Tornado Town USA

That is a very well written and interesting article. Thanks for the post.

I have my own opinion about the frequency of large tornados in Central Oklahoma. It does have a little to do with topography, but only incidentally.

When the jet stream (usually necessary for tornadic activity) drops down this time of year, it's most likely in a west to east or northwest to southeast configuration. A low pressure system approaching from the west draws moisture up from the Gulf in an almost due south to north direction. Due to the Rockies, it is hard to get a good draw of Gulf moisture until you reach the eastern Texas Panhandle or eastern Oklahoma. That is usually where a "dry line" forms...a boundary between stable and unstable air. Afternoon thundershowers will form along this dry line and generally march to the east.

If this occurs in the presence of shear (winds blowing in different directions) from the jet stream, meso-cyclones form and calve tornados.

South and west of central Oklahoma is a dry arid part of the state. Around Lawton where Deral use to live. It is a large "skillet" for the atmosphere and generates a tremendous amount of heat that fuels these meso-cyclones in the presence of upper level shear. The "perfect" spot for this to all finally come together is along a line from Mangum to Lawton to El Reno to Perry, all in Oklahoma. Sat and watched it for as long as I've been alive.

Is Moore in a topographically enhanced area for this to happen? No. It happens anywhere along that line usually. Moore is more or less in the center of that line and just gets a better chance of being hit because it's in the center. And I predict they haven't seen their last EF4 or greater.

my $0.02

People in Chapman, Kansas (close to Abilene) would probably be ready to claim the title. They were nearly wiped off the map a few years ago and then were part of the 90 minutes on the ground tornado path last week.

June 8, 1966 was when Topeka, Kansas had a tornado roll through from the far southwest corner of the city to the far northeast corner of the city. The state capitol building lost part of it's dome as the center passed a couple of blocks to the south. On June 8, 1974, the primary television station based in Topeka was going to replay what had aired eight years earlier in it's entirety. They had to cancel that as there were tornado warnings happening and they knew better than to confuse those watching ala War of the Worlds and Orson Welles years earlier.

Holy Cow, post: 374717, member: 50 wrote: People in Chapman, Kansas (close to Abilene) would probably be ready to claim the title. They were nearly wiped off the map a few years ago and then were part of the 90 minutes on the ground tornado path last week.

June 8, 1966 was when Topeka, Kansas had a tornado roll through from the far southwest corner of the city to the far northeast corner of the city. The state capitol building lost part of it's dome as the center passed a couple of blocks to the south. On June 8, 1974, the primary television station based in Topeka was going to replay what had aired eight years earlier in it's entirety. They had to cancel that as there were tornado warnings happening and they knew better than to confuse those watching ala War of the Worlds and Orson Welles years earlier.

[USER=50]@Holy Cow[/USER]
I guess that I am allowed to hijack my own post
Yo Cow,
Is Wikitree a good source for genealogical resources?
I have stepped upped to help an elderly family member (in-law) apply to the SAR. It seems to be a straight forward since the ancestry was present at a pivotal and important battle in SC.
For a expert genealogist like yourself,
It may be a walk in park through time.
But maybe not of course.
I am going to start my digging this evening. It seems by Wikitree others have been digging where I need to dig.
Would you be interested in the challenge?

[USER=378]@Robert Hill[/USER]

I have not used Wikitree to date. Will need to explore with it a bit when I get a chance to find out how useful it may be. The three handiest resources for me are "Family Search" courtesy of the Mormons, Rootsweb and Findagrave. I'm too cheap to actually pay for all the extras one can get from other sources. So much is available for free. There may be cases where the pay-for-it sites have information that can be of use. Genforum is a handy source for searching a specific surname. Most places have their own branch off of genweb that contains all sorts of information about specific geographical areas.

One key ingredient to searches is to not get too refined initially. Putting in too much information into the search engine may exclude results obtainable by using less or more general information. Using only a name may get 60,000 possible results. Putting in a name, birth place and year, death place and year, and marriage date and year may get zero results. It helps to get to a reasonable number to scan through. Try working first with the most uncommon name available, such as that of a brother or parent, to help to home in on the correct family member. A project I fell into over the weekend had a couple named John and Mary. Their daughter Emma, actually Sarah Emma, married Joseph (originally Josiah). Emma had a son named Foster. He was the easy one to find. From his data I was able to work back to the others.

Many years ago I was told by a very active genealogist who was a member of the DAR that the biggest challenge is to prove each link. The organizations have tons of data feeding down so many generations that they have certified as accurate. The trick is to prove each link from the person wishing to join up to someone on that list of certified data. I've never dealt with this, myself, so am not the best source to ask. I have information that says both my great-great-great-great-great grandfather and his father were soldiers in the Revolution but I have never gone to the effort to get it all certified in order to join the SAR.

I hope you find this to be a fun adventure. It can become addictive, like crossword puzzles and sudokus.

Holy Cow, post: 374763, member: 50 wrote: [USER=378]@Robert Hill[/USER]...Many years ago I was told by a very active genealogist who was a member of the DAR that the biggest challenge is to prove each link. The organizations have tons of data feeding down so many generations that they have certified as accurate. The trick is to prove each link from the person wishing to join up to someone on that list of certified data. I've never dealt with this, myself, so am not the best source to ask. I have information that says both my great-great-great-great-great grandfather and his father were soldiers in the Revolution but I have never gone to the effort to get it all certified in order to join the SAR.

I hope you find this to be a fun adventure. It can become addictive, like crossword puzzles and sudokus.

My family is in the DAR database because of an aunt. She did all the legwork years ago. My youngest son was interested and retrieved all her info about 15 years ago before she passed away. And I don't know if you would call them "sticklers"...but they do like their i's dotted and t's crossed. Seems I remember they liked registered copies of recorded documents, also. There are people there that are willing to at least explain the process, I think.

Good luck with your search.

I had a great aunt who was very involved with genealogy and DAR back in the 1960's. She traced one of the family lines with the name Brown back to Rhode Island colony, working in the days when you had to visit the courthouses personally or write letters. I can't imagine the effort.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.
This appears to be very much of a straight forward research except for documentation. My FIL is 85 is not savvy at computer stuff. He has been trying to put together his app for a while. He does use the computer to pay some bills, keep track of some investments but he mostly plays various card games. So I thought that I would help him.
There is direct lineage from his mother to a prominent battle that was fought on her ancestor‰Ûªs family farm in SC. Battle of Blackstock Farm in SC in 1780.
There was a 720pp book written in 1992 on the Blackstock genealogy called Clan Blackstock by a Helen Ring Womack who wrote a few family genealogy histories. She researched back to the early 12th century. FIL and others have used this book as a major source of material. He has a copy.
I have spent an hour or two at this point at various online sources. (Ancestry, wikitree, Familysearch, My Heritage,, various military and state records). I need to dig more.
[USER=50]@Holy Cow[/USER] I have looked at Familysearch by your comment it is very helpful to confirm some links and has provided some new info. I knew about Findagrave. I took the 2 week freebie at Ancestry in swmbo‰Ûªs name. I had used it before as a freebie a few years ago and I was able to find a lot of info that lead to other info that lead to other stuff etc‰Û?wikitre has provided some good info and some contacts that may have relevant info.
[USER=20]@paden cash[/USER] From my understanding, there are already about 4 women family members who have been certified into the DAR. Apparently the SAR requirements are more rigorous in regards to the application process and paper trail. I have found 2 different SAR applications online from 1937 for the 7th and 6th GGF. They were approved. The 6th GGF also fought in the War of 1812. I have the roster sheets from 1812 war and the Revolutionary War.
Found some marriage and birth/record here and there and have photos of everyone‰Ûªs grave except the 6 GGF. Need to find more official records, but also need a list of all the courthouses that were burnt by the Yanks during the Civil War. I would like to find some deeds,etc to verify exact locations.
[USER=87]@Bill93[/USER] Same thing with me having a very common surname and given name. At one point, I thought it would be neat to trace ancestry before the internet. Swmbo has been a fan of the various genealogical shows on TV. Who Dou think You Are ?, Finding Your Roots on PBS.
A few years back, I took the 14 day free trial at Ancestry.com. Aft the trial, I had documented the ‰ÛÏHill‰Û linage back to 18th Scotland with some interesting items. I would still like to investigate them someday. One was that my search ended up with a Robert Hill ( there was no Robert poing back in any of the family line until that find) in Kilspindie, Scotland. The other was the two young ‰ÛÏHill brothers‰Û who came to the U.S. in the early 19th century in accompany of a women who could have been an aunt or Mother.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blackstoc k's_Farm

So far the Blackstocks of my FIL ancestry started in Scotland then to Ireland then to PA in early 118th century then to SC wher William Berry Blackstock started as a trader with Cherokees on one of their trails.

Thanks again. I am hoping that by next week after more research and possible replies form various Blackstock that I can fill out the app for him with specific dates and prepare an attachment of all sorts of info...tie it up in a nice bow for the local SAR. who sends it to the State SAR person who send it to the Regional SAR guy who then submits it to the National SAR in KY.
maybe a road trip this summer to SC, GA and Al is needed too. : )

Thus is Jesse Blackstock's (1821-1851) grave. would like to get a BC document for him but it may have been torched.