GenealogyClassBlog

The Tulsa Genealogical Society will be offering a series of mini-workshops at their facility, starting this Thursday, January 27. According to the society’s publicity, at the first workshop, “Scrapbooking – Genealogy Style,” “Peggy Blodgett and Linda Quinn will demonstrate ‘hands on’ how to organize a family scrapbook that will find a space on your coffee table, and a special place in your heart.” Doors open at 6:30pm; workshop 7:00-9:00pm.

The suggested donation of $10.00 benefits the Tulsa Genealogical Society. There will also be a $2.00 charge for scrapbooking materials. For more information, call 918-627-4224.

Additional workshops have been scheduled (including the workshop I will present on February 24)

• February 24, 2011 — Barbara Meehan, “What’s New With FamilySearch.”
• March 31, 2011 — Janet Cottrell, “Cemeteries”
• April 28, 2011 — Laura Martin, “Oklahoma Historical Society”
• May 26, 2011 — Steve King, “Steamships & Early Migration Routes
• June 23, 2011 — Kathy Huber, Topic To Be Announced

The suggested donation for each of the mini-workshops is $10.00. TGS is located at 9136 East 31st Street, at the southeast corner and back of the Briar Village Shopping Center.

beta.familysearch.org

Whether you are new to genealogy or have been researching your ancestry for years, you need to know what is going on with FamilySearch®. I included the topic of FamilySearch® in class in late October and I have already heard about changes I’ll need to make to my presentation.

On Thursday, February 24, 2011, I will be presenting an evening workshop for the Tulsa Genealogical Society on the topic, “What’s New With FamilySearch®?”

I presented the same topic in July for the Tulsa City-County Library and had a large crowd at Hardesty Library. FamilySearch® is a free website, an online home for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their genealogical help to everyone – whether Mormon or not.

The people at FamilySearch® have been listening to genealogists. I even had a meeting with Jay Verkler, the FamilySearch CEO while at the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ 2009 National Conference in Little Rock. They have introduced new online spaces, and are uploading digitized records. They have a huge volunteer indexing program and they are working to digitally back up their collection of 2.4 million rolls of microfilm as well.

When I presented the program in July, I included two brand new online videos that you should be sure to watch. Visit their blog entry from July to access the videos.

And, to visit their beta site, which is where they are testing all of these new features, go to http://beta.familysearch.org. Their original site can still be found at http://www.familysearch.org.

The mini workshop is a fund-raiser for TGS, and will be held at their library, 9136 E. 31st St., from 6:30 to 8:30. Check the Tulsa Genealogical Society’s website for the recommended donation amount.

Last July I presented a program for the Tulsa City-County Library on organization called, “Information Overload: Organizing Your Genealogy Records.” It was very well attended. Many people struggle with the mountains of paperwork, photos, computer files, and notes that we produce as we search for our ancestors, and so the topic is a popular one.

The Tulsa Genealogical Society has asked me to present a program on organizing, with a special emphasis on the paper records. I am scheduled for their March meeting, Monday, 15 March. Janet Cottrell teaches a free beginners class beginning at 6:00, and the meeting is from 7:00 to 9:00.

The monthly meetings are held the third Monday of the month (September through May), at the TGS Library, located in the southeast corner of the Briar Village Shopping Center, in a suite of offices behind what was once a Price Mart. Meetings are free and open to the public.

The address is 9162 E. 31st St. TGS has a web site: www.tulsalibrary.org.

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.

I have been initiated into the fraternity of national genealogy speakers! I presented two lectures at the 2009 Federation of Genealogical Societies National Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was held Sept. 2-5. The first lecture was How To Be a Power Hitter, which was about getting better results when searching in online genealogy databases. I had presented an earlier version to the Tulsa Genealogical Society as the first part of a mini-workshop in May 2009. I really enjoy doing this lecture and presenting examples of how you and I won’t be able to find what we’re seeking until we have conquered the limitations of the index.

The second lecture was one I had proposed because of Little Rock’s proximity to Oklahoma, because attendees often decide to attend conferences in areas relating to their geographic area of interest. This one was called Oklahoma’s Settlement: Territorial Homestead and Allotment Records, and was one I had presented for the Tulsa City-County Library in July. I had updated the graphics on my slides with maps from the Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 4th edition, (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), with the permission of the University of Oklahoma Press. For those with an interest in tracing individuals or families in pre-statehood Oklahoma, this is a great resource.

Recordings of the audio portion of each lecture are available for purchase through JAMB Inc..