Welcome to the OK Success Stories Page

Have you found a cousin, aunt, uncle or even a parent through the OKGenWeb pages?
If so, this is a page where I would like you all to share your findings.

Maybe through another's success you will find
the knowledge and/or courage to take that first step.
It can be scary at times and we would like to offer support and well wishes.

Please e-mail your own success story to me at [email protected],
and be sure to include "OK Success Stories" in your subject line.

Hello. Just wanted to let you know your site has been very interesting and helpful. My great-grandmother (Ada Daniels) was full Cherokee. Her life it appears was not that easy. What I have found is she and her brother (Charles Squirrel) and sister (Susie Daniels) were being raised by her grandmother.

Her mother (the interpreter could not ascertain the name) was stated as dead and her father (George Daniels) lived near by but never took care of the children. I suspect he was married to Sallie Daniels. I found his Dawes card (2476) and there are listed a whole other family. I could be wrong. This could be the wrong George Daniels I suppose.

I also found a Fort Smith criminal record for a George Daniels. Larceny 1878 Jacket 56. Liquor 1893 Jacket 288. He is possibly listed on Guion Miller rolls pg 74 22258, 2951. Also, Kern Roll 3779,2812 District Cooweesoowee, Saline. Possibly Wallace Roll 284.
Her grandmother died and she and her sister were then in the custody of Lizzie Jackson. i am not sure who this was but I suspect she was related to the grandmother, Agnes Scullawl.

Each of these ladies' census card list the name Chuwalooky as parent. There were guardianship papers presented to the census man. These were issued by the United States Court for the Northern Distrct of Indian Territory. I suspect if I could somehow get a copy of these I would be able to add another piece to the puzzle. Any ideas on how I can get my hands on these?

This has been so informative and exciting for me and I intend to keep trying to find more info.

Thanks to the Oklahoma GenWeb, I have found many 2nd and 3rd cousins and much about my great grandfather Ira Nathan Terrill, who was one of the Oklahoma Sooners.

I have an original copy of his book, "A Purgatory Made of a Paradise," copyrighted in 1907.

I have e-mailed several of my new-found relatives. I never would have learned what I have if not for the OKGenWeb.

Just wanted to encourage those of you looking for info on your relatives born in IT. I kept searching and finally the SWOGS was able to locate where my gr-grandfather obtained land in OK and subsequently where my grandfather was born in 1890.

This has been a mystery to our family for many years & no one bothered to pursue looking for it. I was just excited to find the exact plot that my gr-grandfather acquired in the Land Rush just outside of what is now Edmond. I'm now awaiting the papers on my gr-grandfather's land.

I just wish I had been aware of this & known what to ask of my grandfather when he was living. He died when I was 12, so I wasn't up on any of this!!

Sharon, the information you sent was very valuable in my research of the York family. I want you to know that I appreciate your help very much. I don't know what we researchers would do without Lookup Volunteers such as yourself.

Thanks again,
Billy Hightower
424 CR 609
Farmersville, Texas 75442

Sharon, I just wanted to thank you for posting some of my Obits. As a result, a second cousin in California saw the Obits and recognized the names of her great grandfather and others and went to my home page where she found pictures of several kinfolks. Her grandmother, 91 years old, who took care of my great grandmother till she died, enjoyed looking at my home page. Her grandmother is a sister-in-law to my grandfather who died in 1934. We are in the process of exchanging pictures and stories.

Sharon, just wanted to let you know that through placing some of our family obits on your page I have been contacted by a fellow who said by accident he visited the site and to his surprise not only did he know some of the people listed but that he was related to some of them. Thanks to your Greer County obit page he contacted me. We are going to have a SMITH get-together the last of May in Mangum and he and his wife plan to attend. Thanks for your help.

Success Story
Eddie Mills Dugger <[email protected]>

I would like to say Thank You Ok Gen Web! And a big Thank You to Pat Smith, Latimer County, Okla. Through the help of Okla Gen Web and Latimer County I have been reunited with my Cameron cousins. Almost exactly two years ago I began a search for my Cameron cousins, who I only knew existed from hearing my mother talk about her cousin Jack Cameron who was one year older than she.

Many times when I was growing up I overheard her talking to my dad about how she wished she could find them, as time went on she stopped saying anything about it, then about 4 years before she died, she had developed alzheimers and began talking about her childhood and her cousins that she had not seen in 60 years. We lost my mom on Christmas Day eight years ago and I made a vow that I would find her Camerons, and with the help of Okla Gen Web I did just that, actually they were hunting my family as well.

The thing that is so special about this is that 3 months after I began my search I received an email from Bill Cameron, whose father was my mothers first cousin, his email said are you my cousin? His father was also deceased by this time, but we talked on the phone and both cried and laughed, then we both called all our siblings and we had a mini family reunion shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately our rejoicing was short lived as Bill was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer this past November and we lost him Jan 11 th this year. But our families have formed close ties now, and exchanged family stories, pictures and have been making up for all those lost years. We are now working together to find our Cameron ancestors, so the search goes on, and Ok Gen Web made it happen for us. Thank You!

Recently I put a query on your board about Butler and Mayden. I wanted to tell you what wonderful people you have in your Jefferson County area. I have a friend who was given up for adoption at birth, and she's now 49 years old. Her doctor had given her, in later years, her information, off the original birth record, which led us to your county. Now, less than a week later, she has located all of her mother's family line (unfortunately, her mother passed away in 1996).

But, if possible I would like you to know how special two people are, in your area, who helped make my friend's dream come true. They are Lucille Moore, who manages the Senior Citizen Center in Waurika. At 84, she went to newspaper office, and found an obit on Cora Mae Mayden, and asked around, and found people who knew her. The other person, is her daughter Jean Murphy, who answered my query, and got in contact with her mother, to help.

These are two of the most wonderful people you would ever want to find.I can't thank them enough! Also, wanted to let others know, not to give up hope, that in less than a week, Jean and Lucille, helped make our search complete, so, keep on searching. As my friend Cathy said, "They're my Angels here on Earth."

Again, I'd like to thank you for a wonderful Web Site, and pass the word around what fantastic women Lucille and Jean are.

I would like to say a BIG Thank you to Ruth Atteberry Adams - Atoka County, Oklahoma. For three years I was trying to find double cousins of mine and Ruth was the biggest help ever. When I started my research I only knew the fathers name, Favors. Someone had said he had a daughter named Phyllis. Ruth helped me locate all three of them who happen to be now Phyllis Jensen, Sandra Banker and Donna Mulkey.

I contacted them and they were as glad to find me as I was them. They came to Rogersville, Alabama on August 23 this year to the Favors Family reunion. They were amazed they had so many relatives they never knew . We had the biggest time and will always keep in touch. I would like to say I have really enjoyed looking at the Atoka county webpage and the continuous updates Ruth does on this page. I cannot thank Ruth enough for all her help.

my long overdue success story....
Sandra Campbell <[email protected]>

Dear everyone reading this at success stories. I have promised Marti from OKGenWeb to submit this success story. I have been so busy with my new found family and work and praising the Lord above but now on to helping others even if it just means a letter like this to give hope to those still looking. I first want to thank everyone at roots-web and Ok-Gen for their constant words of support and all the boosts to keep me going.

Special thanks to Marti, Dian, yeloribbon, Thomas Knox, Greg McMurry and especially Glenn McMurry who, after helping me find my family, happened to be related to me after all and provided one of the most extensive "McMurry" family tree web sites I will ever see. I am so glad that my family hooked into it finally.

You are all people that I will never forget among all the others who answered the 100's of emails even if it was to let me know they were not the ones I was looking for.

To begin with, I decided to search for a half brother Mike McMurry whom I knew existed and was by my Dad's first wife. All I had was the fact that my Dad died at his sister Mary's house in Ft Worth TX and to find Mike I would probably need to find this sister or her family. I knew my Dad died at her home in Ft Worth in 1967 and was buried at a cemetery with one or all of the words consisting of "blue and bonnet."

I searched the web daily and started my search somewhere around May or June. In the meantime. I sought out all McMurrys' across the U.S. that had emails and started writing a standard, cut and paste, letter to them basically asking that if they were related to me to please contact me by email. I of course included enough info but no more than would let the right person reading know he had the right sister.

I knew also that he knew about me and my, (his), other two sisters by our Dad. Anyway, after several attempts to find blue bonnet cemetery and the help of a fellow searcher, was able to find my Dad at the SS death index but had no luck finding blue bonnet cemetery. After some brainstorming with yeloribbon I went out to my storage shed and found some old phone/address files of my late Mom's that I had packed and surprisingly saved all these years since her death.

On the page of "M"s was some McMurrys in TX and Ariz., one was to a Bob McMurry in Hurst TX. Back on the net I looked up the physical address of this Bob and after a couple of zoomings in and out of the address was amazed to find three blocks away, a street called "Blue Bonnet Drive" !!! I immediately searched for the cemetery with this name in Hurst TX and suddenly popped up with "Blue Bonnet Hills Cemetery" / Funeral Home" in Colleyville TX. Right outside of Hurst!!!!! Now at two in the morning and armed with phone and address for what I was sure my Father's last resting place, I tried to sleep.....

Finally the next day came and I called this Cemetery and was elated and saddened both to find that Bob McMurry a would be uncle, had died and was interred there and was my Dad . The lady could not have been more helpful once finding out my plight. She offered as much info as she could pull off her screen and my pen could not write detail fast enough.

She finally told me that Mary, listed as my Dad's sister had a last name of Bauers and that either she or her husband Byron had just as of Father's day been interred there. Now with as much as I could get from her and her promise to call me back as soon as she could find out the protocol of sending info to relatives, I raced to the net to look up Byron and Mary's name. There popped up the only ones listed for FTWorth.

I called and left a message on a machine and after about three days of phone tag with the daughter of Mary we talked on a Sunday about a month and a half ago. I asked her if she had an uncle named Jesse N. and she said yes. YES!!! If I did not find anyone else, it would not have mattered at that point and my face was breaking from the grin it bore. We talked for hours and through her was given the info that I had had five aunts and uncles from my Dad's siblings.

All gone except the youngest twins, Mary, her Mom, and Margaret. Her Mom had recently been put in a rest home and they had been cleaning out her house wondering what had ever happened to us girls who they felt should get a portion of Dad's things. After talking to my new found Cousin, who will always be the special first, I called and talked to my Aunt, Margaret and found out tons more of info on my Dad's side of the family. She put me in touch with another cousin who also had been looking for Mike, my brother.

Now with both of us looking, we were sure to complete the circle or the outside of the puzzle. So in between getting to know these new family members and letting my mind take hold and receiving packages from them of memorabilia that was so priceless and just like Christmas in July I cont. to send emails. I knew Mike was in the military and must be about 50 something and unless he had family that might have email it was like looking for a "McMurry" in a Irish haystack.

One Friday on Aug.14th, my other oldest brothers birthday by the way, I was sitting here as I had many times before culling through my email and the McMurry rejects I call them. Then half reading half watching T.V. I opened one from a John McMurry which read:

YOU HAVE FINALLY REACHED JOHN MCMURRY SON OF JESSE NEOLIN.
I REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE FROM THE SUMMER I SPENT IN LAWTON
OKLAHOMA IN 1957.

YOU CAN CONTACT ME AT AREA CODE (censored :). I AM SORRY I DID
NOT ANSWER SOONER BUT HAVE NOT BEEN ON JUNO. JM
E-MAIL ADDRESS.

I kept reading it over and over with chills going up and down my body. This had to be a prank I thought but only he would know about the summer of 57 which I just my self found out about by my older half sister, whom he thought I was, except that she would not have been his half sister but anyway. I called the number at 11:30 at night and talked to his daughter, my new niece, and learned he was at the movies with his wife and that she would have him call me back.

Of course he did with in 30 minutes and at that moment, my search was over and the circle complete. I still do not think it has soaked in yet but I know it will. He and I talked for hours that night and then again on Sunday. I think he, like I, called back to see if it was real or just a dream. Later, we were able through my great grandfather to link our lineage to a Glenn McMurry who helped me tremendously.

He was as shocked as I was as was evident from his email back to me telling me to go back to his web site and look again now. Turns out that our great times four grandfather John McMurry SR. had ten children. Glenn came off one brother and I and my family another. Mine stopped at my grandfather with no other info found. Boy were we able to fill in that little branch of the family tree!!!! I would never have believed all this.

We all keep sharing stories and pictures and tapes and giving each other one Christmas after another until we have our HUGE family reunion sometime around the first of next year when we get new vacation days. We all are happy and still pinching ourselves. People kept and still do ask me why I started this search and I would tell them then as I still do now. At first I did not know why but then I kept hearing a little voice telling me when I would say I only had one brother or one uncle that "oh yes, Sandra, you have a whole other side of family you have never met or gotten to know."

After, one too many times of hearing that voice it was inevitable and the search was on.

I hope this helps some of you that are looking not to give up. If you hit a dead end one way. Back track and try another path. I know my search ended quicker than others but I will always believe that God knew when the time would be right and then and only then would it happen. We use to ask each other why all these wasted years. But the answer came to us always at the same time. God did not think the time was right. It may not have worked at any other time.

Just hang in there. Let others help if they can and heed their opinions and suggestions. Sometimes we are too close to the tree (no pun intended) to see things clearly as others can. One last tid bit of advice that I am glad I gave myself before making each phone call or reading each email. Ask yourself the question that if this leads into a answer I do not think I can bear or a rejection or what is the worst case scenario that could come from this search, such as rude rejection, denial, those often unexpected kicks in the teeth, then remember that if you feel you cannot handle the bad that could possibly come from this find or search it may be best to put it on hold for awhile.

I knew that I may possibly get rejected and was prepared for this too although I only got kind and warm words and welcomes from everyone I contacted. GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL...

Success Story
Sharon McAllister

The Oklahoma GenWeb site and the other pages that I've found through this project have led me to many valued connections -- but this is my favorite story:

I sent the obituary of my GGgrandfather, Andrew Francis Milligan, to Sharon Burnett Crawford for OKObits. Soon after she posted it her aunt, Margie Etter, was checking out Sharon's site. Margie recognized his name, wrote to me, and helped me solve some major mysteries regarding that branch of the family.

So it turns out that Sharon and I are fifth half-cousins, but neither of us knew it. Is that the theme from the Twilight Zone I hear rising in the background?

I would like to relate a success story and a great big THANKS to Linda Garrison in Walters, OK (Cotton County). I had been looking for information on my Grandfather, George Washington BRISCOE who had come up with my Grandmother from Texas in the late 1800's or early 1900's to southern OK. I knew their children's names and birth dates, and most of their birth places, but had hit a dead end on the two Grandparents.

I looked through GenWeb into Cotton County and several other area counties and querried in hopes of finding something. Linda Garrison came forward with information she had that not only confirmed my Grandparents being in Cotton County but the names of George Washington's parents, grandparents, and siblings. This was what I was looking for. She offered to supply me with other information she has access to on these folks, and I look forward to getting it.

Of course, with the new information, it now means more searching and looking, but that is the nature of the endeavor.

Been out of town for a couple of weeks, but did want to let you know of my sucess stories!

I posted my mother's mother's maiden name, QUILLEN, to the Ellis County, OK query page. It didn't take long to get 2 replies about the name.

One researcher was looking for my great uncle, Claude (Dutch) Quillen. Her relative had married him. I was able to give her what I had and how we connected.

Then the next researcher was looking for my great aunt, Grace Quillen, who married a Byers. I was able to give her some information, but not nearly enough. She did help me, in answering questions as to why my g aunt had remarried. Mr. Byers had died at a young age and left Grace with several small children.

This type of geneology searching is GREAT and does work! Thanks for all your hard work!

Suann in Phoenix
QUILLEN, THOMPSON, LEFORCE, BRANN, MOORE, HALL, FISCHGRABE

At the start of 1995, I decided to search for my biological father. I did not know much about him. I had never met him and my mother lost contact with him while pregnant with me. I knew his name was Jerry Wright, that he had served in the Navy and had been stationed at Moffett Field in California between the end of 1956 and September of 1957, he was born in the 1930's, he was tall with brown hair and he was from Oklahoma.

With this information, I went to the public library and through their address finder, made a printout of every Jerry Wright that I could find in the USA. This was before I used a computer so I sent a postcard to every name one state at a time. I got a few responses but not from the right man or anyone that knew him. During this time I also contacted my local Veteran's office to see if they could help but without a service or social security number there was nothing that they could do.

By the time I was almost through sending all the postcards, (it took a while since postage had to be done as I could afford it) I had computer access. I looked up e-mail address' for all the Jerry Wright's again and sent them all an e-mail. Again, responses, but none positive. That is when I found the Oklahoma Query page. I posted my search on the page and I got a response from Yvonne James Henderson who said that he sounded a lot like one of her cousins that had died.

From there, I was able to go on the internet to the Social Security Death Index and look him up and sure enough, he was from Oklahoma! That took care of the right part of the country. He had died but I decided that I wanted to find his family. I called the Veteren's office again with his social security number and told them I wanted some information about him.

They gave me his service number and sent me all the information that they had about him and told me to write the Veteran's office in St.Louis, MO and they could send me all that they had also. I got his wife's name through this paperwork and found out that he was tall with brown hair and had been born in 1936. I contacted Yvonne again and she tried to find out what she could from her family. Finally, I got more military paperwork from St. Louis.

From this, I found out that he had been stationed at Moffett Field in the right time frame. Everything matched. I sent Yvonne copies of these papers. She contacted a relative that asked his mother about this. His mother said I
was impossible because Jerry had been sterile. I thought how could this be?

From Yvonne I found out his brother's names. Maybe he had told one of them about a girl he met in the service. So, here is the mass e-mail again to his brother's and his wife's name. Again, responses, none positive. I wrote to Moffett Field and asked about his unit and they sent me a copy of a story from the newspaper at the time. It was a new unit to Moffett Field and it had the names of the men in it but his was not there, but his paperwork said he was.

I e-mailed to all of the names that I could find from the list of men in his unit. No Luck again. From Yvonne, I found out that the woman he had married had children and that he had none of his own biologically but she did not know their names. I had the name and address of the funeral home that interred him, so I wrote to them and asked for a copy of his obituary.

When this came, I had the names of his children and where they had lived in 1985. I knew it was a long shot that they would still be living in the same city now in 1998, but I looked them up anyway. I found an address for what I hoped was his daughter and sure enough, I found her!! I found my family!!! If it had not been for the Oklahoma Query page and my post to it and Yvonne reading it, I don't know if this would have happened.

Thank you Yvonne, for having the page and for helping me find my family, cousin!!

I have been in contact with the most knowledgable, sincere and capable people on the OK GENWEB. I have gone from knowing very little about OK in general, to finding family I never know my husband had. I must thank Susie Williams, who does Garvin CO lookups, Don White and Julia Embree (who just happened to find me through the OK GenWeb -Julia is Librarian at one of the Garvin Co. local libraries), and Liz Brewer at the Chickasaw Nation. Without them, I would still be at dead ends. Many thanks to your project.

I am writing this to let you and other know that the USGenWeb does work. I have been able to get a long way down the road to find my ancestries. I am in the process of trying to get a book started On the Dupont's in around McAlester, OK. I have found that my great grandfather settled near there, in a place called Perryville. I believe it was a railroad stop. I have found on an old map of the Indian Nation. It is no longer a town or village. But I have found a Perryville Creek, just south of McAlester.

( http://www.usgenweb.org/statelinks.html ) This has been a great help and There is a person that I would also like to reaction. That is Marti Graham. [email protected] She has been a great help and still does. Keep up the good work. Because it gives me great pleasure when I am able to find a new member of our family.

Oklahoma Resources

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OKGenWeb Resource Page

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OK Historical Society
County Names & Seats
Oklahoma State Mailing Lists

USGenWeb Special Projects

Bibliography

If you are interested in sponsoring a county in the OKGenWeb Project,
or have questions regarding the OKGenWeb Project, please contact:

OKGenWeb State Coordinator: Linda Simpson
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for the OKGenWeb Project