Bartlesville Public Library

John Philip Colletta will present a program April 10th from 9:30 to 4:30 at Hardesty Regional Library located at 8316 E. 93rd Street in Tulsa. His lecture topics include: The 17 million stories of Ellis Island. What's Myth? What's Fact?; Your Imiigrant Ancestors: Discovering Their Real Stories; Turning Biographical Events into Real Life Family History; Your Ancestor's World Revealed: Using 19th Century Newspapers for Family History.

Copies of John's books will be available for sale by cash or check. They include: 1) Finding Italian Roots; 2)They Came In Ships; 3)Only A Few Bones: A True Account of the Rolling Forks Tragedy and It's Aftermath.

This event is free and open to the public.

Due to the budgetary shortfalls the City of Bartlesville is currently experiencing, effective immediately the cost for obituary lookups will increase to $2.00 per page. This continues to remain a cost saving service offered by the Family History Library to out-of-town researchers. LFH staff will perform three lookups or up to one hour of free search time. Researchers must provide either a self-addressed stamped envelope for mailing obituaries or their e-mail addresses for sending attachment e-mails containing the scanned obituaries.

Jamie Weaver from the Delaware Tribe contacted LFH today to let us know they have copyright to Ruby Cranor’s books obtained in November 2004. The Tribe wants to promote her books for sale. Jamie's phone number is: 337-6592.

They have:
1. Talking Tombstones
2. Kik-tha-we-nund, Delaware Chief Anderson and his Descendants
3. Caney Valley Ghost Towns & Settlements
4. Some Old Delaware Obituaries
5. A History of Fish Creek School and Neighborhood

This information comes from Janet Hope on the Genealib listserv about DAR database information now available online:

After nearly a decade of scanning, indexing, and other behind-the-scenes work by DAR members and employees, the Daughters of the American Revolution is pleased to announce the availability of the DAR Genealogical Research System on our public website. Here are the direct links:

http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm or www.dar.org (and click on the Library button at the top, then the second tab in the left-hand column).

The GRS is a growing collection of databases that provide access to many materials collected by the DAR over the past 119 years. Included in this collection of databases is the GRC National Index which has been available to researchers for the past few years. There are still some kinks.

For those of you who have come to the Library and discovered the public terminals occupied, there is another solution. If you have a personal laptop, we have a subcription for unlimited in-library access to Ancestry by going to this address: http://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. The image display is different than the public terminals offer, but you can zoom and enlarge as well as save your work to a flash drive to take home and massage later.

If you elect to use your laptop and need a plug, we must exercise caution not to overload the circuits where the microfilm machines are located. Please use instead the plug nearest the census books or the one located at the base of the journals on the north end of the wall.

Library patrons have become accustomed to Bartlesville Public Library and LFH providing interlibrary loan borrowing services to our patrons. Thanks to the statewide site licensure of the international bibliographic utility, OCLC, that became effective October 1st, we now can request copies of articles from genealogical journals, many difficult to find, at no or nominal cost from OCLC libraries. The HeritageQuest PERSI database, available in LFH and remotely to BPL patrons online 24/7, is an index to genalogical literature leading to the citations LFH staff need to request interlibrary loans.

If you would like to explore the over 1.4 billion records in OCLC to see libraries worldwide that own what you are looking for, go to www.worldcat.org and enter the desired title.

While LFH staff is still learning some of the finer points of placing OCLC interlibrary loans requests, we have been successful in obtaining articles and encourage patrons to use this wonderful new resource to meet their research needs.

This post comes from Genealib listserv:

The Special Collections and Archives department of Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the launch of a new archives online catalog providing public access to records of archival holdings relating to Southern Presbyterian history. In 2007 the seminary received records of over 800 congregations, 500 individuals and 80 presbyteries which were formerly located at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Montreat, NC. The collections include primarily materials from the Southern Stream of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its predecessor bodies. The Southern Stream is identified as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Virginia.

An introductory page containing explanations of what is included in the archives catalog is available at this address http://www.ctsnet.edu/Library/ArchivesOnlineCatalog.aspx and provides a direct link to the search page. At present the archives online catalog contains records for about half of the materials transferred from Montreat and additional records are being added regularly. Legacy finding aids are attached to the catalog records when available. Books and periodicals are not included, but can be searched through the library's online catalog at http://web2.ctsnet.edu/.

For additional information please contact archivist Chris Paton at
(404)687-4638 or archives@ctsnet.edu
.

A Delaware LFH patron has made a Delaware Indian family information sharing website available to other Delaware researchers. The site can be used to share family photos, news, family trees, documents, newsletters, videos and spreadsheets and to organize family reunions and get togethers. A substantial amount of information about the Sarcoxie family can be found at the site, an excellent resource sharing tool.

To visit the site go to:
http://www.myfamily.com/isapi.dll?c=site&htx=main&siteid=XE0QAI&_ref=SiteUpgrade%5CSponsorEmail&_lin=14

You will be prompted to enter a login and password which the LFH staff will make available to you. This is done at the request of the site developer who intends for the information posted to be shared among other serious, Delaware researchers.

Godfrey Library has begun a long term project to preserve, update and expand
cemetery tombstone information originally included in the Hale Collection's
tombstone inscriptions from Connecticut's 2,200 cemeteries completed in the
1930's. The Godfrey Library project includes photographs of most tombstones
and also includes information often not found on the tombstones themselves
as well as two to three additional generations of burials.

Beginning with the Hale Collection inscriptions and cemetery visits Godfrey
Library staff and volunteers researched funeral home records, death notices
and obituaries, town and city records and published cemetery records.
Entries may include name, birth and death dates, spouse's name plus bith and
death dates and associated information such as relationships with other
family members. Each cemetery listing contains a brief description of the
cemetery and directions to it. Names and tombstone photographs are
hyperlinked so a person researching any name can click on the name to see
the tombstone photograph.

Godfrey Library staff and volunteers have completed research on about 70
cemeteries to date. These cemeteries range in size from three burials to
8,612 burials and are almost completely located in central Connecticut. The
completed cemeteries include 46,637 burials and 30,423 photographs since
some tombstones have several names.

Sixty of the 70 cemeteries are now online. Click on the cemeteries folder to
see the entire list. Non subscribers may review two examples of cemeteries
by going to the website, clicking on "Search," then "Search Free." We are
looking for volunteers to help with this project. If you are interested,
please call the library at 860-346-4375 or email us at library@godfrey.org.

Bruce Tyler

Numerous Oklahoma counties have implemented a Web site that renders court records accessible to the public via the Internet. The site to access is: www.odcr.com. You will be prompted to enter the county in which you are searching for records as well as the name of the party for whom you are searching.

Not all Oklahoma counties are available, and only 1999 records forward are available in Washington County through the Internet. However, interested researchers may use one of two publicly available terminals in the Court House at the Court Clerk's Office to search complete Court Records which include marriages, divorces, adoption and probate.

Plans exist to implement full public access on the Internet at a time in the future. The Court Clerk, Marsha Mersch's, number is 337-2870.

A new book collection about the Hulah area is available from the Caney Valley Historical Society. Ivan Pfalser writes in the December 24, 2008 Good News: "Joe Glenn, retired Bartlesville Police Detective, has recently published his 'Brief History of Hulah, Oklahoma, Osage County and Surrounding Area.' I have kidded Joe about the word 'brief' in the title of his book which comes to an estimated 500 pages in two volumes. Admittedly, the town of Hulah was rather brief in time and size, but his story covers much more. Actually, the book covers a cross section across Osage County from the town of Ralston northeastward into Washington County to Caney following the Santa Fe Railroads Pawhuska Branch."

Part I: The history of Hulah, Oklahoma and surrounding area;
Part II: Maps of Hulah, Oklahoma and surrounding area;
Part III: School Census records for the Hulah, Carpenter and Bowring Schools.

The books include various maps, drawings, photographs and many stories of local families and events. The story of the building of the Santa Fe Railroad from Caney, Kansas to Ralston, Oklahoma is related in details and maps.

The Local and Family History Library has recently acquired a copy of these manuscripts as a gift from the author which are being cataloged to add to the collection. The books can also be reviewed at the Caney Valley Historical Society Museum in Caney, Kansas, the Chautauqua County Historical Society Museum in Sedan, Kansas, the Pawhuska Public Library, and the Osage Tribal Museum in Pawhuska.

Anyone wishing to purchase a copy may do so by contacting Ivan Pfalser, 1988 CR 1425, Caney, KS 67333 (620 879-2928) or the Caney Valley Historical Society, 310 W. 4th Ave., Caney, KS (620 879-5131). The cost of the set is $100 (no tax)plus $4.00 for shipping and media mail. The first edition is limited to 60 copies.

Arkansas is a public domain land state whose land once belonged to the federal government. The federal government gave 8,600,000 acres, or roughly 1/4th of the total land in Arkansas, to the State of Arkansas to sell at reduced prices as swamp and overflowed lands which can be found in nearly all of 75 Arkansas counties.

Until now, the only record of these swamp land sales have been in chronological and geographical ledgers in the State Land Commissioners office at the Capitol Building in Little Rock. Desmond Walls Allen has recently published books of the Arkansas Swamp Land Sales from as early as 1855 to 2001. Indexes of these sales can be viewed at: www.arkansasresearch.com/dessland.html by clicking on the time period and volume desired and then searching in alphabetical order by name. Some sales are for thousands of acres; others for only an acre or two.

Allen's published indexes list the patentees' names, the patent date, patent and application numbers, land description (section, range, and township), number of acres, citation to the land office ledger and notes about assignees, partners, attorneys, heirs, etc. The web address only allows access to names of the patentees in the volume, but might be a clue to Arkansas land records previously difficult to locate.

Missouri University has implemented a free, online, digital image newspaper archive.
Newspapers from the latter part of the 19th century throughout the state are available at: http://newspapers.umsystem.edu. Select "Broadband" or "Dial-up connection" as appropriate and open the publication, year, month and issue desired or enter "Search" to perform text searching of scanned images in the database.

The Bartlesville Genealogical Society Website has moved to a different location. The new location of the site is at http://www.multiply.com. The address for the Society is http://bgs12.multiply.com.

The Oklahoma Historical Society has been working on their website, and they have now added a searchable index to the Dawes Rolls. Access is through their site, www/okhistory.org. From there, go to research center, library resources, then genealogy and about a third of the way down is the link to the index. Or you can go there directly through www.okhistory.org/research/dawes/index.php.

This from September 18, 2008 Bigheart Times:

Rauk Friend, an Osage in Oklahoma City, has compiled a massive, online collection of 750 photos. You can visit the gallery at http://gallery.me/com/rauk. "One album is set up for you to upload your pictures," Friend said in a post on the Osage Shareholders Association electronic discussion site. "It asks for your name and wants an email address." Rauk has set up Bob Smith as a name and oho@att.net for access.

Steve Beleu writing in the July/August "Oklahoma Librarian" mentions two collections of interest in the Western History Collection at O.U., the Doris Duke Collection and Indian-Pioneer Papers. The Doris Duke Collection consists of typscripts of interviews of hundreds of Oklahoma Indians organized by tribe. The search engine allows seaching by these categories, "Full text", "Tape number", "Interviewer" and "Interviewee." The "Interviewee" option allows for seaching by the names of those interviewed so library customers can use this for genealogical as well as historical research.

The Indian-Pioneer Papers are typescripts of interviews of Oklahomans conducted from 1861 to 1936 under provisions of the 1930's New Deal project. They deal with the non-Indian settlement of Oklahoma and Indian Territories and statehood that followed. Searches may be conducted by "Title", "Subject", "Interviewer", and "Interviewee." As with the Duke Collection, you can use the "Interviewee" option for seaching by names of those who were interviewed making this a potential genealogical tool. This collection consists of 80,000+ entries in 116 digitized volumes.

To locate and search these collections online go to: http:digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc.

The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints' Web site, www.familysearch.org has added some very valuable updates to what is accessible through their Web page.

From the home page, click on the blue link to the left of the page "See new prototype for searching millions of new records." From here you will be directed to a world map. To the right of the map is a link, "View all collections." An ever expanding world of digitized and downloadable birth, marriage and death records from various states and some foreign countries is available to you from this site. Adobe is a secure site, so if it prompts you to download their reader, it should be safe to load in order to view the digital files.

Washington County, A Centennial History book by Paul F. Lambert, Kenny A. Franks and Margaret Withers Teague published by the Oklahoma Heritage Association in Oklahoma City is available at the Circulation Desk of the Bartlesville Public Library for $20 a copy. Please take advantage of this opportunity to add this core title about Bartlesville history to your personal collection.

The Oklahoma Historical Society has digitized and put online over 600 historical maps thanks to the support of a $200,000 grant from the Chickasaw Nation. Plans exist to make as many as 4,000 maps accessible through its Web site available at www.tulsaworld.com/ohs. PDF versions of the maps can be printed directly from the Web and include original plats of nearly every town in what is now eastern Oklahoma, a hand-drawn map of the Choctaw Removal, a 1926 Oklahoma State Highway system map predating Route 66, and an unusual "New Map of Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Indian Territories" from 1856.

The Chickasaw grant allowed the Society to buy equipment and hire a full-time staff member for the project. The Society also plans to scan 40,000 rolls of microfilm including its newspaper collection. Newspapers will probably not be available online due to the size of the files but will be recorded on digital disks instead.

Next on the agenda is acquiring enough server space to enable the Society to open the collection to search engines such as Google and Yahoo. (Tulsa World, May 12, 2008, p. A15)

OSU has implemented a Web site that contains issues of the Chronicles of Oklahoma from 1923 to 1962 with an index to volumes since 1962. Check it out at: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/index.html

Labels: Chronicles of Oklahoma

A fascinating, historic collection is now available through the Library of Congress Web site at http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica. Here you can search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and find information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Currently you can view newspaper pages from the follwing states: California, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah and Virginia.

The National Digital Newspaper program is a partnership designed to provide enhanced access to United States newspapers. Ultimately, over a period of approximately 20 years, NDNP will create a national, digital resource of historically significant newspaper from all the states and U.S. territories published between 1836 and 1922. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library and Congress and freely acessible via the Internet. An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holding information on the website will direct users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats. LC will digitize and contribute to the NDNP database a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collection.

Labels: Chronicling America

Missouri death certificates from 1910-1956 are now available online:
www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates
The Missouri Death Certificate Database contains death records created after 1910 and over 50 years old. The index can be searched by first and last name, county, and by year and month. Once a name is selected, a digitized image of the original certificate can be retrieved and printed. The project is ongoing with additional records being added as they are transcribed and imaged.

The Missouri Birth and Death Records Database contains an abstract of birth, stillbirth and death records recorded before 1909. The database currently contains over 185,000 records from 87 counties:
www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/birthdeath
The database can be searched by entering all or part of a name. It is recommended to enter just the last name. The search engine is designed to search for keywords. Birth and stillbirth records can be searched by the name of the child, mother's name, mother's maiden name, and name of father. All records for a county can be viewed by selecting the county and leaving the name blank.

Other states, including Oklahoma, are considering similar indexes. Since only certified copies of records are available from Kansas, proof of familial relationship is required, and no plans exists
offer digitized records online. West Virginia Archives and History is offering birth, marriage and death certificates from 1917-1956 online from six counties: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx

Labels: Missouri vital statistics