GenealogyClassBlog

Dick Eastman, in his Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter blog on Saturday, Dec. 5, highlights an article by genealogist Beau Sharbrough, an expert at online and computer genealogy, on his Unofficial Footnote Blog. On Saturday Beau wrote, updating the unofficial list of online census images and indexes available and in the works. He mentions the four major resources and compares what they have to offer:  Ancestry.com; HeritageQuest Online; Footnote; and FamilySearch. We discussed each of these in class, but a brief review might be helpful.

Ancestry.com requires a subscription, but offers thousands and thousands of databases beyond the U.S. Federal Census. Some are indexes only, but many are linked to scanned images of the census pages. You may subscribe directly to Ancestry.com, but you may also use it for no charge, on-site at many libraries, including all branches of the Tulsa City-County Library, and at the Tulsa Genealogical Society.

You may use HeritageQuest Online onsite at the Genealogy Center, a part of the Tulsa City-County Library. Private subscriptions are not available. Of the four resources mentioned, HeritageQuest offers the fewest databases, but I like its census index searching functionality and the quality of its scanned images.

Footnote.com offers millions of records, but not nearly as many databases as those found at Ancestry.com. It is also available by personal subscription, for a much lower cost than that of Ancestry.This subscription is also provided by the Tulsa City-County Library, for use on-site at the Genealogy Center.

FamilySearch is the online resource of the Family History Library and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As Beau explains, FamilySearch has partnered with Footnote to enable users access to some of the images, but they have also digitized many of the images themselves, and have a very large body of images and databases. Their indexing project is being accomplished through the use of volunteers. Access to their information is free. The section of their site which offers the U.S. Federal Census images is called Record Search, currently found at this url:  http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start.

For specifics, I would recommend reading both posts, both by Dick and by Beau, as well as the comments that follow each.

TGS Online Funeral Home Index

This morning I responded to a Tulsa, Oklahoma message board that you can find on RootsWeb.com. I realized that what I had written may not be seen there by many who might need to know about this valuable resource for Tulsa research. So, I’m offering an edited version here.

The Funeral Home Records of Tulsa was published in twelve volumes by the Tulsa Genealogical Society beginning in 1989. Through their work, it isn’t necessary to search through years of records to find the name of a person that you’re looking for.

There is an index to the first ten volumes available online the Society’s website, http://www.tulsagenealogy.org/library/FuneralHomeIndx.asp, with which anyone can search for a name of someone whose record was handled by one of numerous Tulsa funeral homes. For those names that are listed in this cumulative index, you will find a volume and page number, which would lead you to additional information.

There are a few Tulsa funeral homes that are not included, but you can see by visiting the web site above that they do have lots of funeral home records — some as late as 1984, but most up until 1980, and as early as 1906. The following are covered in the first ten volumes and the index (for information about the last two volumes, look for Publications at the TGS web site):

• Moore’s Funeral Home, Moore’s Memory Chapel, and Moore’s Eastlawn
• Ninde’s Funeral Home
• Whisenhunt’s Funeral Home
• Stanley’s Funeral Home
• Winterringer Funeral Home
• Lane Funeral Home
• Coulter-Brown Funeral Home
• Fitzgerald Funeral Home
• Heath-Griffith Funeral Home

For instance, Volume 1 includes the records of Moore’s Funeral Home for 1927-1955, extracted carefully by TGS members. TGS offers the volume for sale or will send a copy of the page with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and $1 per page (mail to P. O. Box 585, Tulsa 74101). Additional contact information, membership information, and descriptions of all of their publications may be found at their web site.

The entire set of Funeral Home Records of Tulsa may be found at the

• TGS Library, 9136 E. 31st St. (918-627-4224)
• Tulsa City-County Library’s Genealogy Center (918-746-5222; genaskus@tulsalibrary.org)
• TCCL’s Research Center (918-596-7977; http://www.tulsalibrary.org/askus/).

I would suggest an e-mail or phone call to any of these libraries to learn the funeral home, date and place of birth and date and place of death, of the person you find in the TGS online index Or, purchase or locate a print copy of the Cumulative Funeral Home Index.

Kathy Huber, MLS, Genealogy Librarian for the Tulsa City-County Library, will present a mini-workshop for the the Tulsa Genealogical Society on Monday, February 23 at the TGS Library, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. The mini workshop, “Early Oklahoma Records,” will include land run records, marriage records, Indian Territory records, and Native American records.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that Janice Meredith, FTGS was scheduled to present a mini-workshop on 26 January, but on that date Tulsa was hit by icy weather. That event has been re-scheduled for Monday, 20 May. Her topic is, “Tracing Your Ancestor Using Land Records.”

The suggested donation, for either of these fundraisers for the society, is $7.50. TGS is located just east of 31st and Mingo in Tulsa. For a map to the library, or to read more about the Tulsa Genealogical Society, visit their website.

The Tulsa Genealogical Society will be offering a mini-workshop on Monday, 26 January, at the TGS Library, 9136 Briar Village Shopping Center. Janice Meredith, FTGS, TGS Librarian, will be presenting the topic, which is entitled, “Tracing Your Ancestor Using Land Records.” TGS offers these mini-workshops periodically as fundraiser events, asking for a donation of $7.50 to attend.

Land records of our ancestors can be the solution to difficult genealogical puzzles and they provide insight into the lives of our ancestors. The records are very important yet they can be confusing. Janice is an excellent speaker and I encourage you to attend if you get the chance.

I have been asked to present a mini-workshop for TGS on Monday, 27 April, on one of the topics I will be presenting at the FGS Conference in September — “How To Be a Power Hitter: Improve Your Online Searching Skills.” I’ll write more about that soon. Both workshops will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. To watch for other mini-workshops, or for a map to the TGS Library, visit the Tulsa Genealogical Society’s web site.