The new total as of today, Memorial Day 2011, is 244,651 entries. This means that I have entered information on 244,651 individuals who died in Oklahoma before 1920. This is NOT 244,651 different individuals. For some people there are entries from obits, pension records, tombstones, probate records, etc.
Most recently, I have added people from Stroud (Lincoln Co.) obits and from the official records of Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City. For the Oklahoma City records, there are two sets of records: the "Old Book" which covers to about 1905, and the "new Book" which covers from about 1905 to about 1967. More information on the availability on these records in my next blog on Wednesday.
This morning, I drove to Norman to visit the Norman IOOF Cemetery. I walked the old sections of the cemetery looking for new tombstones and new bases, as well has inscriptions on the sides of old stones. In all, I found 16 "new" entries for the database. I was able to gather information to correct/add to an additional 26 entries. As I get time, I will be traveling to various cemeteries around Oklahoma to check for new stones for old burials. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the number of new "old" stones what with the rise in interest in genealogy these days.
Over the next couple of months, my weekly blogs will include lists of sources of information I use and how to obtain those sources. I hope you had a relaxing and patriotic Memorial Day!
30 May 2011
11 May 2011
Kolb Cemetery, Oklahoma County OK
On a day off from work for my semi-annual dental visit, I stopped at a couple of cemeteries. Now I moved to OKC two years ago, but I still go to the dentist in Stillwater. So after my visit to el dentiste, I traveled east to Oilton (Creek Co.) and walked Highland Cemetery. I had visited there back in the 1980s to get information on possible Civil War veterans. This time I was looking for anyone who died before 1920. I came up with 24 new entries for the database.
Then I drove to the east side of OKC and checked a couple of cemeteries that I had not known of before. But, alas, they were all recently established, even the two that were pet cemeteries! But I did stop at Kolb Cemetery. I had visited this cemetery several years ago, again looking for Civil War veterans. Since tombstone listings are available for it on several internet sites, I walked the cemetery looking for for pre-1920 death dates on new tombstones or tombstones with newly cemented bases. My 30 minute walk netted me 10 corrections to previous entries and 5 new entries. So overall a successful trip!
I ended the visit to Kolb Cemetery with a talk with the man in the uniform and black and white car with flashing lights on top (Spencer Police Dept.). He wanted to make sure I wasn't vandalizing tombstones. He showed quite a bit of interest in the project once I explained what I was doing.
The day ended with 3 hours in the Oklahoma Historical Society Library adding info on Blaine County deaths, followed by the May meeting of the Oklahoma Genealogical Society.
You'd think that would be a big enough genealogy fix to last for a while, but....
...until next time....
Then I drove to the east side of OKC and checked a couple of cemeteries that I had not known of before. But, alas, they were all recently established, even the two that were pet cemeteries! But I did stop at Kolb Cemetery. I had visited this cemetery several years ago, again looking for Civil War veterans. Since tombstone listings are available for it on several internet sites, I walked the cemetery looking for for pre-1920 death dates on new tombstones or tombstones with newly cemented bases. My 30 minute walk netted me 10 corrections to previous entries and 5 new entries. So overall a successful trip!
I ended the visit to Kolb Cemetery with a talk with the man in the uniform and black and white car with flashing lights on top (Spencer Police Dept.). He wanted to make sure I wasn't vandalizing tombstones. He showed quite a bit of interest in the project once I explained what I was doing.
The day ended with 3 hours in the Oklahoma Historical Society Library adding info on Blaine County deaths, followed by the May meeting of the Oklahoma Genealogical Society.
You'd think that would be a big enough genealogy fix to last for a while, but....
...until next time....
06 April 2011
Daily Oklahoman Obituaries
I just finished entering and importing 3672 obituaries, death notices, cards of thanks, murder accounts, etc. from the Daily Oklahoman covering the period 1910 through 1919. I realize this is far from all deaths reported from around Oklahoma in the Daily Oklahoman during that time period, but it is definitely a good start.
I made searches initially on the word "obituary". Then I searched on "card of thanks", "vital statistics", "suicide", and a couple of other possibities. Later I will check for other key words. But currently I am working on the Daily Oklahoman's first nine years: 1901-1909.
So if you are looking for someone who died in the Oklahoma City area, there's a good chance I have that person in my database. I have all known tombstone inscriptions for the county, obits/death notices for the main newspaper in OKC, probate index entries for through 1907, and miscellaneous records I have come across.
Future searches will include the following:
• OKC Health Department Death Index (at OHS)
• Fairlawn Cemetery sexton's records
• Church records
• Funeral Home records
• Other cemetery sexton's recpords
I've also been searching through on-line newspaper archives through the Chronicling America website. So far I've added info from newspapers in Anadarko, Durant and Vinita. It's exciting to be finding so many records. I only wish I had more time!
I made searches initially on the word "obituary". Then I searched on "card of thanks", "vital statistics", "suicide", and a couple of other possibities. Later I will check for other key words. But currently I am working on the Daily Oklahoman's first nine years: 1901-1909.
So if you are looking for someone who died in the Oklahoma City area, there's a good chance I have that person in my database. I have all known tombstone inscriptions for the county, obits/death notices for the main newspaper in OKC, probate index entries for through 1907, and miscellaneous records I have come across.
Future searches will include the following:
• OKC Health Department Death Index (at OHS)
• Fairlawn Cemetery sexton's records
• Church records
• Funeral Home records
• Other cemetery sexton's recpords
I've also been searching through on-line newspaper archives through the Chronicling America website. So far I've added info from newspapers in Anadarko, Durant and Vinita. It's exciting to be finding so many records. I only wish I had more time!
06 March 2011
Current Status of Database
For the past two months since my last post, I have been entering records from a variety of sources on-line and in print. However, I had also been entering and verifying burials of Civil War veterans for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). So my mornings before work when I spend and hour to an hour and a half have been taken up with data entry for the SUVCW.
Add to that, I renewed my subscription to Ancestry.com. For years I've wanted to upgrade from US to World, but did not care to spend an extra $150. When I renewed, I asked about any specials, For 40 bucks more, I could upgrade to World and have a 13 months subscription. I hopped on that! Now I'm spending some time locating and printing records for Swedish Church records. Since 3/4 of my ancestry is Swedish, this will take some time.
For each of my Swedish ancestral families, I'm copying the marriage of the couple, the household "census" records (usually in 5 year increments) that list all members of the household, births and deaths of each child, and any movings into or out of the parish. It's amazing to be able to have documented evidence of every year of a person's/family's life!
BUT....I am continuing to add approximately 1500 to 200 records to the Oklahoma Pre-1920 Death Index. If I can get a couple of good weeks in, I may actually make my goal of 300,000 entries by the end of the year.
So far I have had 8 requests for records. Most have been "fishing expeditions"- people not sure if their relative died in Oklahoma, but checking to see. I have to give a response with reservations if it is negative: I have not yet found the record of the death, if it in fact occurred in Oklahoma". The two I was able to locate greatly pleased the seekers. That alone makes this endeavor worthwhile.
Until next time....
Add to that, I renewed my subscription to Ancestry.com. For years I've wanted to upgrade from US to World, but did not care to spend an extra $150. When I renewed, I asked about any specials, For 40 bucks more, I could upgrade to World and have a 13 months subscription. I hopped on that! Now I'm spending some time locating and printing records for Swedish Church records. Since 3/4 of my ancestry is Swedish, this will take some time.
For each of my Swedish ancestral families, I'm copying the marriage of the couple, the household "census" records (usually in 5 year increments) that list all members of the household, births and deaths of each child, and any movings into or out of the parish. It's amazing to be able to have documented evidence of every year of a person's/family's life!
BUT....I am continuing to add approximately 1500 to 200 records to the Oklahoma Pre-1920 Death Index. If I can get a couple of good weeks in, I may actually make my goal of 300,000 entries by the end of the year.
So far I have had 8 requests for records. Most have been "fishing expeditions"- people not sure if their relative died in Oklahoma, but checking to see. I have to give a response with reservations if it is negative: I have not yet found the record of the death, if it in fact occurred in Oklahoma". The two I was able to locate greatly pleased the seekers. That alone makes this endeavor worthwhile.
Until next time....
16 January 2011
Death Synonyms
Recently I've been reading through biographies in the Muskogee and Northeastern Oklahoma: including the counties of Muskogee, McIntosh, Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Adair, Delaware ©1922 by John D. Benedict. This three volume book is availabe on ancestry.com, so I started out searching for every case where the word "died" appeared. The word died appears over 200 times in this 3 volume set. In most cases, the bios tell when a person's parents or children died (and often where). On a few occasions the death is of the person whose life story is being presented.
HOWEVER...If you have ever read one of these older histories, you know that the writers varied their word usage in order to keep the bios interesting. So they must have had a very complete thesaurus at hand!
So when searching for deaths in this book on ancestry.com, I have had to go back and search for the following words and phrases:
- died
- demise
- death
- deceased
- assassinated
- murdered
- final rest
I am only about half way done checking this three volume set for pre1920 deaths. I'm sure I will discover other death synonyms. I'll keep you apprised...
HOWEVER...If you have ever read one of these older histories, you know that the writers varied their word usage in order to keep the bios interesting. So they must have had a very complete thesaurus at hand!
So when searching for deaths in this book on ancestry.com, I have had to go back and search for the following words and phrases:
- died
- demise
- death
- deceased
- assassinated
- murdered
- final rest
I am only about half way done checking this three volume set for pre1920 deaths. I'm sure I will discover other death synonyms. I'll keep you apprised...
09 January 2011
Oklahoma Military Post Records
I have been slowly extracting deaths from early Oklahoma Military Post records. These are located on Ancestry.com.
Records are tabular with numbers indicating deaths (early records) or commissioned men deaths and enlisted men deaths. If the deaths reported are for enlisted men, just the number of deaths is recorded. If the death is an officer, the name and particulars of the officer are recorded. In both cases, the company and regiment are noted.
Although few names appear, month and year of deaths for specific units can be very helpful in tracking down other military records. The following posts are included in this record group at ancestry.com:
Fort Arbuckle
Fort Cobb (Nov 1859-Apr 1861)
Camp Guthrie (Apr 1889-June1891)
Post Cantonment
Fort Reno
Fort Sill
Fort Supply
Fort Towson
Fort Washita
Camp Arbuckle IT (Apr 1833 and June-Oct 1934)
Some day I will be able to finish searching through this record group. Reading is slow going. Fort Washita alone has 457 images (two images per month). I have only read through the three posts listed above that have dates listed.
Records are tabular with numbers indicating deaths (early records) or commissioned men deaths and enlisted men deaths. If the deaths reported are for enlisted men, just the number of deaths is recorded. If the death is an officer, the name and particulars of the officer are recorded. In both cases, the company and regiment are noted.
Although few names appear, month and year of deaths for specific units can be very helpful in tracking down other military records. The following posts are included in this record group at ancestry.com:
Fort Arbuckle
Fort Cobb (Nov 1859-Apr 1861)
Camp Guthrie (Apr 1889-June1891)
Post Cantonment
Fort Reno
Fort Sill
Fort Supply
Fort Towson
Fort Washita
Camp Arbuckle IT (Apr 1833 and June-Oct 1934)
Some day I will be able to finish searching through this record group. Reading is slow going. Fort Washita alone has 457 images (two images per month). I have only read through the three posts listed above that have dates listed.
06 January 2011
Oak Park Cemetery in Chandler, Lincoln Co. OK
Last week on the way back to OKC I stopped at Chandler City Hall to check the records they might have for Oak Park Cemetery. I had gone through a card file about 10 years ago when looking for some Civil War veterans, but could not remember what kind of records they had.
The clerk took me back to the small room that holds the old record books for the city. There is a card file on which SOME of the burials are recorded. One big problem is that many years are listed with only two numbers. So there is no way to tell from the index card if 01 is 1901 or 2001, for example.
The also have to volumes of records. One is the book with listings by block and plot. This list has many names that have no dates with them- simply a name listed for a specific space. But there were many that DID have death dates listed.
The second volume is an index to cemetery records. This book is alphabetical by surname letter and includes name, age, death/burial date, and lot owner. This book has many entries that the burial volume does not.
So I went through the Burial Record book first and then the Burial Index book, extracting all pre-1920 deaths. Many were duplicates, but there some in each volume not listed in the other. Then I started on the card file and made it through blocks 1 through 4. I still have the majority of the cemetery left to check for the card file, and I will get back to it some day (hopefully this summer).
The City of Chandler is in the process of comparing tombstones to the cemetery records to update the records and make as complete a listing as possible. And they plan to put the information on-line! So I will send them all the entries I Have for Oak Park Cemetery in Chandler to help them with their project. I have the advantage of having some obits and published records, along with tombstone inscriptions from walking the cemetery.
Yet another example of how collaborative efforts can result in a successful project!
The clerk took me back to the small room that holds the old record books for the city. There is a card file on which SOME of the burials are recorded. One big problem is that many years are listed with only two numbers. So there is no way to tell from the index card if 01 is 1901 or 2001, for example.
The also have to volumes of records. One is the book with listings by block and plot. This list has many names that have no dates with them- simply a name listed for a specific space. But there were many that DID have death dates listed.
The second volume is an index to cemetery records. This book is alphabetical by surname letter and includes name, age, death/burial date, and lot owner. This book has many entries that the burial volume does not.
So I went through the Burial Record book first and then the Burial Index book, extracting all pre-1920 deaths. Many were duplicates, but there some in each volume not listed in the other. Then I started on the card file and made it through blocks 1 through 4. I still have the majority of the cemetery left to check for the card file, and I will get back to it some day (hopefully this summer).
The City of Chandler is in the process of comparing tombstones to the cemetery records to update the records and make as complete a listing as possible. And they plan to put the information on-line! So I will send them all the entries I Have for Oak Park Cemetery in Chandler to help them with their project. I have the advantage of having some obits and published records, along with tombstone inscriptions from walking the cemetery.
Yet another example of how collaborative efforts can result in a successful project!
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