Probate Records

The Dallas County Probate Records from 1850 to the early 1900s are currently available on microfilm on the 8th floor (Genealogy section) of the downtown J. Erik Jonsson branch of the Dallas Public Library.

  • The index to the microfilm was transcribed by members of the Dallas Genealogical Society in 2014 (more below) and can be searched online.
  • The microfilm has been digitized by the University of North Texas and images are now available on the Portal to Texas History website: View the Collection Summary Page
  • The microfilm was also digitized by Family Search. See below for more information about viewing those images

The following information was provided by the group of volunteers who created the microfilm from the original records in 1977 and should be of interest to anybody viewing either the microfilm or the images on the Portal to Texas History (you can also view a PDF made from a microfilm version of the document by clicking here):

When an estate was filed for probate, it was assigned a number. (This is also true of guardianship and lunacy cases). This number is found in all the Probate Books and on the original documents in the probate packets. In about 1935 all of the cases completed were assigned a NEW number and classified as ‘disposed cases’. For this reason the number found in the records is different from the number that the cases are now filed under. To locate the records, the NEW number must be used.

The numbers in this index are the NEW numbers that were assigned to these cases in the 1930’s. These NEW numbers appear to have been assigned to these cases by ten year periods according to the time they were completed and all for that ten year period was put in somewhat alphabetical order and then the process started over for the next ten year period. This process was continued for all the completed cases to about the year 1935.

The probate cases of Dallas County, Texas also include guardianship cases and lunacy cases. Guardianship cases not only pertain to minor children, but to a person of any age who was not able to competently handle his own affairs. Lunacy cases included not only those who were insane or mentally incompetent, but of advanced age who were unable to take care of their own affairs due to senility. These first 3,100 probate cases have been microfilmed by members of the Dallas Genealogical Society, totaling 35 reels of film.

Without the dedicated help of the following Dallas Genealogical Society members this project could not have been completed:

PROJECT CHAIRMAN: Helen Lu and Margaret Smith

MICROFILMING TEAM: Mary Badget, Anna Baker, Judy Ceccucci, Minnie Champ, Anne Cochran, Bill Crawford, Bob Garvie, Lois Hayes, Adrienne Jamieson, Helen Lu, Gwen Neumann, Millicent McCoy, Nola Van Pierce, Gladys Pointer, Margaret Smith, Renee Smith, Margaret Ann Thetford, Anne Trickette.

INDEXING STAFF: Alline McCrary, Nell Dishman, Mary Sue Caruth, Carol Dillon, Anne Cochran, Judy Ceccucci, Glyna Ferguson, Adrienne Jamieson, Gwen Neumann, Gladys Pointer, Margaret Smith, Helen Lu, Lois Hayes, Louise Anderson, Deborah Watts, Lola Engelhart. Judy Filingeri.

A very special thanks to Grace McKnight, Ralph Harvey and Brooking N. Wadley, Jr.

Our sincere appreciation to L.E. ‘Larry’ Murdich, County Clerk of Dallas County, Texas and his entire staff for the courtesy shown the Dallas Genealogical Society and their interest in this much needed and worthwhile project.

Helen Mason Lu

Cwen Blomquist Neumann

Margaret Gilmore Smith

March 1978

In 2013 the University of North Texas asked for proposals for funding (up to $1000) for a series of grants they were offering to digitize Texas records. The DGS proposal to digitize the probate records from the microfilm’s was one of the proposals that was accepted. All 35 reels of microfilm will be digitized and (eventually) made available on the Portal to Texas History website. Although the actual digitization of the films will be performed by UNT at no cost to the DGS, the board of directors did authorize additional funding ($900) to make duplicates of the films (on the advice of the curators at UNT … the process they use to digitize would have damaged our master films).

Volunteers transcribed the 60 page index to these records that was created in 1977: This data was used to create the online index and will be used to create the descriptive metadata for each case. Thanks to the following volunteers for contributing their time and skills to complete the transcription:

  • Tony Hanson
  • Karen Walker
  • Kristin Moore
  • David Ladymon
  • Kathleen Murray
  • Suzan Younger
  • Sandra Crowley
  • Barbara Ware

DGS webmaster Tony Hanson created a program that parsed the information from the index database to create the metadata (a file containing descriptive information in the Dublin Core metadata format) for each of the 3100 cases and provided the files to UNT.

Films Available on Family Search

The microfilm has already been digitized by FamilySearch (Film Number 005781997: “Probate case packets, 1842-1906; ca 1846-1904, 1842-1906“, Author: Texas. County Court (Dallas County); Dallas Genealogical Society (Texas) ) and is available on their website. It has not, however, been indexed. Search The Index to identify the case number and/or reel number and select the appropriate link in the table below.

ReelDescriptionImageAvailable on the Portal
1Probate packet indexViewNo
2Case Number 1-148ViewYes
3Case Number 149-278ViewYes
4Case Number 280-383ViewYes
5Case Number 383-499ViewYes
6Case Number 500-659ViewYes
7Case Number 660-799ViewYes
8Case Number 800-925ViewYes
9Case Number 926-1093ViewYes
10Case Number 1095-1176ViewYes
11Case Number 1176-1283ViewYes
12Case Number 1285-1374ViewYes
13Case Number 1374-1476ViewYes
14Case Number 1476-1598ViewYes
15Case Number 1599-1694ViewYes
16Case Number 1695-1751ViewYes
17Case Number 1751-1810ViewYes
18Case Number 1810-1866ViewYes
19Case Number 1866-1919ViewYes
20Case Number 1919-2004ViewYes
21Case Number 2005-2067ViewYes
22Case Number 2067-2139ViewYes
23Case Number 2140-2241ViewYes
24Case Number 2242-2276ViewYes
25Case Number 2276-2329ViewYes
26Case Number 2330-2452ViewYes
27Case Number 2453-2508ViewYes
28Case Number 2508-2554ViewYes
29Case Number 2555-2640ViewYes
30Case Number 2641-2680ViewYes
31Case Number 2680-2780ViewYes
32Case Number 2781-2886ViewYes
33Case Number 2887-2975ViewYes
34Case Number 2976-3014ViewYes
35Case Number 3015-3055ViewYes
36Case Number 3056-3100ViewYes