Newspapers and Periodicals
Newspapers are a wonderful way to piece together details of your ancestors' past. Many of the newspapers contain information about the seemingly mundane day-to-day events in the towns. It is very common to read that Mr. Jones visited Logan county yesterday, or Mrs. Jones' home was beautifully decorated for the ladies bridge club meeting. While there are subscription services for newspapers (Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com for example), there are also excellent and FREE online resources.
Free Newspaper Archives
- The Gateway to Oklahoma History: This is a great starting place for all of your research. It contains many different collections, and one of them is the Oklahoma Digitial Newspaper Collection. To read more about the collections contained in the Gateway, visit their Collections page.
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This Library of Congress website contains searchable digitized newspapers from 1777 - 1963.
Free Periodical Archives
- The Chronicles of Oklahoma: "The Chronicles of Oklahoma is the scholarly journal published by the Oklahoma Historical Society. It is a quarterly publication and was first published in 1921."
Here's an example of an article from the journal:
- Internet Archive This is a huge site - "Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge." There are a lot of hidden gems in these archives.
Here are some magazines I found related to genealogy and Oklahoma research: - Google Books Google books is another great place to find hidden treasures. Many of the books are in the public domain and you are able to read them online. When you search, make sure you have your search term set to "Full View" so that you'll only get results for things you can read online. Here are some relevant items I've found:
- Mehan Memories: A Croquet Diamond was the Social Center
Description: "Article describes the history of the town of Mehan, Oklahoma, its founding families and businesses, and the town's unique social center--a croquet field. Founded near the turn of the twentieth century, Mehan remained a small, quiet village until an oil boom brought an influx of people to Payne County in the 1920s. Prosperity lasted only until the 1950s, however, when population loss, a devastating flood, and the loss of the railroad initiated Mehan's decline."