Criminal Records
Criminal Records
Dockets 1894 – 1997 278 vol.
Criminal Case files are with the District Clerk
Genealogy Resources
The Harris County Archives maintains many records that can be useful to family history researchers. This includes many types of records that are not traditionally considered genealogical in nature, but which can provide information about the lives of your ancestors in Harris County. If your ancestor may have interacted with Harris County government, there may be a record of that connection in the Archives.
City Directories
The city directories provide a street address index (resident/business index only prior to 1908) for properties in Houston, and in some cases, the surrounding areas. Most city directories have a business section classified by occupation, grocers, physicians, etc. In addition to cross-referencing addresses with the name of an individual or business, city directories can also sometimes tell you things like a person’s occupation, their race, spouse’s name, and whether a house was owned or rented.
County court records may name ancestors as jurors, witnesses, victims, even defendants or plaintiffs in civil and criminal cases. The Harris County Archives has a selection of Justice of the Peace court records and District Attorney Records.
Criminal Dockets
The Criminal Dockets primarily record traffic infractions after 1950. Prior to that date, the Justice of the Peace courts were often the first courts for felony offenses which were then referred to the District Courts. Of particular interest are the criminal docket books from oil boom towns in the early 20th century as law enforcement attempted to grapple with rapid population expansion, tent cities, and a “Wild West” atmosphere. The Criminal Dockets created after 1973 are sampled.
Record of Inquest Proceedings
When a death by violence occurs in the absence of credible witnesses, or without an attending physician, or while in jail, an inquest is held by the Justice of the Peace, who is ex-officio coroner. As coroners, Justices of the Peace conducted inquests to deaths occurring in specific circumstances as defined by the Constitution- accidents, homicides, suicides, and undetermined causes of death. Oftentimes these records include extensive, signed witness statements describing the context of the death and can become windows onto their times. Of interest are handwritten notes concerning the lynching of Bert Smith at Goose Creek in 1917.
District Attorney Records
Every felony case that goes to trial or pleads must be indicted by a grand jury unless the defendant chooses to waive indictment and proceed per the Texas Constitution. The most common role of the grand jury is to listen to the facts of a case and determine if probable cause exists for the charges alleged against the defendant. The grand jury is also an investigative body. It can assist the district attorney’s office in uncovering evidence to support charging a particular defendant with a crime, or it can choose to independently investigate matters brought to its attention.
A true bill, or a bill of indictment handed down by a Grand Jury, states there is sufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of the defendant. A no-bill is used by the Grand Jury to notify the prosecutor they do not have enough evidence to hand down an indictment, which would allow the prosecutor to proceed to trial.
Tax records for both personal property and land are among the least-utilized and most valuable genealogical records. The Assessor and Collector of Taxes collection (CR001) contains records like Building and Land Assessments, Assessor Abstracts, Block Books, and tax rolls.
Building and Land Assessments, ca. 1930-1980
These records provide information about a property for tax valuation purposes. These are essentially field notes on individual properties taken by assessors with the Harris County Tax Assessor's Office. These often contain sketches of a building’s footprint, notes about add-ons and changes to a structure, and sometimes include photos.
Assessor Abstracts, 1895 - 1914
Assessor Abstracts record ownership and valuation of property in Harris County showing the name of subdivision/survey, block number, lot number, owner name, year, and valuation. Arranged numerically by block number.
Block Books, 1915 - 1997
Beginning in 1915 the Block Books were developed by the Harris County Tax Assessor in 1915 as a more efficient method to track property owners. Today these records can be used to track owners of properties in past years. Property is indexed by volume and page number.
Tax Rolls and Inventories, 1858 - 1983
These are the Tax Assessor’s assessments of real property located in Harris County owned and rendered for taxation by owner or agent thereof, showing name and address of owner, the legal description of the property, designated homestead, the amounts of city, personal, county, state and school taxes owed, the dates of payment, and a receipt number.
Harris County Juvenile Probation
As Harris County's de facto social welfare agency during the first half of the twentieth century, the Probation Department (later Juvenile Probation) had jurisdiction over all children engaged in delinquent acts, dependent and neglected children, adoption investigations, custody disputes, investigations of insanity (both adult and juvenile), and intake for epilepsy and tubercular state institutions. The department also administered support funds for old-age and mothers’ pensions.
After World War II as caseloads mounted and thinking about institutionalization changed, separate departments were created to administer programs once handled by the Probation Department.
These records detail the experiences of families and individuals, employees, charitable resources, children’s home workers and foster care parents within the Harris County Juvenile Probation system. The adoption case files may include correspondence, photographs, family and case histories, medical records, crime reports, confessions and witness statements, and home and caseworker investigations. Some of these records are restricted for privacy. An application must be submitted for consideration for access.
Social Services
WPA Applications, Client Case Files, Burial Records, and the Harris County Cemetery Records (1924 – 1990) document the functions of the social welfare agencies prior to and after the creation of the Harris County Social Services Department.
WPA Applications including certificates of eligibility, case worker notes, and correspondence document the lives of men, women, and families affected by the Great Depression in Harris County, Texas, 1936 – 1941.
Case files contain information on Social Services clients, State Hospital commitments, and procedures clients must follow in order to receive assistance.
Burial Records (1985 – 1988) document the work of the Department of Social Services with regard to indigent burials.
Cemetery logs, plat maps, maps, and correspondence document the history of the Harris County Cemetery and record the burials of Harris County indigents from 1924 to 1983.
The voting records at the Harris County Archives include poll tax receipts and exemptions. A poll tax is essentially a voting fee. The idea of a poll tax originated in the Republic of Texas as a tax levied against all white males between the ages of 21 and 55. As time went on, this evolved into a legal way to discourage African Americans from voting. Some whites were excused from payment, but there were no exemptions for African Americans.
Also included in the collection are poll lists/voter registration lists: 1916 - 1998.
1936 Poll Tax Receipt
Poll List, 1916 General Election, Harris County Precinct 11
Contains correspondence, printed materials, financial records, legal records and Veterans Organization records that document the activities of the Harris County Veterans Service Office 1946 – 1991.
Case files contain correspondence, military records, supporting documentation, and office forms, 1972-2001.
Newspapers
Print newspapers can be used for genealogical research. The Harris County Archives has print copies of the Houston Post (1880-1995), the short-lived Houston Evening Post (1922-1924), and various other community newspapers for smaller cities and suburban areas such as Kingwood, Spring, Tomball, and Southeast Harris County.
During the Republic of Texas period, until the Constitution of 1869, the office of coroner functioned primarily to identify homicides. In 1955 the Texas Legislature passed the Baker Bill, which allowed counties with a population greater than 250,000 to establish an Office of Medical Examiner to assume those duties previously conducted by the Justices of the Peace. Harris County was one of the first Texas counties to opt for this system which mandates the Medical Examiner to determine the cause and manner of death in all cases of accident, homicide, suicide, and undetermined death.
This collection contains over 1000 cubic feet of autopsy case files, reports, log books, newspaper clippings, medical articles, correspondence, memorandums, printed materials, photographs, and autopsies that document the functions of the Office of Medical Examiner (1954 – 2013).
