Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1950)
9 HAVE YOU ANY OREGON ANCESTOR? By DAVID C. DUNIWAY Oregon State Archives We all take it for grante'd that we are born, but many of us get into trou- ble when we try to prove it. Perhaps jfou remember difficulties that you had in getting a birth certificate to submit to the Public Employees Re tirement Board: Some B d iv id ij^ ^ B H have had a' worse time than you did, and the problem would be more 'sèrio® if you had to pròve that your father was born, that you B j gfeg; father was born, and so on back into the limbo of lost facts. Yoùìwould have embarked on a great detective hunt, from the known B the unknown, the sort of search that can come to absorb your attention. There is nòione more enthus- iastic than a seeker after genealogical knowledge, or perhaps as boring, at least to those who do not^app'recfa te the zest of the quest, H B have to be prepared for shocks when you start looking for gènè'a B S B I facts- One lady' B fe|Mfcàìth, asked an archival attendant for information about her “dear grandfather, who came oyer on the Mayflower,3 served in the Revolution at the battle of Bunkéf Hill, and was a veteran of the War of 1812.” The on|yv. truth in her family B a dition was his distinguished service in;' thè; W a r B 8 M and he B B B | be thè? natufaitson of one of our great Revolutionary B ures. It was six monthsÀbefore the lady wasXready to look for moJIMmfornOi&n on what turned out to be an extraordiiiàrìiyZ ab!e ancestry. At least sheBvallowed the initial facts and was willing to look further into the past. We are all related to history in that our ancestors participated in history. They signed petitions to right wrongs/ th|g committed wrongs, their court suits are the basis of our legal system, food for the tables of the arid even though thefr tale may be told in simple' words, it is worth knowing how^you gmeOelated to- our common past. One article^cari only in- troduce^you to the fi^B^^jhistorical and genealogical eKg|j||h, but a des- I cription of the sources for informa tion relating to your Qrjfg|n ancestors might show you howlm do genealogical research. It is not a simple job to trace ^'fam ily^and it takes ; ,'a lH E >f^sleutS ing. If you have an Oregon ancestry, iyou must -of £nll ^ ^ lty start with the data' that your family ¿aril furnish. But first you must be armed with the necesSgvy questions so that you do not have tci; ask questions over and over again. Be sure to keep the data on each person together. You will want to know: 1. Where and when were you born? 2. Who werrij your parents? 3. Where, and when were they born, married, and when land where did they d i|B 4. Where else did they live and when?/*What education did they get? What did they do for a living? With whom were they associated? What was their religion? Did they hold1 p O S M office? Did t lj e w g l military service? 5. Who were their brothers and sis ters, when and where were they born, when and where were they married 'arid -tdfcwhom, and when did they die? Did they have children? (Question 4 would apply to each brother, sister or--- 6. Are there any records, family bi- bles, correspondence, diaries, memoirs, eiccount books or pictures? 7. Who were your grandparents? (And then the questions 3, 4, 5 and 6 repeat themselves for the grandpar ents, their brothers' and sisters, and their parents.) If your family Ejgperatos. every thing is all right. On the other hand,
