How hard is it to get records from Oklahoma?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

I'm looking for my husband's grandmother, who had the unimaginative name of Smith. HOWEVER, she never talked of her family, except to say they were "Black Dutch". This is a code word for Native American. She was b. in AR in 1900, just after the census was enumerated; I cannot find her for sure on a census until 1930, and it gives the place of birth of her parents as USA. (How imaginative!) Her husband's obit gives a date and place of their marriage, but there is no record of it in the Texas county where it supposedly happened. So I'm wondering if perhaps they were married in Oklahoma. Does anyone know of a centralized place where I could check for a marriage that took place ca 1916?

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Not sure what county you need, but...

here is one good link I found....

http://www.genwed.com/state/okgen2.htm#LeFlore

[CountAllVotes]

2. sounds like total bull to me

and the part about being born in the "United States". I find this sort of thing over and over again in the records I am finding for my own relations. They too were from parts of Arkansas, Texas and some ended up in Oklahoma and other places near by (like Missouri, Louisiana, aka "Texarkana").

Guess what? They were Indian people, all of them. They said their parents were born in "The United States" so no one would know where they were from and they did this on purpose. They also changed their names frequently and it is easy to be thrown off when searching census records.

As for records for Oklahoma, I suspect you could order death certs. if you can find them and if you have the exact dates.

I hope this helps. I'm in the same boat here and if I see born in "The United States" again on any record, well I know what that means now anyway.

Kinda sucks doesn't it?

[CountAllVotes]

3. Smith's to be found here

On the Final Dawes Rolls there are quite a few listed. You can change the tribe you are searching for by manipulating the "Tribe" button:

Seminole: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/finalroll.php?PHPSESSID=cd4cec058e5d5e4a380aec4118f6c40d&s_tribe=&s_last=smith&s_first=&s_middle=&s_age=&s_sex=&s_blood=&s_card=&s_roll=&s_misc=&s_type=&dawesOrder=&dawesDir=&dawesPageSize=

Cherokee (1550 records):
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/finalroll.php?s_tribe=Cherokee&s_last=smith&s_first=&s_middle=&s_age=&s_sex=&s_blood=&s_card=&s_roll=&s_misc=&s_type=&dawesOrder=&dawesDir=&dawesPageSize=

These people here may well related to your "Black Dutch" so to speak. I hope this helps.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Thanks

I think you are right on the US stuff, too. And my husband said his grandmother looked Native American.

[CountAllVotes]

5. are you on the Cherokee surnames list by chance?

If you are not, you might consider joining the list. They've been having a massive discussion very recently re: surname SMITH. It is a Cherokee (Keetoowah & eastern Cherokee) surname.

You might want to check it out if you haven't already. :)