Society members conduct research on Denton County families, using the local public library, university libraries, city, and county records. Some records available for research include newspaper obituaries published in the Denton Record-Chronicle since 1908, City of Denton birth and death records from 1900, and marriage records since 1876. The courthouse burned in December 1975 and the loss of these records makes research difficult before that time. Tax records and land patents from the pre-fire period serve as the best resources.

When a request for research arrives, a volunteer takes the information and checks the appropriate sources. The current fee for services is $15.00 per hour with a two-hour minimum. For parties interested in obtaining only one record such as a cemetery record, marriage license, or obituary, the fee is $7.50 plus copy cost.

Persons contracting for research work should send full names, approximate dates, and locations for the families to be researched. Other helpful information to send includes previous residence, religious preference, and any names of relatives who lived in the area. Family group sheets and ancestor charts assist in clarifying the families in question. Please advise us of any research you have done in the area, so we do not duplicate your work. We can search readily the 1850-1880 Denton County censuses since they are indexed, but the later ones are more time-consuming as they are not indexed. We do have the 1900 Soundex for Texas available at the University of North Texas. Please include any census records you may have. Checks should be made available to the Denton County Genealogical Society, Inc. Volunteers perform all the work, so it may take several weeks to a couple of months for all work to be completed.

DCGS maintains a research file at Denton Public Library where research is placed when completed. One of the Society’s primary goals is to support the library in acquiring genealogical materials with fees earned through research.