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~ Meet Your Volunteers ~

April Makerney

My name is April Lynn Wharton Makerney.  I was born in Eldorado, Arkansas, but have been raised in Hugo most of my life. Most of my family is originally from the Hugo area.  I have had an interest in genealogy for a long time; however, I have only been researching for about three years. All I can say is that I am hooked for life!

When I started researching I realized how little I actually knew about my family. I knew some of the people I was told were my cousins, but had no idea how we were related. My mother got all of us kids our CDIB cards when we were little, but I never knew who the Indian came from.  Well, now I do.  I am proud to day that I am the forth great-granddaughter of Thomas Wilson & Harriet Newall (Everidge) Oakes through their son Charles Dosenburg Oakes & his first wife, Judith (Belvin) Oakes. 

I research a long list of surnames, way too many to post here. Below is a link to my Rootsweb files for anyone interested in my research.

When I first started researching I didn’t understand why there were no Choctaw County publications like there were in other areas. I asked the then President of the Choctaw County Genealogical Society why there were no Choctaw County books. She told me that all of these books are done by volunteers. If there are no volunteers, there are no books. It was then that I realized how important the genealogy societies are and am now an officer and editor of the CCGS quarterly. I am also a personal member of several other societies to give them support.  My mission in CCGS is to provide publications in order to support CCGS, but most importantly to preserve the records of Choctaw County.

So remember, when you are researching and you find a plethora of information on your family in various societies publications or quarterlies how that information got there. Think about joining in and returning the favor. Everyone has time to at least email information to their counties genweb site. You want to see something AWESOME just check out the okgenweb site for Choctaw County!

 Link to my Rootsweb files: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/us?words=amakerney