Kingfisher Friends of the Library hosted a special training session for club members regarding
the use of the www.ancestry.com database on Tuesday, October 11, 2023. The Oklahoma Historical Society provided two training sessions at 1:00 p.m. and again at 5:00 p.m. The purpose of the training session was to help familiarize KFOL members with how to utilize the database and assist others as volunteers at the library.
Laura Martin, deputy director of research services, and Patricia Nunes, publishers collection
manager of the research division, shared valuable tricks, tips, and insights regarding different aspects of the database with FOL members. The Oklahoma Historical Society has partnered with Ancestry.com since 2009 by providing useful information, including original records for the five civilized tribes of Oklahoma.
Participants learned the importance of utilizing “wildcard” searching techniques, especially
regarding the spellings of first and last names, which were sometimes misspelled by federal census takers and individuals who were not literate. Martin also cautioned individuals about utilizing pre-made family trees on the software program, especially individuals with common first and last names (“John Smith”), because it may not be the correct family ancestor.
The Kingfisher Friends of the Library group voted to purchase a free subscription to
Ancestry.com for the Kingfisher Memorial Library so community members could come to the library and conduct their research without purchasing it for their own individual use. KFOL members present for the training included JoAnn Turner, Deborah Maehs, Amy Tollison, Rena Tollison, and Jean Crosswhite.
