Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research

Ok WOW.
What a gold nugget, a gem hidden among many buildings. This place is the place to go to get geneology informaiton. They have FREE access to
, so you are able to research your families history for free. ALso they got copy machines and printers, they have a snack room as well. The whole first floor is dedicated to geneology stuff, shelves are organized by countries, and then all the US States. Every staff member/​volunteer is very informative and helpful.
Amazing place.
FYI… The computers are slow.

Although I’ve haven’t seen all this library has to offer yet, I think the staff is really great. They are very knowledgable and helpful. There are a lot of records here and one can easily get overwhelmed. But the staff will guide you if you ask.

One of the best Genealogy Libraries I have been to. I’ve recently taken up doing some family research, which has been very fascinating, I have much stronger roots in Texas than the family ever thought.
I don’t know why there was only one guy when David was there, but there is usually about 5 people working every time I’ve been. First time walking in the lady at the desk signed us up for a library card (if you have a Houston Public Library card already, then you are good to go), and outlined how to find everything.
Downstairs is organized by US State and International sections. So you can find books published on previous censuses, property records, marriages, births, tax records, court records, military history, immigration records, ect. All of which you can use to connect family dots.
I’m currently researching my 3^rd great-​grandfather, which the family stories told that was running from the law in Kentucky because he was a train robber. But getting into the historical records the stories are really far from the truth. He never actually moved to Texas, he is buried in Kentucky, clue one. He was actually a Justice of the Peace for the county, had a precinct and school named after him, and was a very profitable rancher and distiller. Members of my family have a hard time giving up the old stories, they heard distiller and assumed moonshiner, I guess it was Kentucky after all. However I found tax records he paid for the profits he made from his Apple Brandy Distillery, moonshiners don’t pay taxes. So all family rumors have been debunked!
Upstairs you find family history books, which are usually family tree work that people have already done. If you’re lucky you’ll get the ones where there are mini-​biographies included as well. There’s also micro-​film of state birth and death records, Native American registries and land records. The down side is they don’t have that fancy machine that prints from the micro-​film, which is inconvenient and annoying sometimes.
You can do a fair amount of research on their computers as well. You will have free access to
and all their records, which is pretty awesome.
The library is always busy and other visitors there are usually happy to try and help with a research block as well. They also offer classes on decoding what you find and finding what you can’t.

Houston’s genealogy library. A good place for research. The staff is very friendly and tries to be helpful. There collection of materials extends beyond just Houston/​Texas records. Census records for Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York can be found alongside info of Houston, Dallas and Austin. Worth paying a visit to for both the novice or professional genealogist.

Perhaps the previous reviewer went to the «Clayton House» rather than the main library. Clayton is known to be one of the top five genealogical collections in the nation! Staff and hours have been cut by city budget restrains and it may be that if the reviewer did enter the main facility at
a particular time the staff upstairs and in the staff workroom would not have been seen. If you want to trace your family tree, this is the place to do it! Check out
and for the Clayton Library Friends,

Trevia Wooster Beverly, Houston. 8÷7÷2012.

During my museum crawl, I stumbled into here on accident. I was looking for the weather museum and my GPS was acting up so I entered this small library.
They offer free wi-​fi along with 4 computers with internet access. People without computers can come in here and get help to apply for jobs and get aide.
My only complaint was there was basically only one guy helping everyone that was coming in. He was knowledgeable but one guy can do so much.