[or-roots] Newly opened Vital Records

[SAWYER Layne G * SOS]

Happy New Year OR-Rooters,

The beginning of the new calendar year is a pretty big deal here at the Archives, not because we all make New Year's resolutions, but because the newly available Vital Records are open to researchers.  Oregon restricts Death Certificates, Marriage Returns, and Divorce Returns for 50 years and birth Certificates for 100 years. So as of January 2nd staff can make these records available for researchers.

For a recent Archives Facebook posting  I thought I would be fun to take a deeper dive into the 1918 birth records.  I selected Harney County because my younger brother was born in Burns a little over fifty years ago*.  Back in 1918 there were a total of sixty-nine births recorded in Harney County.  Most of the certificates were signed by physicians, J.W. Geary or B.F. Smith.  D. C. Griffith must have opened a practice sometime in that year as his name appears on a few of the certificates about half way through 1918.  I found a few certificates that were signed by midwives, Mrs. S C McKinnis and Mrs. Gray Kenney. Even more interesting are the certificates that were signed by fathers.  Harold Johnson, Ira Kimball, Rasmus Rasmussan and Walter Dilley all were listed as the attending party on their child's birth certificate.  All these families lived outside of the city of Burns.  1918 birth records  I did some searching on the internet and it appears that the first hospital built in Burns was completed in 1920.  Therefore one can assume these were mostly "home" births even when attended by physicians.

So if you have 1968 or 1918 vital records that you are searching for make a visit to us here in Salem or you can use this online form to place an order if you know the date and location as well as the name(s).

https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/request-oregon-historical-record-index.aspx


Happy Genealogical Hunting!

Layne Sawyer
List Mom
Manager of Reference Services
Oregon State Archives

*My mother gave birth to my baby brother at what was Burns 2nd hospital and was delivered by Dr. Burt Campbell a long time family practitioner in Burns.


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