County Clerk

For inquiries regarding child support or divorce cases, please contact the District Clerk's office at 512-943-1212.

For Voting / Election related questions, please contact the Elections Administrator. The County Clerk's Office is not involved with voting or elections.

Duties of the County Clerk

The County Clerk is one of the oldest of all state governmental offices, established in 1836 and authorized by the Texas Constitution which states in part:

There shall be elected for each County, by qualified voters, a County Clerk, who shall hold his Office for four years, who shall be Clerk of the County and Commissioners' Courts and Recorder of the County, whose duties, perquisites and fees of Office shall be prescribed by Legislature...

Nancy E.  Rister is the Williamson County Clerk managing an office organized into these divisions:

(Elections are not handled by this office. Contact the county's elections office.)

Download the Williamson County Official Public Records Audit Report (PDF).

What to look for: Search our Official Public Records for your Deed of Trust. On it should be your Original Lender's name. Then look for any Assignments that show who you have made your mortgage payments to because the note was transferred to that entity. You do that by entering your last name first name in the "Grantor" field of the search screen. Look for ASSN, SI and DT document types to start your paper trail. If there are missing links or nothing there at all regarding your current mortgage payee, call the last lender that you paid and see if they will help you by filing an Assignment document which assigns your mortgage to them. If not, call the Better Business Bureau or the AG's Consumer Protection office or seek the advice of a competent attorney who has received training on foreclosures.

If you have received a foreclosure notice, there are other items to look for on the documents including the order in which the entity filed the Notice of Substitute Trustee and subsequent documents. You may also need to check the list of alleged robo-signers to see if that may also be a problem. There are various websites that can educate you on the foreclosure process.

Texas Property Code Sec. 11.001. Place of Recording. (a) To be effectively recorded, an instrument relating to real property must be eligible for recording and must be recorded in the county in which a part of the property is located. However, if such an instrument grants a security interest by a utility as defined in Section 261.001, Business and Commerce Code, the instrument may be recorded as required by Sections 261.004 and 261.006 of that code, and if such instrument is so recorded, the lien and the secured interest created by such instrument shall be deemed perfected for all purposes.

Texas Local Government Code 192.001 General items. The county clerk shall record each deed, mortgage or other instrument that is required or permitted by law to be recorded.

192.007 To release, transfer, assign or take another action relating to an instrument that is filed, registered or recorded in the office of the county clerk, a person must file, register, or record another instrument relating to the action in the same manner as the original instrument was required to be filed, registered or recorded.

Link to forms to be filed in the District Clerk's office to protest a fraudulent lien.

County Clerk Receives Five Star Vital Award for 2022

At the 68th Annual Conference of Vital Statistics virtually on Dec. 7-9th, the Williamson County Clerk’s office was presented for the year 2022 the Five Star Vital Registration Award by the Texas Department of Health, State Health Services Vital Statistics Section. This award is presented annually for exemplary work in the area of Vital Registration. The criteria for qualifications of this award normally include timeliness of filing registrations entered into the state database by the clerk’s office, annual training at conferences, use of the TxEver for all birth and death copies, completing an assessment survey, and use of the State Dept. of Health required banknote paper. Mrs. Rister attributed the win to her staff who strive to maintain the highest of standards.                                         

Pictured below is Cindy Zuck, Mrs. Rister, Cynthia Tidwell and Marlen Rossetti.

The 2022 Five Star Vital Registration Award

2022 Five Star Vital Registration Award

Please note: All DBA forms are formatted to print on legal size paper. Forms that require the signature of a notary must be completed and notarized before they are brought to our office for recording. As of 9-1-2019 House Bill 3609 requires that all DBA forms dealing with corporations may only be filed at the Secretary of State's office in Austin. We will refuse to file them.

Forms

  1. Assumed Name DBA Filing Instructions (PDF)
  2. Assumed Name Certificate for Ownership of Unincorporated Business (PDF)
  3. Abandonment of Assumed Name Certificate (PDF)
  4. Withdrawal of Assumed Name Certificate (PDF)
  5. Business Type Definitions (PDF)
  6. Bride Name Change Directions (PDF)
  7. Request for Copy of Military Discharge Form (PDF)
  8. Request for Removal of Military Discharge Record from the Official Public Records of Williamson County (PDF)