About the Oregon Historical Records Index
May 24, 2011
The Oregon Historical Records Index has added 1,089 new entries to the database.
The newest entries include:
Clatsop County divorces, 1861-1889 (76 entries).
Updated May 24, 2011
Total number of entries: 601,866
About the index:
This index includes entries compiled by examining actual
records held by the Oregon State Archives. The spelling of surnames
and other information reflects the original records.
The records included
in this index represent only a small fraction of our holdings.
Also see:
Oregon
Historical County Records Guide
State
Agency Records Guides
Topical Research
Aids
Hints for searching the Oregon Historical Records Index
This index has evolved over more than a decade and is the effort of thousands of hours of Archives volunteers’ time. Originally volunteers were told to enter data as it appeared on the record. As such there are many entries using the common abbreviations for some given names. Examples include Wm for William and Chas for Charles. Generally it is best to use a surname only search unless you have a very common surname. If you get a large search result you can then add additional information such as given name or location/county to narrow the search. Do not use periods in your search. Although there are some entries with periods we have discontinued there use in data entry. If you include a period in your search criteria it will only return items that include periods, not entries were no periods are used. We are gradually editing the entries to make them more consistent and hopefully improve the searching capabilities. Please feel free to contact us (reference.archives @ state.or.us) if you encounter problems with searching the index.
Order copies:
Information or copies from the indexed records may be requested
by contacting the Reference Unit of
the Archives. In most cases these records include more information
than the index entries. Entries will be added to the index
on an ongoing basis.
Records from the following entities
are included in the index:
Choose a county or agency to learn more about its records
in the index.