Many people spend their time talking about holidays past and that spurs an interest in previous generations. That sets in motion the desire to research those past ancestors.
The Henryetta library has a number of resources available for amateur and even professional genealogists and the best part it is all free of charge.
From old newspaper microfilms to obituary indexes and even a computer allowing access to the resources of Ancestry.com, the material is available throughout the week said librarian Joann Hott.
“We have one computer connected to Ancestry.com that anyone can use. This gives them free access to everything from census to military records and even passenger lists from ships that brought people to America.”
Registration with that same website for full access to the same records on home computers can run from $49 monthly to over $200 for a year.
A great source of family history are the old newspapers and school yearbooks.At one time there were six newspapers in Henryetta as well as newspapers from Dewar, Kusa and Dustin. While the Free-Lance microfilm copies are complete other publications have some issues missing.
Available for use in the library only are the school annuals that date back to The Pigeon in 1930, the earliest school annual. Photos of many grand and even great grand parents can be found there as well as their school activities.
For most amateur genealogists, the starting place is an obituary.
“We have an obituary index which was made possible by its originator and researcher of the Henryetta Public Library,
Carolyn Purvine. Carolyn loved libraries and when she and Joe would vacation she liked to visit libraries and she saw these obituary indexes. So, when she came back to Henryetta, she took years working on an obituary index for us. She personally went through every microfilm roll and made an index card on each and every obit with the persons name and the date of the paper and page number it was on so that when we look obits up now we just go to the index and find which paper to look in.”
In 1989 the Friends of the Library of which Carolyn was a member walked Westlawn Cemetery and wrote the names and birth and death dates from every headstone and made us an alphabetical index book and a map of the cemetery. This gives people a general idea of where their loved ones are located.
Several other books are available in the library including the two-volume Okmulgee County History Book and the Rodriguez book on Henryetta with photographs and a lot of forgotten information.
For people new to genealogy or wanting to get into it, the Henryetta library subscribes to the FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE which is a monthly publication not only teaching people how to go about doing genealogy but information on how to find relatives living and deceased. “Almost every day we have someone come in, call or e-mail for information on someone or on a loved one that they want to find out about or place a headstone and don’t know where they are located or see if they are even buried here or elsewhere,” Hott said.
She encouraged anyone wishing more information about the genealogy section or any other aspect of the library to e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 918-652-7377. The library also has a website at: https://www.henryettalibrary.org
