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,