Garfield County Obituary Search

Garfield County obituary records are available through the county offices in Enid, newspaper archives, and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. The county was formed in 1893 from the Cherokee Outlet and records go back to that year. Enid is the county seat and the largest city, so most records are centered there. You can find death notices in the Enid News and Eagle, search court records through OSCN, or request a death certificate from the state. This page shows you where to look for Garfield County obituary and death records.

Garfield County Clerk Office

The Garfield County Clerk's Office is at 114 W. Broadway Ave., Enid, OK 73701. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1664, Enid, OK 73702. Call (580) 237-0225 with questions. The clerk keeps land records from 1893, deeds, mortgages, and the official records of the Board of County Commissioners.

For obituary research in Garfield County, the clerk's records offer indirect but useful information. Property transfers after a death show up in deed records. Military discharge papers for veterans are also filed here. These documents can confirm the identity and dates tied to a person whose obituary you are trying to find. Garfield County has a large enough population that multiple people may share the same name, so having these extra records helps narrow things down.

The Garfield County Clerk's website shows services and contact information for the Enid office.

The clerk's office is open during regular business hours and accepts phone and mail requests.

Garfield County Court Clerk Obituary Records

The Garfield County Court Clerk's Office is at 114 West Broadway, Room 101, Enid, OK 73701. The Court Clerk is Janelle Sharp. Call (580) 237-0232 or email janelle.sharp@oscn.net. You can also send record requests to garfieldrequests@oscn.net. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and the office stays open through the lunch hour.

The court clerk keeps marriage records from 1893, divorce records from 1893, probate records from 1893, and civil and criminal court records. Copy fees are $1.00 for the first page and $0.50 for each page after that. The certification fee is $0.50. Probate records are especially useful for obituary research. They list the date of death, name heirs and survivors, and sometimes include the death certificate as an exhibit. Since court filings are public records, you can access probate information even when the death certificate is restricted under Oklahoma Statutes Title 63, Section 1-323.

The Garfield County Court Clerk has its own website with online access to records.

You can also search Garfield County court records through the free OSCN portal.

Note: Email requests to garfieldrequests@oscn.net should include the full name of the person and the type of record you need.

Garfield County Obituary Research at OHS

The Oklahoma Historical Society has extensive records tied to Garfield County. The Enid News and Eagle newspaper is available on microfilm at the OHS Research Center. This paper has run obituaries and death notices from 1893 to the present day. For anyone researching a Garfield County death, this is one of the most complete sources available.

The OHS Research Center is at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73105. Phone is (405) 521-2491. They also keep the Obituaries Listed in the Oklahoman database for 1972 to 2009. In-person visitors get free access to Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3, HeritageQuest Online, and Newspapers.com. The Gateway to Oklahoma History has free digitized newspaper pages online from the 1840s through the 1920s, including papers from the Enid area.

Enid was a railroad town from the start. The newspapers covered deaths and funerals in detail. Obituaries from the early 1900s in the Enid papers often list the person's place of birth, parents' names, church membership, and burial location. These details go well beyond what a death certificate provides.

Garfield County Death Certificates

The Oklahoma Vital Records Service handles death certificate requests for deaths in Garfield County. The office is at 1000 NE 10th Street, Room 117, Oklahoma City, OK 73117. Mail to PO Box 53551, Oklahoma City, OK 73152. Each copy is $15. Call (405) 271-4040 or email AskVR@health.ok.gov.

Recent death records are restricted. You need to be a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, sibling, legal guardian, or have a court order. But deaths from 50 or more years ago are open to any person. This change took effect November 1, 2016, under Title 63, Section 1-323. For Garfield County genealogy research, this means deaths from 1976 and earlier are now available without proving a family connection.

The OK2Explore index lets you check if a death record exists before you pay. It covers deaths more than five years old and shows the name, date of death, and county. You can also order through VitalChek if you want to pay by credit card. They charge an extra service fee.

Note: Death filing was not mandatory in Oklahoma until 1917, so Garfield County records from 1893 to 1916 may have gaps.

Enid Obituary and Death Record Resources

Enid is the county seat and largest city in Garfield County. Most obituaries from the area ran in the Enid News and Eagle or its predecessor papers. The city has several funeral homes that keep their own records and often post recent obituaries online. A phone call to a local funeral home can turn up service details and family contacts that are not in any public database.

The Garfield County courthouse in Enid handles all local court filings. If someone died in Enid and left an estate, the probate case was filed here. The OSCN database covers Garfield County with free access to civil, criminal, family, and probate cases going back to the 1990s. For older records, you would need to visit the courthouse in person or contact the court clerk by email.

Cemetery records from Enid area burial grounds can also support your search. Burial records list the name, date of death, and often the funeral home. Find A Grave and the USGenWeb Project have transcribed headstone data for several Garfield County cemeteries.

Nearby Counties

These counties border Garfield County in north-central Oklahoma. Each maintains its own obituary and death records.