FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Below is a list of the questions that we are most frequently asked about Murray County. If you don't find the answer you need listed here, then just drop us an email and we will try to get you the information you need. Sometimes we get lucky.
You will NOT find a birth or death certificate for a person from Oklahoma dated before 1908. Oklahoma did not become a State until November of 1907. Commonly used items to verify a birth date are a Family Bible, Oklahoma Historical Society, U.S. Census, Daws Commission Rolls, Indian Nations legal documents, etc. For those who were born or died after 1907, the Oklahoma State Department of Health will have these for a $5 or $10 fee.
http://www.health.state.OK.us/program/vital/brec.html
There is a cemetery registry page on this website. We have 32 cemeteries in and around Murray county listed here.
There are several reasons why this may occur. The ancestor may have been buried in an unmarked grave. When the registries are made, the reader will write the pertinent information from the tombstone. If there is no tombstone, there is no way to know who is buried there. We often just find a native stone, a pipe or concrete block or even a brick as a grave marker. There are also the old metal funeral home markers that have deteriorated over the years. Another reason may be that there was a tombstone but the stone has been stolen or brOKen into many small pieces. I have seen many tombstone bases with no stone in sight that goes to that base. It could be that the reader simply missed that stone. We are human and make mistakes no matter how hard we try. Some of the older cemeteries can be very confusing because there was no rhyme or reason for the way the graves were laid out. Another reason is weather. Many of the old stones have simply fallen apart because of the freezing and thawing during the seasonal changes. The old marble stone are particularly bad about doing this. They will break into several pieces and they just get lost in the shuffle. One of the reasons is one that I have found very common. The ancestor simply is not buried there. They may have moved a few years before their death or they wanted to be buried "back home" and was buried elsewhere. The last and probably the most common, the cemetery registry may not be complete. The readers have jobs, families, etc. The weather gets foul or they get ill themselves. Most readers are like myself and have commitments that have to be honored. We do this reading as a hobby with a passion as time permits.
I am still adding names but the first one I have is Frier Funeral Home is Sulphur, before 1918, then Danners, Bahner, Dunn and currently Clagg. Another new funeral home has started in Sulphur/Davis by the name of Cowley-Krine. I will add the names of the Davis homes as soon as I learn them all. Bahner and Fox are the last funeral homes in Davis.
NO, and I know of no plans to organize one. The Arbuckle Historical Society, with branches in Sulphur and Davis, has a great amount of data collected of pioneer Murray county families as well as old photos and documents. They also have the original official books of early marriages stored. These records have yet to be transcribed.
Arbuckle Historical Society, 201 S. 4th, Davis, OK 73030
Arbuckle Historical Society, 400 W. Muskogee, Sulphur, OK 73086