McCurtain County, Oklahoma Genealogy

United States Oklahoma  McCurtain County McCurtain County, Oklahoma genealogy and family history research page. Guide to genealogy, history, and courthouse sources including birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, wills, deeds and land records, military records, family histories, cemeteries, churches, tax records, and newspapers.

County Courthouse
McCurtain County Courthouse 108 N Central Avenue Idabel, OK 74745 Phone: 580.286-2370 Clerk Court has marriage, divorce, probate and court records from 1907

Parent County
1907--McCurtain County was created 16 July 1907 from Choctaw Lands. County seat: Idabel

See the McCurtain County entry of the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture for a brief history.

Record Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Places/Localities
==== Populated Places ====

Cities

 * Broken Bow
 * Idabel (county seat)

Towns

 * Garvin
 * Haworth
 * Millerton
 * Smithville
 * Valliant
 * Wright City

Unincorporated communities

 * Battiest
 * Bethel
 * Bokhoma
 * Eagletown
 * Hochatown
 * Pickens
 * Ringold
 * Rufe
 * Tom
 * Watson

Neighboring Counties

 * Bowie County, Texas
 * Choctaw
 * LeFlore
 * Little River County, Arkansas
 * Polk County, Arkansas
 * Pushmataha
 * Red River County, Texas
 * Sevier County, Arkansas

Cemeteries
Battiest, Beachton, Beechtree, Bethel, Big Lick, Bohanan, Bokhoma, Broken Bow, Buffalo, Byrms, Canfield, Clear Creek, Crown Hill, Cusher, Denison, Eagletown, Eastport, Forest Hill, Harris, Harris Mill, Haworth, Hochatown, Joe Slater Memorial, Kulli Tuklo, Kulli-Chito, Lukfata, Manning, Milton, Miners, Moran, Mountain Fork, Naniah Chito, Nani-Chito, Oka Achukma, Old Bohanan, Old Panther, Old Smithville, Panki Bok, Parson, Parsons, Philadelphia, Pine Ridge, Pruitt's Field, Redland, Ringold, Rufe, Sand Hill, Sherwood, Smithville, Sweet Home, Thomas Chapel, Tohwali, Tonka, Valliant, Valliant Upton, Waterhole, Watson, Watsons Memorial, Wheelock, Wilson Chapel, Wright City, Yasho

McCurtain County Cemeteries at Findagrave.com

McCurtain County Cemetery Locations - Satellite Views

Church
A brief history of Wheelock Seminary, part of the Wheelock Mission church can be found in the Chronicles of Oklahoma.

Court
Oklahoma Public Court Records

Local Histories
McCurtain County and Southeast Oklahoma: History, Biography, Statistics, a Complete Church, Lodge, School, Professional, Business and Trade Directory of the County

The Choctaw Freedmen and the Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, now called the Alice Lee Elliott Memorial...

Maps



 * Map of 1922 McCurtain County, Oklahoma with numerous small settlements. (My Genealogy Hound)

Military
Also see: Oklahoma Military Records

World War II
The Oklahoma section of the book World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces is available at the National Archives website. Soldiers from McCurtain County are listed here and here.

The State Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel from: Oklahoma is also available. It is not broken out by county, however. Note: Casualities include the wounded in addition to those killed.

Newspapers
Oklahoma Newspapers Online Oklahoma Newspaper Catalogs
 * GenealogyBank - ($), contains images of Oklahoma newspapers
 * Newspaper Archive - ($), contains images of Nebraska newspapers
 * Chronicling America - contains images of some Oklahoma newspapers; searching tips
 * Elephind - Free; search engine that retrieves newspaper images from other free newspaper websites
 * Oklahoma State Historical Society - catalog of known Oklahoma newspapers; lists repositories that have the newspapers
 * U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present on Chronicling America - contains a list of all known newspapers and the dates they cover; once you locate a newspaper name, contact the local library to see if they have copies of the newspaper

Historic Newspapers (no longer published)

Here are the known McCurtain County newspapers, along with where they were published and their years of publication. See the Chronicling America and Worldcatwebsites for libraries and institutions that may hold copies or microfilm.


 * Acme News, Broken Bow, 1912-1913
 * American Socialist, Garvin, 1910-191?
 * B B Developer, Broken Bow, 1911-1913
 * Beacon-Times, Idabel, 1911-191?
 * Broken Bow News and McCurtain County News-Graphic, Broken Bow, 1973-1976
 * Broken Bow News, Broken Bow, 1913-1973
 * Broken Bow News-Graphic, Broken Bow, 1976-1976
 * Challenger, Valliant, 1968-1981
 * Daily Beacon-Times, Idabel, 1913-191?
 * Democrat Record and Beacon-Times, Idabel, 1914-1915
 * Democrat-Record, Idabel, 1910-1914
 * Democrat-Record, Idabel, 1915-191?
 * Garvin Graphic, Garvin, 1903-1919
 * Garvin Pioneer, Garvin, 190?-191?
 * Haworth Herald, Haworth, 1912-192?
 * Idabel News, Idabel, 1919-1922
 * Idabel Signal, Idabel, 1905-190?
 * Little Dixie Beacon, Idabel, 1967-19??
 * McCurtain County American, Smithville, 1907-190?
 * McCurtain County Beacon, Idabel, 1911-1911
 * McCurtain County Journal, Valliant, 1981-1983
 * McCurtain County Record, Valliant, 19??-195?
 * McCurtain Daily Gazette, Idabel, 1969-1972
 * McCurtain Democrat, Idabel, 1922-194?
 * McCurtain Gazette, Idabel, 1907-1969
 * McCurtain Gazette, Idabel, 1972-1978
 * McCurtain Record, Valliant, 1908-1910
 * McCurtain Weekly Gazette, Idabel, 1969-1972
 * Methodist Herald, Broken Bow, 1921-1921
 * Millerton Progress, Millerton, 1908-1910
 * Millerton Progress-News, Millerton, 190?-1908
 * The-Signal, Idabel, 1905-1905
 * Valliant News, Valliant, 1904-190?
 * Valliant Times, Valliant, 1910-1911
 * Valliant Tribune, Valliant, 1911-194?

Historic Newspapers available online

The website Gateway to Oklahoma History has digitized a few issues of McCurtain County newspapers from the early 1900s, including:


 * McCurtain Gazette, Idabel, Oklahoma
 * Millerton Progress, Millerton, Oklahoma
 * Millerton Progress-News, Millerton, Oklahoma

Current Newspapers


 * Broken Bow News, Broken Bow, 1976-Current
 * Southeast Times, Broken Bow, 1988-Current
 * McCurtain Daily Gazette, Idabel, 1978-Current
 * McCurtain Sunday Gazette and Broken Bow News, Idabel, 1977-Current
 * Valliant Leader, Valliant, 1983-Current. A few issues of the Valliant Leader from 2005-2007 have been digitized by Google Newspapers.

Probate
Online Records
 * 1801 – 2008 Oklahoma Wills and Probate Records 1801-2008 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1887 – 2008 Oklahoma Probate Records 1887-2008 at FamilySearch — images

School Records

 * 1895 - 1936 at | FamilySearch — index and images

Marriage

 * 1890–1995 -  at FamilySearch — index and images

Libraries
The Southeastern Public Library System of Oklahoma serves several counties, including McCurtain.

Individual libraries are:


 * Broken Bow Public Library
 * Idabel Public Library
 * Mattie Terry Public Library (Valliant)

Museums
McCurtain County Veteran's Memorial Museum, Idabel

Museum of the Red River, Idabel

Societies
The Kiamichi Country Genealogy Society (Broken Bow) has published the newsletter Kiamichian since 1990. See worldcat.org for libraries' holdings and PERSI (within HeritageQuest) for a catalog of their subjects.

McCurtain County Genealogical Society has published the newsletter Intikba since 1985. See worldcat.org for libraries' holdings and PERSI (within HeritageQuest) for a catalog of their subjects.

McCurtain County Historical Society (also see their Facebookpage.)

Family History Centers
Introduction to Family History Centers

Web Sites

 * Gateway to Oklahoma History
 * Indian Pioneer Collection- University of Oklahoma
 * Linkpendium: Oklahoma: McCurtain County
 * OKGenWeb: McCurtain County