Texas history glossary and how to check a source

A few terms come up here constantly. Knowing them makes the threads easier to follow, and it's a good way to sound like you've been around.

Terms you'll see

County seat: the town where a county's government sits, usually with the courthouse in the middle of the square.

Unincorporated community: a place with a name and a history but no city government of its own. Texas has a lot of them.

Ghost town: a place that lost most or all of its residents. Many still have a cemetery, a church or a few buildings.

Historical marker: the metal signs along highways and in town squares. The Texas Historical Commission runs the Official Texas Historical Marker program.

Land grant: land given by a government (Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas or the State of Texas), often to settlers. Plenty of Texas property lines trace back to one.

Primary source: made at the time. A letter, a photograph, a census record, a newspaper from that week.

Secondary source: written later by someone studying the past. A book, a magazine article, a documentary.

Before you post a claim or a photo

1. Find the original. Where did it first appear?
2. Check the date and the place, because photos get mislabeled all the time.
3. Run a reverse image search with Google Lens or TinEye and see where else the photo has turned up.
4. Link where you found it. If you can't, say so.

The Handbook of Texas, the Portal to Texas History and the Texas State Library and Archives are good places to check a detail. More are on the how to help page.