Summary of April’s Meeting

OCGS conducted its April Meeting via video conferencing, which went without a hitch. Several of the attending members have been using the Zoom technology to stay in touch with out-of-state family members, church meetings, and other activities. The response to the experience seemed to be well received by those attending.

With no meeting in March, past business consisted of only two items. The first was the subject of magnetic signs. In January it was suggested we may want to get involved in parades to promote our society. The committee members responsible for looking into this were not available to discuss it Monday, but it is assumed the stay at home orders has postponed the search for information on this subject.

The second item, was the status of helping the Okmulgee Cemetery Association with their records project. I am proud to announce we had 13 members, in early March, who volunteered to spend a Saturday morning checking the alphabetization of the burial cards. At the last minute the OCA notified us they wished to postpone our help until after their March board meeting. This was in order to better determine the direction they wished to take for their project. Shortly thereafter the Covid-19 virus started and we have had no further contact with the OCA.

However, the initial study of the OCA records inspired us to take a closer look at the OCGS funeral home record collection. This collection was donated to us over a decade ago and has been stored in boxes, underutilized as a source of genealogy information. A new project was commenced to make these funeral home cards available to the general public. The project has two phases. Phase 1 consists of digitizing cards obtained from some closed Henryetta Funeral Homes. It is estimated there are 12 to 14 thousand cards spanning 1923 to 1995. Over 8,000 cards have now been scanned during the last 6 weeks. Phase 2 consists of building a database to easily search through the names on these cards and find the corresponding digital image. So far, over 2,500 names, along with birth and death dates, have been entered. This information is being made available through the OCGS website at $4 per card. The same price as for an obituary lookup. Two cards have already been ordered and delivered.

Due to the library being closed – but library employees still required to come in to work during the virus shutdown – Traci has been able to make great strides in working on this project. A process has been developed we believe can be used on other society collections. The OCGS has a mixture of documents from closed Funeral Homes. Funeral Book records, funeral cards, and even death certificates from different funeral homes are available and can benefit from this process. The goal is to make information available and provide additional funds for the society’s book donations.

Once the library reopens, Traci will not be able to maintain this pace. Anyone having a possible interest in helping with this project should contact Traci to learn more about what is needed. This help can be done from at home with only basic typing and computer skills.

Ann Volz volunteered to look into getting additional old funeral home records, through her contacts, when we are ready to pursue them. Thanks Ann.

At least one other member has mentioned in the past, knowledge of funeral home records stored at someone’s house. Anyone with knowledge of old records is encouraged to contract Traci to see if we can be a part of saving this important information for future generations.

New business consisted of the two expenditures: renewal of Ancestry.com and the purchase of 7 books to donate to the library. These issues were emailed to all members and email voting was allowed due to the stay at home orders. Both items were passed with no dissenting votes.

This concluded the business portion of the meeting. Additional conversation revolved around the use of Zoom video conferencing and possibilities for future use. Ann Volz had an excellent suggestion that future guest speakers may be easier to obtain if they were permitted to give a presentation using Zoom. The board will definitely explore this idea. Another idea was to incorporate Zoom in future meetings to allow member participation for those people who otherwise cannot attend our meetings in person.

We will let members know what the plans are for the May meeting as we decide what is best.