OK2Explore has Oklahoma Vital Records
Do you have ancestors who lived in Oklahoma? The Oklahoma Department of Health might be able to help you find some of your ancestor’s vital records. They put together a resource called OK2Explore. It is the Oklahoma State Vital Records Index.
OK2Explore is a free searchable index of births and deaths that occurred in Oklahoma. The website has limited information on births that occurred in Oklahoma more than 20 years ago. It also has limited information on deaths that occurred in Oklahoma that occurred more than 5 years ago.
Genealogists who visit Ok2Explore can search the index using any combination of the subject’s name, date of event (birth or death), county of event, and the sex of the subject. The main purpose of Ok2Explore is to give genealogists an easy way to check to see if the birth certificate, or the death certificate, of their ancestor is on file at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Vital Record Division.
Use the Ok2Explore website from the comfort of your home. Save yourself the trip out to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Vital Records. Previous to the OK2Explore website, genealogists had to visit in person and hope that their ancestor’s vital record was on file. Now, you can go in knowing whether or not the record is there.
It is possible to order certified copies of your ancestor’s birth certificate or death certificate (assuming the record is on file.) Not all records are open. Applicants for all records, both open and closed, must still meet eligibility requirements in order to obtain a certified copy of that record.
You can order a vital record online through the OK2Explore website. Each record is $15.00 each (plus a $12.95 processing fee). Or, you can have either a birth certificate or a death certificate sent to you by mail for $15.00 each.
The indexes at OK2Explore are updated monthly with new records and corrections. If you did not find what you were looking for the first time you tried the website, come back to it in a month and try again. There’s a chance that your ancestor’s vital records may have been added.
Be aware that there will be some errors in the records due to a doctor or funeral director making a mistake when filling out a record, the family not providing the correct information, the difficulty of the staff of the Oklahoma Department of Health in reading the handwriting on the record, or due to typographical errors.
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