As part of its support of our Mayflower Tradition in Texas, the Texas Mayflower Society sponsors collections of the 46+ volume set of the Mayflower “Silver Books” at Public Libraries throughout the state.   These books, which are officially named “Mayflower Families through five generations”, trace five generations of descendants of the Pilgrims covering the period between the founding of Plymouth Colony and the Revolutionary War.

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​The 22 libraries with sponsored collections are shown on the accompanying maps of Texas.  These maps show current population of Texas.  Today, most Texans live within a 1 ½ hour drive of a Texas Mayflower sponsored Silver Book Collection as shown in Map A. These collections cover the populated part of Texas as shown in Map B    

In 2017, there were 12 Sponsored libraries in Texas in Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Harlingen, Houston, Midland, San Antonio, Tyler and Waco. The population of the state is growing very rapidly and a study showed that the majority of the growth was near Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and along I35 from San Antonio north through Austin. In West Texas, the growth is mainly along and north of I20 and to a lesser extent I10.      

In 2018, the Texas SOMD Library Committee began a project whose goal was to have a Silver Book collection within 1½ hours drive of most people in Texas. This goal moved a step closer to reality with the addition of sponsored Silver Book Collections at Libraries in: Abilene, Arlington, Conroe, Georgetown, Richmond and Wichita Falls.  These are all Public Libraries most with active genealogy sections.  Additional books were donated by Texas SOMD to complete existing partial Silver Book collections at these libraries in 2018-2019.  In 2019-2020, the existing books in these collections were updated. 

A Silver Book collection was added at the library in Junction, Texas in 2020 which is intended to serve the growing population west of I35 in near West Texas.  In 2021 new libraries were added in Denton to serve those north of Dallas-Fort Worth, in Lubbock to support the westward movement of the population in the state and in New Braunfels to add a library north of San Antonio along the I35 Corridor.   It was decided that the Silver Book collection at the Las Cruces, New Mexico library adequately serves El Paso. As new Silver Books are issued, they will be added to these 22 sponsored library collections.  The additions to the Sponsored Libraries in 2021 completed the goal to have a Silver Book Collection within 1 ½ hours drive of most Texans and provided adequate coverage of Texas with accessible Silver Book Collections.

The next goal of the Library Committee is enhancing the usefulness of the various Silver Book collections in Texas.  Library-based presentations and on-line projects are ongoing to support the TXSOMD-Sponsored Silver Book Collections in Texas.  In 2021 the Library Committee began sponsoring talks at DAR groups promoting the use of the Mayflower Patriot-to-Passenger database to locate Mayflower Pilgrim ancestors.