Tulsa Library reaches milestone in Death Notices index

Among the many excellent databases* that Tulsa City-County Library librarians have built is the Tulsa Death Notice Index. According to the webpage:

The Death Notice Index is a database listing the dates of death notices that have appeared in the Tulsa World and Tulsa Tribune. A death notice is not an obituary, as it will only give the person’s name, age, occupation (if known), and location and time of services. Obituaries are classified ads, so they are not indexed. The Central Library has both the Tulsa World and Tulsa Tribune on microfilm in the Periodicals Department on the 3rd floor. Copies can be made from the microfilm at ten cents per page.

The Death Notice Index contains the name of the person and the date the death notice appeared in the newspaper, covering the years 1965-1990. The year 1964 is now being added, with updates made daily.

We have just reached a milestone in the project. Our periodicals librarians recently entered the 100,000th death notice into the index, for a man who died in October of 1964. The staff estimates that the index will likely grow to 500,000 records before it is complete. This resource is particularly useful to genealogists and other researchers, as these newspapers were not indexed prior to 1990.

*see also Tulsa Organizations and Services, Fast Facts, and our award-winning Government Documents website.