Tarrant County TXGenWeb

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This is a GENEALOGY and HISTORY website.

Introduction:

Welcome! This website focuses on genealogy and history pertaining to Tarrant County, Texas and is part of the TXGenWeb Project. Your County Coordinators are Barbara Knox and Rob Yoder. We hope you enjoy your visit. Check back often to see what has been added or updated.

This website is continually growing as we upload new pages, but we still need your help! Contact us if you would like to contribute Tarrant County material or if you would consider becoming a volunteer to perform look-ups from publications in your possession.

Pioneer Families of Tarrant County

A project of the Fort Worth Genealogical Society

Imagine what life must have been like in the early days of Tarrant County. First, Bird's Fort, then Fort Worth was established bringing the soldiers who would protect the early settlers from natives. The winters were bitter and discouraging. The spring rains would bring huge hail stones that destroyed crops in the fields. Afterwards, the Texas heat would bake the farmers fields dry until wide cracks would open at their feet. Then came the great cattle drives that would raise huge clouds of dust as they made their way north along what would become known as the Chisholm Trail. It was our ancestors who were the pioneers that endured these hardships and who would come to build the communities of Tarrant County out of land, cattle, oil and rail.

If you descend from one of the Pioneer Families of Tarrant County, you certainly would want your family's rich heritage recorded, preserved and celebrated. Eligibility is open to anyone who can prove direct decent from an early Tarrant County family who resided here in or before 1870.

Visit the FWGS website and click on the Pioneer Families icon for more information.

History:

Tarrant County, located squarely in the middle of North Central Texas, was carved out of Navarro County in 1849. In August 1841 General Edward H. Tarrant ordered a military outpost built near Village Creek. The post, named Fort Bird after Captain Jonathan Bird, was abandoned in less than a year. In 1845 the area was beginning to be settled by the Peter's Colony. In 1849 Major Ripley Arnold selected the site at the confluence of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River for a new military outpost which he named Fort Worth in honor of General William Jenkins Worth, who had won fame in the Mexican War. Birdville was the first county seat, but an election (reportedly rigged) moved it to Fort Worth in 1856.

Enter Website:

Tarrant County TXGenWeb's TABLE OF CONTENTS on Page 2 - Links to vital records, newspaper abstracts, obituaries, biographies, census data, cemeteries and etc. that have been posted on this website, plus links to other websites containing Tarrant County and/or Texas genealogical or historical information.

Guestbook:

Please sign our guestbook before you leave.

Our Neighbors:

Tarrant County is situated in the middle of North Central Texas surrounded by Denton, Dallas, Ellis, Johnson, Hood, Parker and Wise Counties. To visit one of Tarrant's neighbors, click on the desired county on the map above.

To visit any other county in the TXGenWeb Project, go to the County Selection List or choose the Clickable County Map.

Copyright:

All pages on this website are under the copyright of Tarrant County TXGenWeb, co-authored by Barbara Knox and Rob Yoder. Contributors submitting material for publication retain the copyright to their work while the html page itself is protected under the website's copyright. No material may be copied, printed or republished in any form (including the Internet) without express written permission from the copyright holder.

We also respect the copyrights of others. No material will be used on this website nor its associated forums without first obtaining written permission to republish from the copyright holder or it has been established that the material is in the public domain. If you suspect that someone has submitted material which you own, please contact the county coordinator.

This site is but one of 254 county websites that comprise The TXGenWeb Project. TXGenWeb in turn is a part of The USGenWeb Project and WorldGenWeb. Questions or comments concerning the TXGenWeb Project should be directed to Shirley Cullum, TXGenWeb State Coordinator. Visit the above websites to locate partner websites representing other counties, states and countries, but keep this site bookmarked so that you can always find your way home to Tarrant County.

From time to time, TXGenWeb websites come up for adoption when county coordinators retire or otherwise leave their posts. If you are interested in adopting a Texas county, please visit the Orphan County Webpage.

It is the policy of the TXGenWeb to protect the rights of privacy of living individuals. We do not publish nor distribute information that would conflict with this policy on this website nor the associated message forum and mailing list. We ask that you also honor this policy and refrain from posting messages that do not respect privacy rights.

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For recent additions to this website, please visit What's New? on Page 3.

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