Information about Will Rogers Airfield in Oklahoma City
I would like to learn about the history of Will Rogers Airfield in Oklahoma City for World War II period, specifically if there were civilians working there for the government and what the rules were in order for a child to be born at the airbase. Did the father have to be in the military? I know my birth mother's name and am searching for my father. We were told she worked in Kansas as a riveter during the war and that she also lived in Alva Oklahoma for a while. As far as we know, she herself was not in the war. My adoptive father was. My birth certificate gives his information. My mother later adopted another child. We were raised as half sisters and didn't know we were adopted until about 2 years ago. My sister found her parents. Her birth certificate gave our adoptive mother's name but all the other information on her certificate didn't fit what we knew about our mom. Through DNA testing and research, we discovered the information on her certificate all matched her birth mother for age, occupation, etc. We have concluded that my sister's birth mother probably went to the hospital under our adoptive mother's name. My certificate only has one item of information that doesn't match. We believe that somehow my birth mother also may have presented herself at the hospital under the name of our adoptive mother. I was delivered by a captain in the Marine Corps, and this was an airfield, so we suspect my birth mother had to somehow identify herself as someone connected to the military in order to deliver there. To summarize, I would like to find out what the qualifications were for a child to be born there or if possibly my birth mother may have worked for the government as a civilian and perhaps was allowed to have her child there. I've found very little on the Internet about the airfield for these early years but wonder if there might be military records about this airbase in the National Archives. Does anyone know how to search the archives for something like this or perhaps know someone who is an expert on World War II records who might be able to offer advice?
Risposte
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Marion, in almost every state, an original birth certificate (or OBC) exists with the birth mother's name. When the adoption is final, a new birth certificate, or "amended birth certificate" is created with the adoptive parents' names. The OBC is locked away in a vault. Both kinds of birth certificates look identical. You can't tell if a birth certificate has been amended. The birth certificates you and your sister have are probably Amended Birth Certificates, which would have been created when your adoptions were finalized. In the case of your sister, they may have gotten sloppy and only changed the name but left the other information about the birth mother. The OBCs are sealed records, and in Oklahoma can only be released with a court order.
Another contributor at this site, X24mom, was also adopted in Oklahoma and has researched the process of trying to obtain one's OBC.
I think it's certainly worth going to the National Archives to get more information. This link shows the different units that trained at Will Rogers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers_Air_National_Guard_Base .
Perhaps you would be able to get a roster of the members of the unit that were at the base at the time of your birth. Then, with DNA evidence, you might find a link to one of those servicemen.
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@MarionRainey1 MarionRainey1 it would help us to help you if you could elaborate a little more with names/dates/location etc. what year were you born?
And to add to @Megan Cordon Bakaitis response : In order to get your obc from Oklahoma, you have to be over the age of 18, not have a sibling under the age of 18, and the adoption would have had to have been finalized 1997 or later. Or at least this is my understanding of the process, otherwise the records are sealed and you’ll need a court order. Also, I just want to clarify that I was not adopted. My grandfather whom I never knew or met was adopted in Oklahoma in 1916 when he was 4 years old, and that’s what I’ve been working on for many years.
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@MarionRainey1 MarionRainey1 some info about the Will Rogers World airfield can be found here.
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Thanks to both of you for your help. It looks like the airfield was actively involved as a military airfield during WWII in 1944. To answer your questions, my sister and I feel we were not formally adopted. Our mom was from California and only lived in Oklahoma for a short time. My certificate says 3 months. Judging from my (adopted) father's war letters, he had no clue I wasn't his child. We know for sure that mom pretended that she had me and pretended in a letter to her sister-in-law that she had problems with phlebitis. What we learned is that my birth mother was the one who had phlebitis. I talked on the phone with a lady who said when she was a little kid she and her family visited my birth mother and that she was very sick with milk leg. So our mom fooled everyone, including her husband. My foster father was killed in an airplane crash on the way home from WWII and our mom remarried. For my sister's birth about 6 years later, she simply disappeared for a while, went to Arizona, and returned with a child. Neither of us knew we were adopted until we tested our DNA for fun 2 Christmases ago. My sister went through the legal process of opening up her formal adoption record. The certificate was identical to what she already had. She has found both parents. I have found my birth mother, know my paternal grandparents, and have narrowed my father down to 3 possible candidates. We were able to eliminate some of the sons because some of their offspring did DNA testing. The 3 possibilities who are left have not tested. I sent out letters to about 17 people. One response came back saying they felt their father couldn't have been my father because he would have been overseas at the time. They did not want to test or have any contact with me. I found his military file and which showed he was still in the area, so he is still a possibility. He was in the Navy and went to Oklahoma City to be processed after he signed up. He was from Alva, Oklahoma, which is where my birth mother was staying for a short time after she had me. Her family told me that one of their family members picked her up there and returned her to an aunt's home in Kansas where she recuperated from the birth. Of the 2 other remaining possible fathers, one was about 5 years younger than my birth mother. The other one had no children that we know of from his marriage. All these people are deceased now. It all went down in 1944. We learned that my birth mother and her sister worked as riveters in Kansas, which makes us wonder if my birth mother was doing something similar in Oklahoma. We don't have concrete dates for everything except my date of birth, DNA testing, and the testimony of family members who knew a little about my birth mother. We aren't sure if my parents met in Alva or Oklahoma City. The brother who had no children doesn't seem to have been in the military. I've been trying to decide if it would be worth all the expense to try to obtain an original birth certificate, if such a thing exists. It may be like my sister where what we already see is what we will identically get. I will try to follow your helpful leads. Much thanks
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Excellent information Megan.
Marion, do you have close unknown matches in your DNA results? What company did you use for your DNA test?
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Have you checked the social media pages for the family members of the suspected brother(s)? It can be important to take screenshots of these when possible. Sometimes, family members hide their public information when confronted with an uncomfortable situation.
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Yes. Hired a researcher who found living family members. Have written them. Went through Ancestry to test and then uploaded to other companies. We have it narrowed down to 3 brothers. Have found a researcher who will try to search some government records. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Finding more about Freda probably won't help determine the father, but it would be nice to learn how the whole process may have occurred. Last but not least, Christmas is coming. Maybe someone will give a test kit to a family member for Christmas. Oh, and we learned it wasn't a Marine Corps Doctor. He was in the Medical Corps.
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Try posting a query at: https://historyhub.history.gov/
I received a quick answer to a question that I posted. I was sent copies of newspaper clippings about the individual that I sought information about.
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Thanks for the good advice. Will give it a try.
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I think the answers for your original questions can be answered by posting on History Hub. They specialize in federal records, especially military. https://historyhub.history.gov/welcome
Also - regulations for children born to active military were different than the state laws where the soldier was located.
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