Real County is a proud part of the TXGenWeb Project, and USGenWeb ® Project. If Real County is not the County your looking for look at The TXGenWeb County Selection Page
I am Rebecca Maloney, Webmistress and Coordinator for this Real County, Texas. I hope you enjoy your visit. Please email me if you have any suggestions or contributions you would like to make.
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Pronounced: "REE-al"
Est: 1913
In the spring of 1913 the Texas state legislature established Real
County from parts of Edwards, Bandera, and Kerr counties. The action
was prompted by the isolation of the area and the difficulties
residents experienced traveling long distances over bad roads to
Rocksprings or Bandera (the seats of Edwards and Bandera counties,
respectively) to conduct business. County Seat: Leakey, TX.
Named for: Julius Real, rancher and politician Leakey was the
county seat of Edwards County from 1883 to 1891 when a vote moved the
seat to Rocksprings. Real County, named for businessman and State
Senator Julius Real, was organized from parts of Edwards, Kerr and
Bandera counties in April 1913. Leakey was named the county seat and a
temporary building was erected on the square. Controversy over the
site of the county seat continued for several years, so Judge D. D.
Thompson began planning for a permanent courthouse upon his election
in 1917. Voters approved bonds to finance a permanent structure. The
bonds were financed through Hanover National Bank of New York.
Architect H. A. Reuter designed the 1918 courthouse, and the firm of
McCreary and Schott served as contractors. According to oral history,
a local builder known as "Scotty" Archibald made a significant
contribution, as well. E. F. Vanderbilt was construction
superintendent.
Using native limestone quarried from Tucker Hollow
near the site, workers erected Reuter's vision of a Classical Revival
edifice with a fortress-like facade. The rusticated limestone bands
were laid in regular courses with quicklime bonding to create the
building's texture and solid feel. A stone pediment with simple
cornice topped by a standing seam metal roof contributes to the
building's character. Renovations and additions made in 1978
transformed the original doors into large central windows with flat
arch and transoms. The fine structure retains its original flavor and
distinctive features and remains the center of Real County government.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000
I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of Real County roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I live in Texas and do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.
Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section! There are books listed and available at your local libraries
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We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - Rebecca Maloney
State Coordinator: Paula Perkins
Asst. State Coordinators: Rebecca Maloney, Lela Evans and Carla Clifton
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not live in Texas and do not have access to additional records.