Find a Family History Center
Grayson County Records on microfilm through Interlibrary loan
Family History Library Catalog

Birth Records
• Birth Records start in Texas in 1903; however many counties did not keep them until a little later. The majority of the birth records in Grayson County start in 1909. The state vitals office receives these and you can get them from that office also.
• Contact in writing the Grayson County Clerk for official document copies or the State Health Department.

Denison keeps its own records for birth and death, which date back to the 1880s. These will have to be obtained from the Denison office.

Denison City Hall
 500 W Chestnut St., Denison, TX 75020
 Phone: (903)465-2720



• Online Sources


• Texas Birth Certificates 1903 - 1935
• Texas Birth Index  1903- 1907
• Texas Births and Christenings 1940 - 1981 
  

 

The Texas State Library  birth ~ death ~ probate birth Index

• Check the Social Security Death Index; this index provides birth and death dates online for free.  A copy of the original Social Securitay Application will note the birth & death dates, as well as location of birth, parents' names & their birth places.
  

Not everyone is in the SSDI, many women did not have SS cards as they were stay at home moms and railroad workers did not get SS death benefits. In order to be in this index at all, someone must have made out a form to claim the SS death benefit.

Texas Delayed or Probate Birth Certificates

Probate or Delayed birth records are available from the State Vitals office.
The majority of the people who received delayed birth certificates are males who signed into the Social Security in the mid 1930s and the workers who needed a certificate to work for the government during WWII. The majority of these were born from late 1870s through 1910.
People born in other states, who moved here as adults often applied to the State of Texas for a certificate; therefore, it contains birth data here that is not filed in the state of birth of the individual.

The State Library will do a free lookup in their probate birth Index.
The lookup will tell you what county has the certificate, what date of the birth and the name and number of the certificate. Write the county for a copy or the State Vitals office.


Birth dates can be found in other records :
School Records
newspaper articles & obituaries
Church Session or Record books
Tombstones
Census records
Jjob records
Draft board records
WWI registration records
Biographical materials

---


Death Records


• Texas Death certificates are online for 1903-1976 (Grayson seems to be well started in 1909 with a few earlier ones
• Texas Deaths  1890 - 1976 (Index and images)
• Texas Deaths 1890 - 1976 (different set of records than the one above)
• Texas Deaths and Burials 1903 - 1973
• Texas Deaths 1977-1986
• Texas Death Index 1964 - 1988 (no images)
• Check cemetery listings - Grayson County
• Check the Social Security Death Index, this will give birth dates and death dates.

Death records were officially recorded in Texas as of 1903; however, it was not mandatory until WWII.
The  city of Denison kept earlier records than the state, but they are only for people living inside the Denison city limits.

Denison City Hall
 500 W Chestnut St., Denison, TX 75020
 Phone: (903)465-2720
This applies only to people living inside the city limits, not just the post office addressing.
 
• The County Clerk's office will have all other county death certificates. 
• Wills and Probates are in the County Clerk's office and often mention the death dates.



---


Also deaths were collected for the four Mortality Schedules kept from 1840 through 1880 for all states.

Grayson County Mortality Schedules

1850 Mortality Census 

1860 Mortality Census

1870 Mortality Census

1880 Mortality Census

---

Grayson County Marriage Records Grayson County marrage records are complete and were recorded as early as 1845. Some earlier marriages are found in the Fannin County, Texas records and in the State archives Republic of Texas records.
Marriage records are kept in the County Clerks office. 
Throughout all of Grayson County history many people went to Bryan Co., Oklahoma, just north of the border.
In the early days of the Choctaw Nation ~ Indian Territory ~ Oklahoma, ministers sought employment in the Indian Academys and in missions.
Here in Grayson county the preachers were mostly circuit riders and church buildings were scarce. Later the fact that Oklahoma didn't require a waiting period influenced a steady stream, plus it stayed some kind of 'fad' even through the 1960s. Couples went in buggys and wagons and married on the bridges between Oklahoma and Texas, which was under the state of Oklahoma law).

Check in Bryan county, Choctaw County & Marshall County and in other nearby counties across the river.

Marriage Records of  Grayson Co., and Texas are searchable online in the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints website 

Certified copies are only available throught the Clerk's office.
Microfilms of the marriages certificates are available in the Sherman Public Library



Texas County Marriage Index  1837 - 1977

• online Choctaw Nation marrage records - Grooms    |    Brides

• Marriage licenses that were not picked up at the Cooke County Clerks Office, includes some people from Grayson County.

• Grayson County Marriage Book J, May 1889 - July 1891    Brides        |         Grooms
• Grayson County Marriage Book K  Jun 1891 - Jan 1893    Brides        |         Grooms

Marriage Records sent in by Grayson County Researchers

• Misc. Divorces of Grayson Co., abstracted from newpapers.
• Civil Court Records - A few misc. entries; B and C names only- Book F
• Grayson County Divorce Index, 1968-2010
  

• ---

  Naturalization Records

Land Records are in the County Clerks Office.