Back On-Line!...Probate Extraction Progress

     In August of last year my daughter went to France for a year’s study abroad. We bought her a new laptop and I inherited her “old” laptop (5 years old). Before then, my laptop was a Mac that was about 8 years old. So with a “new” computer, I set aside my Mac and started using my daughter’s old PC. Unfortunately, the PC died earlier this year (in early June). So I have gone back to my old Mac. Unfortunately, the operating system is not supported by many web sites and web browsers, nor is it upgradable. But I continue using it for lack of another computer to use at home.

     As Murphy would have it, on my old Mac I cannot access my blog for updates. So I am now using my work computer. The next several posts will be updates of the progress I have made in accessing and abstracting records of deaths in Oklahoma prior to 1920.

     Oklahoma probate records are available on FamilySearch for all but 14 counties in Oklahoma. For the past two years I have been going county by county through those records. This is very time consuming and slow, but very beneficial in the information encountered. So far I have finished 26 counties:

Adair                     Custer                   Okfuskee

Beaver                  Dewey                  Okmulgee

Beckham             Ellis                         Roger Mills

Blaine                    Harmon                Rogers

Canadian             Harper                  Texas

Carter                   Haskell                  Wagoner

Cherokee            Major                    Washington

Cimarron             Mayes                  Washita

Cotton                  McIntosh            

 

     Currently I am working on Tillman and Woodward Counties. Since I cannot access FamilySearch at home, I am extracting info for an hour before work, a half hour during lunch, and a half hour after work, each day. I can finish one county a month in this fashion. As I said, slow going, but lots of good info. Occasionally I check entries against findagrave and okcemeteries.net and notice that about 15% of extracted probate entries are for people who have no tombstones marking their graves.

 

     Next report: Newspapers: Death Notices and Obits.