All My Ancestors

At my place of work, the library in the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division, we have just finished re-scanning and re-indexing the 1890 Oklahoma Territorial Census.  The new index is available online at the OHS website, and the cd with the census (and more) will soon be available for purchase.

As you probably know, most of the 1890 federal census was destroyed, leaving a huge gap in searching families as they began moving west as the lands started opening up.

On the eve of preparing for statehood in 1907, a census was taken of Oklahoma Territory.  At the time, this included 7 counties, though that number is deceiving.  For example, what was then called Beaver County encompassed all of the panhandle and what was then called “No Man’s Land”–much more than the current Beaver County.

For some unknown reason, this census was never sent to Washington, DC.  We have the original sheets at the Historical Society.  Within the last year or so, this census became available on Ancestry.com, though it is not included in the search when “U.S. Census” is chosen.  It was badly scanned and badly indexed, both originally and then at Ancestry.

The new scans are much clearer.  And the new index is much better.  “We” probably still have mistakes.  Some of the handwriting is incredibly bad and by census takers who obviously could not follow directions and may have been only minimally literate in the English language.  But those of us who have worked with census records know this is the way it works.  This time, however, the index was done by genealogists–persons who are used to working with these sorts of records.

Later I will post about a project I’ve pulled from this census.  I’m still mulling it around in my head, but it took initial shape as I was indexing page after page of the digitized scans.

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