There aren’t a lot of genealogical resources online for Oklahoma so whenever a new one pops up, it is cause for excitement.

OK2Explore Home Page – Birth and Death Index

The fact that this state website is an index to births that happened more than 20 years ago and deaths that occurred more than five years ago is a boon for researchers.

I tried out the site, looking for surnames that weren’t terribly common. While I am thrilled that this index is online, I have to say that it doesn’t come near the search engine quality of some other sites, particularly Missouri’s Digital Heritage.

The search engine is extremely restricting in that it won’t show more than 15 hits at a time, so for the most part a first name must be included in the search. One of the surnames I tried out only had 21 total hits, but with the 15 record limit, I will have to enter given names to bring up the index.

It’s not that entering a first name is such a chore, it is the fact that I can’t browse for people if I don’t know their first name. Let’s say there is a young child, born and died in between the censuses. Let’s also assume there is no gravestone that has been found, but the ages of children in the census point to the possible loss of one or more children.

There is no way to find out the name/s of the child/ren if more than 15 hits come up for the surname.

That is a real limitation to this website, but perhaps the search engine will be upgraded in time to correct this HUGE weakness.

In the meantime, I will start searching for all the Oklahoma names I have, which are quite a few on the Stufflebean side of the family.

Remember, this is only an index and the records themselves will still need to be purchased from the state of Oklahoma. Access restrictions are included in a link on the home page, along with costs per certificate.

This site is a great start, but not quite yet to the level that I would call it a GeneaGem.