Celebrating Ghost Stories

Oklahoma's Ghouli presents.......

March 21, 2009, El Reno Ok

History Research 101 : Verifying the Stuff of Legends

Many a good story has been ruined by the facts. This is life. Recently a researcher approached me (as a professional librarian and someone with a degree in history) for help in verifying or debunking a popular legend regarding a well-known local haunted house. The noted "Stone Lion Inn" in Gutherie was the topic. The story went that the person, Augusta Houghton, as a small child, had died and remained to playfully run the halls.

The first thing to do was to verify if the person had really lived and in that house. The second was to verify or debunk the legend of her early death.

Using the access to federal census records made possible by the local library, I located the family in several census records, both before and after the time they had lived in the house, (the address was provided). I was able to show that the family did not loose a child at all in the time frame of the legend. Maybe the person had died later than the legend supposed? Since census records are unavailable to the public for more recent decades (1940 to the present - thanks to the U.S. Privacy Act of 1973), other methods were employed

The world's largest collections of family records can be found via a subscription database called "Ancestry" and a smaller and free one called "Rootsweb". Some are complete records with notes as to sources of information and other documentation. Some are merely family history. Given the information from the census records - and the legend - coupled with the family histories I located several likely candidates. Reviewing this further, I was able to locate three documented family history records showing that the young girl who had died had actually lived to marry, have children, and died in her old age!

The best part was this was all accomplished in under ten minutes using the Internet while I wore my favorite vampire bunny slippers! Not all research is that easy but it does show that a lot of time can be saved if you do verify certain facts before any on site research.

When one visits the local library for old newspapers, digs through local history books, or listens to recorded oral histories, or visits the local county clerks office to see who owned the land over the years, or checks census records, it does detract from a person's ability to speak in a low whispered voice about "they say the blood stains are still there...." or "no one really knows what happened to him...."

In telling stories never let facts get in the way of a good tale.....in doing research never let a good story get in the way of the facts.