Membership Application Process
Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 welcomes applications for both Adult and Junior memberships. To qualify, applicants must demonstrate a direct line of descendency from one of Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 colonists. Membership is open to individuals who meet this criterion and submit the required documentation and fees.
Application Submission
Step 1: Application Options
- Online Application: Complete and submit your application using the online form and payment links provided below.
- Downloadable Application: Download the application form, complete it, and submit it via mail or email. Include a check made payable to "SFA Old 300" if you opt for this method.
Step 2: Application Requirements
- Applications must be printed on LEGAL (8.5” x 14”) paper. Proofs can be submitted on letter-sized paper (8.5” x 11”).
- A non-refundable application fee of $75 is required. This fee must accompany your application and will be credited toward your first year’s membership dues upon acceptance.
Step 3: Submission Mail or email the completed application and supporting documentation to the Registrar General. Applications cannot be processed without the application fee.
Membership Details
- Annual Dues: Following acceptance, annual membership dues are $50 to maintain Member in Good Standing status. These funds help support our mission to preserve and promote the history of Stephen F. Austin’s Old 300.
- Junior Memberships: Junior members (under 18 years old) are exempt from annual dues until their 18th birthday. However, the $75 application fee still applies.
Additional Information
- Supplemental Applications: Members wishing to submit a supplemental application should contact the Registrar General for guidance. The fee for supplemental applications is $35.
- Posthumous Applications: Applications for deceased individuals are accepted with the inclusion of a death certificate (obituaries are not acceptable for contemporary/modern applicants). Posthumous applications also require the $75 application fee but are exempt from annual dues. If you would like a certificate for the posthumous member, please include a note with your request.
- Grave Medallion Applications: Certified Members may apply for a Grave Medallion. This application is available by request and requires approval.
Payment Methods
For your convenience, payments can be made online using the links below or by check, made payable to "SFA Old 300," if submitting a paper application.
Thank you for your interest in joining The Old 300 Legacy Organization. We look forward to preserving and celebrating the history of Stephen F. Austin’s first colony together!
Our Registrar is Judy Scott and her mailing address is:
Judy Scott
Old 300 Registrar
9004 Bellechase Road
Granbury, Texas 76049.
Her email is registrar.sfaold300@gmail.com
We have put together a guide for you to help you create your application. Please review ALL the instructions before filling out your application.
Basics:
- Your ancestor must be lineal (i.e. great-great-great grandfather/grandmother). Collateral ancestors (i.e. great-great-great uncle/aunt) are not acceptable.
- Per our bylaws, your ancestor must be found in the 1897 article by Lester G. Bugbee in the Texas Historical Association Quarterly, volume 1, pages 108-117. You can find the article on archive.org.
- Applications are generally worked on once a month about the middle of the month for 2-3 days. Papers have to travel across Texas for signatures, and it will take a while for your application to be processed and your certificates signed (approximately 4-6 months). I am a volunteer with a day job and a family to tend to; please remember that in your correspondence.
- You must fill in every person between you and your Old 300 ancestor. This includes spouses.
- DO NOT send originals of sources. We cannot return them. If there are social security numbers on a piece of documentation, please black it out.
- You must fill in as many dates and places as you can. It's OK to make logical choices. For instance, if your ancestor is alive in the 1880 Census, and not found in the 1900 Census*, then under death date you can mark "liv. 1880C". Or if the 1850 Census indicates that your ancestor was 30 years old, then you can put the birth date as "ca 1820" (ca meaning circa or around). If you don't know where someone died, but you know where they are buried, then in place of death you can put "bur. Ellis Co."
- The most important documentation is the document that proves the bridge between generations. A death certificate that shows the deceased's parents proves the bridge between the two generations mentioned. A will where a man names his legatees can prove the bridge between two or three generations. If you are missing this bridging documentation, we will ask for more proof.
- If a document isn't legible, consider submitting a transcript. If you can't read the document, we can't read the document.
- If you write down an item, you MUST prove that item with a document. If you make a guess, then please let us know what led you to make that guess (see the list of acceptable and unacceptable documentation below).
- Please write the complete source. If you are using a publication, please include the full title, author, publication place and date, and pages referenced in your source citation. If you use a long titled book in several generations, it's OK to abbreviate after your first citation. For example:
The Billingsley (Billingslea - Billingsly) Family in America, Harry A. Davis, Washington, DC, 1936: 271
can later be written as "The Billingsley..., Davis: 271"
"I have a relative in the Old 300" - This makes the application process a lot easier. You just have to prove the connections between you and the member. Here's some FAQ/common pitfalls to avoid:
- Fill in the whole application. All the names, dates, and places.
- For all the common ancestors, write the words "See application (insert member #), (relationship)" in the proof area.
- If you don't have the member number, please contact me.
- Here's some examples:
Your sibling is a member: we just need a copy of your generation's source paperwork (birth certificate, marriage certificates, etc.) showing that you share the same parents
Your aunt/uncle is a member: we need a copy of the source paperwork for your generation and your parent's generation (your parent must list the same parents at the member)
Your cousin is a member: same as an aunt/uncle above.
Acceptable documentation includes:
- State issued birth, death, and marriage certificates for all events that occurred after the state began issuing those documents (i.e. in Texas marriage certificates were issued beginning with the formation of the colony in 1821, but birth and death certificates weren't issued until 1914 or so). If you have international documents, please contact us for guidance. If your record is older (before 1970), it is sometimes available online, usually on ancestry.com. If you don't have access to that resource, let us know and we can check for that record for you.
- Service records - not only modern military service records, but there are amazing records that have been created since the colony's founding. These include (but are not limited to) the Texas Revolution, The Mexican American War, The War Between the States/Civil War/The Recent Unpleasantness, The Spanish American War, WWI & II (including the draft registration cards available on Ancestry and Family Search), the Korean War, and the Vietnam Conflict. At least one member of the Old 300 was a veteran of the Revolutionary War (William Gates), so his records from that conflict were helpful. Don't forget the war of 1812.
- Institutional records including Texas Rangers records, police records (I once found a birth date in an arrest record in Harris County), business records, funeral home records, orphanage records, jail records, and asylum records are all excellent sources of information.
- Court records - especially probate and estate cases!!!
- Bible records - you must include a copy of the publication page with the date of publication
- Newspaper & Periodical records - including obituaries. You can just send a copy of the relevant portion of the page if you include the publication name, date, and page #.
- Handbook of Texas Online - this is a great free resource, though it usually only covers the last couple of generations of your application.
- County/Town/State histories - these are considered on a case by case basis but are usually acceptable. Please remember to include the fly/publication page, in case we need to pull that book ourselves.
- Federal and State Censuses - these can often be found for free on familysearch.org
- Tombstone photos with legible carvings
- Tax & Land Records
- New! Signed and Approved applications from select lineage societies: Daughters and Sons of the Republic of Texas, The San Jacinto Descendants, and The Alamo Defenders Descendants Association. The acceptability of these signed and approved applications will be continuously reviewed. If the genealogy standards of these societies fall behind our standards, we will remove them from the list. You must still provide a copy of your birth and marriage certificates, and also provide documentation for the "blank spots" that your society application does not cover. An example:
William Gates died in 1828, and was not a resident of the Republic of Texas. My application is for his son, Samuel Gates, so I have to provide proof of the bridge to his father, and that his father was one of the Old 300
Sources that will not be accepted:
- Printed family trees. Do not send these.
- Find A Grave - we can only use photographs from FindAGrave, not anything that is written on the site. When using a photograph, please indicate to the side or back what the memorial number is. If the tombstone isn't readable in your printout, then we can go to FindAGrave to look at the memorial to see if the photo there is legible.
- Screenshots of sites - please download the document. We need full size and legible copies of the documents.
- Emails from relatives or researchers.
- Wikipedia entries.
- Photographs of the family or the family home. These are lovely, but not relevant. We cannot return them.
- Message board entries.
- A printed page from FamilySearch or another online tree software. We cannot use this as sourced documentation.
- Anything from WikiTree.
All documentation is subject to review and can be rejected. When we do that, we generally offer you some alternative avenues for research. Consider checking the FREE FamilySearch Research Wiki to learn about the plethora of documents that were available, and when: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page
Abbreviations that you can use:
aft. - after
BC - birth certificate
bef. - before
bur. - Buried
ca - circa
Co. - County
C - i.e. "1850C of Ellis Co., TX" means Census, and refers to a Federal census. For a state census, you can use "1855C State of TX, Ellis Co."
DC - death certificate
liv. - Living
MC - marriage certificate
Don't lose hope! I am here to help if you need it. I can't do the research for you, but I can help you do the research.
*the 1890 census was 98% destroyed in an arson incident, though a small portion of Texas did survive. By small portion, I mean "J.P. No. 6, Mountain Peak, Ovilla Precinct (Ellis County), Precinct No. 5 (Hood County), No. 6 and J.P. No. 7 (Rusk County), Trinity Town and Precinct No. 2 (Trinity County), Kaufman (Kaufman County)" JP stands for Justice Precinct.
