Both sides of my husband’s immediate family were Sooners. They weren’t the first ones over the line when Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlers, but the Stufflebeans and Sturgells were there by the 1910 census. Luckily, both of my in-laws knew a lot about their extended families so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time discovering people on line.
However, aside from census records, I have tried to find documentation for births, marriages, deaths and any other facts or stories that would tell the stories of these ancestors’ lives. I quickly noticed that, compared to many other states, relatively little is available on line for Oklahoma so I decided to create a list of record sources. Here is what I found:
Oklahoma Historical Society – The “Research Center” tab opens a good-sized menu of choices.
Oklahoma Genealogical Society – This site has a link for “Online Data,” which includes hard-to-find items like Bible records, obituaries, some early military records and limited indices to long-ago issues of their publication, “Quarterly.” There is also a link to the recent Quarterly issues, which are available on line. The “Oklahoma Links” page is a listing of all OK counties and, if there is a genealogical society in that county, a live link is provided for it. Five regional societies are listed below the county links with live links.
Oklahoma History and Genealogy – This site has many links to Oklahoma history, but includes links to some biographies, Oklahoma cemeteries, local historical and genealogical societies in the state, and an Archives and Libraries page linking to some of the town libraries.
Online Oklahoma Death Records and Indexes – Cemetery, obituary and funeral records from some Oklahoma counties.
Chronicling America – The Library of Congress project currently has newspaper titles for the towns of Oklahoma City, Sacred Heart, Guthrie, Ardmore, Anadarko, and Tulsa, OK plus some Indian Territory listings for Tulsa, Vinita, Beaver, Atoka, Darlington, Durant and Muskogee.
FamilySearch – I only checked for vital records with images available on line. There are three collections:
Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995
Oklahoma Probate Records 1887-2008
If you have Sooner Roots and know of a great (free) website that I’ve missed, please comment and send me the link.