Here's a story, so get a cup of coffee or something...
My grandmother was an Oklahoman. Her family was from a small town called Jennings in the early 1900s. It's tiny, even now. Anyway, her mom and dad got the flu and died within days of each other. Left all the kids orphaned. The neighbors and various other folks came and took the kids in, separating them. It was years...many many years till they saw each other again. My grandmother was old when she finally found the baby again.
Anyway, they buried her parents in an old country cemetery outside of Jennings. I think my grandmother was 12. (They also buried the doctor, who died of the flu too.) My grandmother used to describe standing there in the cemetery while they buried her parents, looking out over the Oklahoma hills. Three years later, my grandmother married my grandfather who came from Muskogee.
A few months before Steve and I moved to Oklahoma (and nearly a quarter of a century after my grandmother's death), I drove up here with my mom. I drove my mom to Jennings and we looked for the cemetery. We found it, a couple of miles out of town...a lonesome but well-kept country cemetery. There's no record of my great-grandparents...the courthouse burned with the records and there's no headstones. My mom and I stood in that tiny cemetery and could see for miles...hills and hills of Oklahoma. So beautiful.
A few months later, we were here. Moved here.
I was telling my mom just now that we'd watched the Grapes of Wrath last night and she said that my grandmother always said that her mother looked just like "Ma".
2J, you know, just because the courthouse burned down doesn't mean you can't get at some records of that cemetery.
I did a quick search and found two cemeteries in the Jennings area. Is Bethany Cemetery the one you found? Between Highways 412 and 64?
You can contact the county clerk's office and ask them who owns or manages that cemetery. In rural areas, quite often a family would donate a few acres of their land for a cemetery; the donor's descendants may have the cemetery map, or know where it is.
While you're at it, get the names of the local morticians, especially those that have been around a while. Make sure you ask about any funeral homes that have closed down. Funeral homes are usually family-run; even if the elders have died and the funeral home has been shut down, there may still be records.
And don't neglect the funeral homes that seem to cater to different ethnic groups. My mother's triplet sister, who was still-born, was buried by a Hispanic funeral home in San Antonio.
I've had great luck with getting information out of funeral homes, and from old retired funeral directors. They love to talk about the old days.
And check with any old preachers in the area ... many of them kept detailed records of the people they married, baptized, and buried.
Maybe you and the jedis should get into genealogy ... it's a great way to learn history!