<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">Someone suggested I post the following to
the list, which I am glad to do: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">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<BR>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">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.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT><FONT
face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">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:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"><A
href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/or/orfiles.htm">http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/or/orfiles.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">If you have anything you can contribute, you
will find the state coordinator's name and e-mail on that main page.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">I will be going to Salem around the
28th.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style">Elizabeth in Eagle Point</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>