[or-roots] More on death certs and obits

[Wordsmith]

It wasn't until today that I realized that I should have put the dates death certificates are available in the state archives. Oregon did not start official recording of deaths until 1903. However, compliance was spotty for a number of years, particularly (in my experience) with stillbirths and infant deaths. I have a number of obituaries for those earlier years, between 1903 and about 1920, for which there is no death certificate I can locate and is not listed on the Oregon Death Index. The archives have death certificates through 1952. The state restricts access to death certificates for 50 years. This does not mean that the archives gets the death certificates immediately upon a change of month or year. It takes a while. I believe the state health department sends the death certificates to the archives in a yearly batch, although this may not be right.

Someone suggested I post the following to the list, which I am glad to do: 

I do Jackson County lookups in the Medford Mail Tribune, which began  around 1910, and some looking in the Medford Mail, beginning about 1895. There are also the Medford Sun and the Medford Daily Tribune, both of which were around 1900-1915 or thereabouts. I would appreciate it if folks could limit their requests to one obit once or twice a month, as I have lots
else going on (like teaching 3/4 time at a college and part-time at a hospital). Also, many of the older papers didn't list deaths or obits for whatever reason (space? cost? editor's quirks?), and hunting through those older papers is really time-consuming. Sometimes the only place a death is mentioned is in a "neighborhood column" where it might say something like, "Mrs. M. T. Kincaid died last Sunday and was buried Tuesday. She was a highly respected pioneer lady and a good Christian, having raised 12 children." In those cases, I really need a pretty accurate date of death. But, I'm glad to do the searching on a limited basis. 

The University of Oregon's Knight Library has a tremendous collection of Oregon newspapers on microfilm, and some of these are available through your local library through Interlibrary Loan. A small fee is charged (Jackson County library charges $2) for the loan. Thus, you can request a film for a specific area and time period and look at it yourself. 

The USGenWeb Oregon Archives are wonderful, and many people have contributed a great deal to them. Do check them out, if you haven't already. The information varies a great deal from county to county, depending on the county coordinator and the volunteers who contribute. I have been adding to the USGenWeb archives for Jackson County fairly regularly and at present have a little over 2,000 articles posted, primarily obits, deaths and births, but marriages and other information as well.Here's the URL:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/or/orfiles.htm


If you have anything you can contribute, you will find the state coordinator's name and e-mail on that main page. 

I will be going to Salem around the 28th.

Elizabeth in Eagle Point

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