What to do? What to do?
So many topics floating through my head.
I’ll pick two–more info about the Missouri Blair line and research in Oklahoma.
I found the burial site of the governor’s father–he’s in the same cemetery in Jefferson City as the governor. As is the governor’s brother Sam C. Blair, US Attorney, and a third brother, William Clark Blair. I haven’t dug about long enough for William C. yet, but all three of these men served in World War II, one a colonel, one a major and one a lt. (jg) in the Navy.
Then there’s Dr. Anna Lou Blair, whom I found as well. She is the sister of James T., Sr. and distinguished enough in her own right. She taught 49 years at Missouri State University in Springfield, served as the chair of the Modern Languages department, and has a building named for her. I found her on the 1930 census studying at Yale and in 1940, she’s returning from a trip to Chile. She sounds like no slouch.
That’s just one of the topics I want to explore. (Not to mention that I keep thinking I should be able to find an obituary for James T., Sr. So far, I have not been successful in any of my subscription databases.)
Then there’s the article in one of the recent genealogy magazines that lists online sites for each state. There’s one lonely entry for Oklahoma, and it’s the Access Genealogy site that has the index to the final rolls of the Dawes Commission. It’s listed as a site that charges, which I’ve not found to be so, and the site also has in caps and bold letters the most ignored statement in Native American genealogical research:
IF YOUR ANCESTOR WAS NOT LIVING IN INDIAN TERRITORY DURING 1898-1914 THEY WILL NOT BE LISTED ON DAWES!!
But the point is that there are some other Oklahoma sites that are pretty terrific. One of the best, in my opinion, is the database of the Indian Pioneer interviews done in the 1930s–another one of those great WPA projects. These interviews were done with “89ers” (those who came to Oklahoma for the 1889 land run, or a subsequent run) or their descendants AND with Native Americans who already lived here, or their descendants and covers a time period of about 1860-late 1930s. With almost 80,000 entries, it is a rich, rich resource, and the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections has all the interviews mounted for access by name, place or subject.
The Research Center at the Oklahoma Historical Society has some good information up as well. The index to the 1890 Territorial Census is available at here. This census is particularly important since most of the 1890 census for the rest of the country was destroyed. Because Oklahoma was not yet a state, this census was not with the federal census and thus survives. It covers a portion of the Unassigned Lands (Logan, Oklahoma, Cleveland, Canadian, Kingfisher, and Payne Counties) in the center of the state and Beaver County in the panhandle.
Photos from early Oklahoma are also available online at the Oklahoma Historical Society’s site. Use the Archives link in the online catalog and type in a subject. If you see “file available” in the lower right corner, click on that link and see the photo. This database is no where near complete, but it’s fun to browse–type in the name of an Indian tribe or an old Oklahoma town and see what comes up.
Another online source, though not tied to any agency or company, is the work done by the late Mary Turner Kinard. She indexed many of the pre-statehood marriages from Indian Territory and that index is available online here. The documents themselves are in various repositories, but the site tells the searcher where to obtain copies.
We shouldn’t forget the Oklahoma portion of the USGenWeb project–I still find myself using it on an almost daily basis when I’m at work. It’s well maintained and has some very good information for anyone researching in Oklahoma.
I’ll stop.
Those are just two of the topics floating through my mind, and they aren’t even related except that they both address genealogical quests. Granted the Oklahoma resources aren’t all that straightforward, but they are there and they are free for now. And what’s the use of having a blog if not to use to clear my head?