by Andrew Koch
Oklahoma, where (according to Rodgers and Hammerstein) the wind comes sweeping down the plain. This relatively young state has a deep history, populated by pioneers, refugees, Boomers, Sooners and entrepreneurs.
Whether your ancestor “belong[ed] to the land” like the characters of Oklahoma! or just passed through on a cattle trail, this guide will help you find your Sooner.
part of the Missouri Territory, 1812; part of the Arkansas Territory, 1819; part of the Indian Territory, 1830; Oklahoma Territory, 1890
1907
1890, 1907
1860
Public
1908
Kept at the county level
State Department of Health
1000 NE 10th St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73117
(405) 271-4040
Native Americans have lived in what is now Oklahoma for thousands of years. The Spiro Mounds, believed to have been built as early as 850, stand as a testament to the longevity and resilience of indigenous groups in the state. By the time of European contact, notable groups in the region included the Caddo, Comanche, Kaw/Kansa, Osage and Wichita. In 1541, the members of an expedition led by Spaniard Francisco Vázquez de Coronado were the first Europeans known to reach Oklahoma. They sought the famed Seven Cities of Gold in a trek through the American Southwest. From the late 1600s, Oklahoma was part of the massive Louisiana Territory. The area—which extended north to modern Canada—transferred hands from France to Spain in 1763, then briefly back to France.
Oklahoma’s isolation from the coast and perceived aridness discouraged European settlement. It wasn’t until 1796 that the French founded a permanent outpost, at Chouteau near modern Salinas. The United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, initially deeming it Louisiana Territory/District. What is now Oklahoma became part of Missouri Territory in 1812, then Arkansas Territory in 1819.
East of the Mississippi, the political climate grew increasingly hostile toward Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson adopted a harsh “Indian removal” policy, and Congress reserved Oklahoma as “Indian Territory” in 1828. Federal agents forcibly marched tribes to Oklahoma along the “Trail of Tears” and other routes through the fol- lowing decades. Tribes from across the American Southeast (and, later, from the Great Plains) were assigned tracts of reservation land in Indian Territory, which ultimately received arrivals from more than 60 tribes.The nearby Republic of Texas secured independence from Mexico, and joined the United States in 1845. Per the earlier Missouri Compromise, slavery was prohibited in new states north of the 36°30’ parallel. So as part of the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its land north of that line (the “Public Land Strip”) to be admitted as a slave state. This “no man’s land” was eventually attached to Oklahoma, becoming its distinct panhandle.
Indian Territory nominally sided with the Union during the Civil War. However, many tribes living there supported the Confederacy. Their dual loyalties led the US government to renegotiate various treaties in 1866, and it was around this time that leaders suggested the Choctaw words okla (“people”) and homma (“red”) as a name for the region. Also as a result of the Civil War, federal troops were stationed in Indian Territory during Reconstruction. Among them were the Buffalo Soldiers, regiments of Black soldiers. The area became a hot spot for newly emancipated African American settlers, who founded all-Black towns. Abundant land and natural resources (notably oil) increased US interest in India erritory. Key cattle trails (such as the Chisholm Trail) and railroads crisscrossed Indian Territory, connecting Kansas and Texas. Bands of white settlers called “Boomers” arrived in the area in the late 1870s and early 1880s despite federal laws reserving land for tribes.
The Dawes Act (1887) abolished tribal governments and divided their lands into household-size allotments. Natives in Indian Territory faced a difficult choice: assimilate, or lose their land altogether. The Dawes Commission, established in 1893, accepted applications from Native men in Indian Territory claiming membership to one of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee/Creek and Seminole). Even today, many researchers use the “Dawes Rolls” when trying to prove Native American descent.
The federal government opened nearly 2 million acres of formerly Indian land to white settlement. By the end of a massive land run on 22 April 1889, an estimated 50,000 people had claimed land in “Oklahoma Territory.” Some settlers preempted the o ̄cial opening, earning the nickname “Sooners.” Indian Territory was reduced to the eastern lands held by the “Five Civilized Tribes,” and continued to shrink.
Additional Indian land was opened for white settlement in subsequent land rushes, notably 6.5 million acres of Cherokee land in 1893. Despite a petition from tribal delegates for an all-Indian state, Congress officially dissolved Indian Territory and admitted a united Oklahoma as the 46h state in 1907. Racial tensions flared in the new state. As many as 300 Black people were killed by angry mobs during the Tulsa Race Massacre, which decimated several blocks of a prominent Black-owned business district. Farmers in western Oklahoma were hit especially hard by the “Dust Bowl” drought conditions of the 1930s. Many “Okies” were spurred to emigrate out of the state. John Steinbeck memorialized the plight of Oklahoma tenant workers in The Grapes of Wrath, as did Dorothea Lange in her famous photograph “Migrant Mother.”
1541
Spaniard Francisco Vázquez de Coronado leads an expedition through modern Oklahoma
1763
France gains Louisiana Territory from Spain
1803
The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France
1819
Arkansas Territory is created, including most
of modern Oklahoma
1828
Congress reserves Oklahoma for Native Americans, many of whom are forcibly marched from the East and Southeast
1850
Texas adjusts its northern border, creating Oklahoma’s panhandle
1889
The western half of the modern state is opened to white settlement, and organized as Oklahoma Territory the next year
1907
Oklahoma becomes the 46th state; Indian Territory is dissolved
1912
Cotton County is created from Comanche County, the last major change to Oklahoma’s county borders
2020
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling asserts the continuing authority of the Five Tribes
governments in their former reservation lands
The state first required birth and death registration in 1908, though the law was not enforced until 1917 (and not widely compiled with until the 1920s). Some counties kept records earlier; consult with local courthouses. Because the state restricts access to birth records less than 125 years old (1899, as of this writing), you won’t be able to request them unless you’re a direct descendant of the person named. Death records, for their part, are considered private for 50 years. Search a free index of birth and death records—even limited information about those still under privacy restrictions—at ok2explore.health.ok.gov. Eligible relatives can order copies of records through the department of health.
Marriage and divorce records continue to be kept only at the county level; there’s no law requiring them to be registered by the state. Check with the clerk of court in the county in which the event took place. The Oklahoma Historical Society has a searchable index of marriages from 1889 to 1951, created from FamilySearch microfilm (also available on Ancestry.com). The collection includes marriages documented by various Indian agencies.
Oklahoma was first enumerated in full in 1890 as Oklahoma and Indian Territories. Residents in earlier decades went largely unrecorded; white residents living in Indian Territory were enumerated as part of Arkansas Territory only in 1860, and Native residents weren’t recorded at all until 1890. Records of the 1900 through 1950 censuses are widely available on genealogy websites. Population schedules for Oklahoma in the 1890 census have been lost.
Fortunately, Oklahoma Territory took its own census in 1890. Records are available through the Oklahoma Historical Society. Oklahoma also conducted its own census upon statehood in 1907, but only records from Seminole County survive. Search both at Ancestry.com.
Various Native tribes took their own censuses. Notably, Cherokee Nation enumerated its citizens in 1880 and 1890, and records are held by the Oklahoma Historical Society. A third census, taken in 1896 with the Dawes Commission, is considered to be less reliable.
Partner organizations from around the state collaborated on the free Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program, which has some 590,000 pages from nearly 1,600 titles. Oklahoma publications are also available at subscription websites Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank and Newspaper Archive.
A public-land state, Oklahoma had most of its land sold by the federal government in accordance with the Homestead Acts. However, as previously discussed, the state was only gradually opened to white settlement, with notable land rushes in 1889 and 1893. Find land patents through the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office and tract books from OHS. OHS also has records of Indian Territory Records of land originally given to tribes (except for the Five Civilized Tribes)
The “Dawes Rolls” list Native men in Indian Territory who applied for membership in the Five Civilized Tribes around the turn of the 20th century. Find them through the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). If you find an ancestor in the rolls, order a copy of their enrollment application or land allotment packet (also available at FamilySearch and www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1390101). OHS holds other records of Native communities in the American Indian Archives (search an index at www.okhistory.org/research/archiveindex), and the National Archives has Bureau of Indian Affair records. Resources vary by tribe.
FamilySearch Research Wiki: Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Vital Records Index
Guide to the Historical Records of Oklahoma, revised edition by Bradford Koplowitz (Heritage Books)
Guide to Manuscripts in the Western History Collections of the University of Oklahoma by Kristine L. Southwell (University of Oklahoma Press)
Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, fourth edition by Charles Robert Goins and Danney Goble (University of Oklahoma Press)
Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries by Arrell Morgan Gibson (University of Oklahoma Press)
National Archives at Fort Worth
Oklahoma State Archives
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