GenealogyClassBlog

Hardesty Regional Library

The Tulsa City-County Library is offering some great programming for July again this year, during what it calls Family History Month. Download a copy of the beautiful, new, July Event Guide for the complete schedule as well as an interesting article about Linda Colvard and her help with adoption cases, Or go to the library’s Events page to see what programs are scheduled for the rest of July.

On Tuesday, 27 July, I will be presenting “What’s New With FamilySearch?” from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St. in Tulsa. FamilySearch, also known as the online face of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, is a free website that is fairly easy to use even before attending a class. But there is much more to FamilySearch now that they have enhanced and improved it in the last two years. I look forward to exploring it with you on the 27th.

Last night I attended a very interesting program presented by Dr. Mary Larson from Oklahoma State University on oral history (more on that later), and on Saturday seventy people were in the audience with me as Meg Hacker of Fort Worth’s Southwest Regional Branch of the National Archives introduced us to what genealogists can find, how to access descriptions of collections, and how to use some online databases at their website — www.archives.gov. Both of these were held at Hardesty, as will most of the remaining programs for the month. This is a major change from the past, but the move from to Hardesty was necessary so that there will be more room and chairs for the large number of people who attend these programs every July.

This Saturday, though, the programs will be held at Central Library because the speakers will be featuring the collections of Tulsa City-County Library’s Research Center, where you can find city directories, maps, the vertical files, high school yearbooks, newspapers, and other little-known treasures for local research. See the descriptions of both the morning and afternoon sessions, to be held in Aaronson Auditorium on the first floor. There will be an open house on the fourth floor between the sessions. Parking should not be a problem on Saturday because of all of the unused metered spaces nearby. I hope to see you there.

OSU Rodeo Association?

Jennifer Hall provided the information for this post. She first told me the story, and then agreed to scan the photo and give us the details.

“I was shopping in an antique store and this photo caught my eye. The photo appealed to me because of the vintage western clothing the people are wearing. It never occurred to me to look for family members, so it was quite a surprise when I recognized my great-uncle, Leo, in the picture! I quickly bought the photo and showed it to other members of the family. They pointed out that it wasn’t just Uncle Leo in the photo, but also Uncle Bob and his wife, as well as a cousin. Family members say this is a photo of the roping club my uncle started. It just goes to show that genealogical sources can be found in unexpected places.”

Jennifer wrote later,

“I think the photo was taken in the late ’40s to early ’50s. My Uncle Robert tells me he’s certain this is the roping club Leo started in Stillwater. I did a little bit of searching on the web and found some information.

There is an article about the 60th anniversary of the OSU Rodeo Association. It says Uncle Leo formed the club with his friends in 1946 when they enrolled at OSU. The group started with 6 members. They won first place at their first intercollegiate rodeo in 1948. The trophy now belongs to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

The article names Larry Kilgore as one of the founding members of the group and he is also pictured in the photo I have. My mom knew him and recognized him in the picture.

I found another article on OSU’s website about the scholarship my cousins created in Leo’s honor. It tells a lot about Uncle Leo’s. See this OSU website article.

I’m not looking at the photo right now, but Uncle Bob is seated on the front row, a little to the left of center. There’s a blond woman to the left of him. She was his wife, Bert. Uncle Leo is almost in the center of the photo, a little to the left. He his wearing a light colored cowboy hat that is tilted toward the back of his head so that it almost forms a circle around his face. He didn’t want to flatten his hair, I guess. Uncle Leo passed away last year, but Uncle Bob (not the Uncle Robert I emailed, I have 3 Uncle Roberts on the same side of the family, so confusing!) is still living. I don’t have an email address for him, so I’ll be sending him a letter. He should be able to give me more info.”
Jennifer Hall, Boston Avenue UMC Genealogy Class Student. Fall 2008