The Texas General Land Office Archives Surname Index contains alphabetical listings of grantees and patentees that were issued land grants by the Republic and State of Texas. The index also lists grantees for Spanish and Mexican land grants filed in our Spanish Collection (SC).

IMPORTANT: Be aware that there may be spelling variations for the name you are searching for, and to look for these different spellings.

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A     B     C     D     E     F     G     H     I     J     K     L     M     N     O     P     Q     R     S     T     U     V     W     X     Y     Z

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Using the Surname Index

G = Grantee and P = Patentee.

The Stellent # is for internal use only and should be ignored. 

Under GLOFILENAME, the first part of the GLO file number in the surname index is the abbreviation of the land district: Spa (San Patricio) or Nac (Nacogdoches).  The state of Texas is divided into 38 land districts for the purpose of filing land grants in the GLO.  The land district is not the present-day county where the land is located.  Present-day county may be determined by searching the Land Grant Database.

The number or letter following the land district is the class of the land grant.  The class of a grant can tell you a little bit about what type of grant it is and the circumstances under which it was issued.  There are numerous exceptions to the general rule of filing by class. For example, some Preemption grants are filed in the GLO under 3rd class. The documents in the file determine the correct class or type of land grant. 

Each file, no matter what its district or class, is assigned a file number. This number, in combination with the district and class, completes the records full file number. A typical GLO original land grant file number will appear as follows: Har 1 – 000131 (Harris land district, 1st class grant, file number 131 or Sab P –000015 (Sabine land district, Preemption grant, file number 15).
Many listings in the index will not have a district or class. These are typically grants that were sold as lands to benefit education institutions, state hospitals, the Permanent School Fund, or lands that have been sold off under the auspices of the 1900 Scrap Act.  Some typical examples are School (SCH 023766) Scrap File (SF 00211) or University & Asylum Lands (UAL 000155).

The index also lists records from the Archives Special Collection that includes supporting documentation for these land grants. Files from the Archives Special Collection will have a prefix consisting of letters that denote the collection.  Special Collection records are indexed in the surname index with the following prefixes:

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