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<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>I live in the Rogue Valley area and have
made a few trips to Salem this summer to get death certificates; in two trips I
amassed nearly 300 certificates. That, plus stopping at my son's house in
Corvallis and allowing him to cook me supper, made the trip worth it. I
really enjoy the drive, the archives staff are very, very helpful, and if I get
there early enough I can even find a place to park.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>If you go to the archives and have a long
list of death certificates to pull and copy, may I suggest a way to create a
list for the archives staff that will save them--and you--time? They told me it
really helped them a lot. I created my list using MS Excel, but any word
processing program with a table feature will also work just fine.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>I made the following column headings:
Archivist, Year of Death, Month, Day, County, Surname, First Name, Middle/Maiden
Name, and Notes. I type in the information and leave a few blank lines for those
death certificates that I suddenly decide I need but don't have time to fire up
the computer and add them to the list.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>The reason is that the death certificates
are filed first by year, then by county, then by month, with certificates in
date order within each folder. The first column is blank so that the staff
member, if they wish, can check off the boxes as they take them off the shelf.
Since most of the death certificates I get are for deaths occurring in Jackson
County, when I have them in other places I put that county in bold so the
archivist will see it and pull the right box. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>I hope this idea helps those of you who have
a good many certificates to find and not a lot of time to do it in. In one
three-hour period I managed to pull and copy about 130 of them. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>Also, anyone who goes to Portland to visit
the Oregon Historical Society there should know that their
galleries will be closed for several months beginning sometime in November,
I believe. For more information, their website is <A
href="http://www.ohs.org">www.ohs.org</A>. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130173505-20102002>Elizabeth in the Rogue
Valley</SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>