efforts of individuals and organizations. http://www.txsgs.org/

About Save Texas History

Created in 2004, the Save Texas History program is a statewide initiative to rally public support and private funding for the preservation and promotion of the historic maps and documents housed in the GLO Archives, and serves as a resource for teaching and digitizing Texas history. If you would like to donate to the Save Texas History program to adopt a document or collection, assist with archival acquisitions, develop educational programs, or support digital projects, please visit www.savetexashistory.org.  Follow Save Texas History on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SaveTXHistory and Twitter at https://twitter.com/SaveTxHistory.

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