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Mining IPH

2-3PM - Genealogy Saturday
Hosted by the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center
 Saturday, October, 2011, Enid, OK

A valuable secondary source for history was produced in Oklahoma as a WPA project. This wonderful body of work has a full, free, online index and available in a few places online. This presentation will explain what this data is, how to access it in Oklahoma repositories as well as online, and offer examples of the treasure.

Click here for resources

    I.    Introduction

a.    Speaker

b.    Standards

  II.    Classification of WPA Materials

a.    Many WPA projects touched all parts of Oklahoman’s lives

                                   i.    School Buildings, Municipal Facilities, & Parks

                                  ii.    Art, Theatre, & Music Projects

                                 iii.    Roads, Bridges, and Airports

                                 iv.    Vocational & Professional Training

b.    History Projects include

                                   i.    Writers Project

1.    The WPA Guide to 1930s Oklahoma

2.    The Labor History of Oklahoma

3.    Others:  both Published and unfinished

                                  ii.    Historical Records Survey (full or partial)

1.    Federal, State, OHS

2.    All Oklahoma County

3.    Native American & Veteran Affairs

4.    Municipal, Church, Private & Newspaper

c.    National WPA Oral History Scope (In Oklahoma: Project S-149)

                                   i.    At least 11 states west of the Mississippi participated - such as North Dakota

                                  ii.    No universal name for oral histories or record group – states named separately

                                 iii.    Even within Oklahoma, ID of sources vary widely

                                 iv.    Remote access and identification of each is varied

d.    A Horse by Any Other Name – Research finds this data

                                   i.    Named differently – inside and outside of Oklahoma

                                  ii.    Attributed to different WPA projects

                                 iii.    Bottom line is that it doesn’t matter how it’s classified if the data helps you further your research

                                 iv.    When trying to locate these histories – work the alternates (similar to soundex, computer search, alternate spellings, etc.)

e.    Oklahoma Oral History Project

                                   i.    Initiated under the direction of Grant Forman

                                  ii.    25,000 questionnaires

                                 iii.    From January, 1937 to June, 1938 – 11,000 manuscripts were received, reviewed and edited for inclusion into the collection

                                 iv.    45,00 pages total

                                  v.    IPH: 112 numbered volumes – no 111

                                 vi.    To narrow the scope of the project –

1.    Information of Early Pioneers

2.    Had to be born prior to 1870 or considered the first settler in a township

3.    Know your parentage

                               vii.    Recorded like

1.    Ethnicity

2.    Where born

3.    Reminiscence if early life

4.    Include stories related to them

5.    Also included: supportive documentation on

a.    counties, cities, townships

b.    agriculture, climate, natural resources

c.    fraternal organizations, political parties

d.    population, railroads, prominent citizens, etc.

e.    transcripts of early county and township records having genealogical and historical value

    I.    Digging Around (access)

a.    Oklahoma History Center – Indian Pioneer History Collection

                                   i.    Over 80,000 Index Cards (doesn’t cross reference OU)

                                  ii.    Microfilm of both for purchase or browse

                                 iii.    Hardbound – by special archival arrangement only (illegible)

                                 iv.    Not currently available online

b.    University of Oklahoma Western History Collection: Indian-Pioneer Papers/Collection – 116 volumes

                                   i.    Microfiche of text & index

                                  ii.    http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/pioneer - index, actual interview images (PDF)

1.    Browse by volume

2.    Search by personal name, place name or subject

3.    Find on page…Manuscript searchable

a.    Exception: Not all manuscripts contains searchable text

c.    Transcriptions

                                   i.    OK Genweb - http://www.okgenweb.org/pioneer/

                                  ii.    University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Sequoyah National Research Center http://www.anpa.ualr.edu/digital_library/indianvoices/family_stories/family_stories.htm

                                 iii.    Non Oklahoma link http://libinfo.uark.edu/SpecialCollections/wpa/

                                 iv.    Slides of other online findings – don’t forget Cyndi’s List

  II.    Rocking Out (types of info found)

a.    Types of OK S-149 Forms

b.    OK S-149 Index Card Example

c.    Social History

d.    Geographical Description

e.    Family Data

f.     Further “hidden treasures”

                                   i.    Schools, institutions, businesses

                                  ii.    Non-Family data related to research

                                 iii.    Cemetery Data (Form B)

                                 iv.    Etc.

III.    Summary

Resources

http://www.okgenweb.org/pioneer/about.htm

 http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/069.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Records_Survey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

 http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/H/HI016.html

Page Last Updated October 25, 2011