The Cleveland County Genealogical Society began as Moore Pioneer Genealogical Society in October 1980. Within a year, the membership expanded to include members throughout Cleveland County, and the organization’s name was changed to Cleveland County Genealogical Society.
Dedicated member volunteers spent the first ten years of the Society’s existence creating and publishing indexes of the earliest Cleveland County courthouse records. They also canvassed and published indexes of all county cemeteries, with the exception of Resthaven in Oklahoma City.
By the late 1980s, members initiated plans to open a Genealogy Library in Norman. The first library was a single room in Park Plaza on Flood Street in 1990. Members contributed books, furnishings, and much labor, and a Genealogy Library was born.
The library moved several times while after the Park Plaza location, with each new move adding rooms as the library collection grew. In 1999, the Genealogy Library moved to a storefront at 205 West Main Street. This location attracted more visitors, but growth of the collection demanded another move, in 2004, to the Community Services Building on the northwest corner of East Main Street and 12th Avenue Northeast. on the former grounds of Griffin Memorial Hospital.
Finally, in 2019, the majority of the Genealogy Library collection was donated to the new Norman Public Library, at 103 W. Acres Street, Norman, OK 73069.
The library collection prior to its move to the Norman Public Library had grown to about 6,000 items. The Society had custody of a large number of Cleveland County’s early courthouse records, which comprise the Archives collection. These were returned to the Cleveland County Courthouse in 2019.
The Cleveland County Genealogical Society Library and Archives was the major project of the local genealogical society until the majority of the contents of the Library were accepted by the Pioneer Library System, for inclusion in the Norman Public Library Central.
The focus of the Genealogical Society is now changing, to providing digital access to the contents of the indexes and publications we’ve created over the years. This process is ongoing!
We are grateful that the citizens of Norman voted to finance a new library capable of including our holdings. We are excited that the majority of our library’s holdings will be available at the Norman Public Library Central during their hours of operation.
CCGS has leased a two-room office space in Wing G, on the east side of the Community Services Building, opposite to the entrance to CSBI Grounds from 12th Street Northeast. Parking is in Parking Lot #1. Follow the red brick wall to the Envision Success garden, then enter the garden and you will see our outside door, which is marked with our name, Cleveland County Genealogical Society. Signs will lead you to our quarters inside.
Entrance to CCGS office
The CCGS Office is generally open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-4:30 p.m. or by appointment (made a week in advance).
Please visit the Norman Public Library Central for the materials previously held in the CCGS Library.