Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1950)
10 if your fam ily is hostile, expect to find subjects about which they are justifi ably unhappy. Look about your fam ily as you know it and don’t be sur prised if there w ere sim ilar individuals in your fam ily’s past. If the fam ily has been at all prom inent, its skeletons m ay be common knowledge to all but yourself.. The fam ily of W illiam H enry H arrison sat on fam ily papers for years because they showed th at “papa d ran k ”, while all the world knew th at his campaign for President was suc cessful becausb of the lavish distribu tion of tspirits, and th at it ended ab ru p tly w ith his death following a tum ultuous inauguration. But w hat will these facts that you have gathered do for you? Why did you ask those questions? If you are young enough, you start verify ing each detail at the Oregon State Board of H ealth in Portland. Your own b irth certificate should show your parents’ names, w here and when they w ere born, your father’s occu pation, w here your m other lived, and if there w ere older children. Of course not all the questions are answered on every certificate. Your parents’ birth certificates, at thejj State Board of Health, if they were born in Oregon since 1903, or at the City Board of H ealth in P ortland if they w ere born in th at city since 1864, should furnish the same inform ation relating to them selves and their parents. If they were born before the days of birth certifi cates, they m ay have ^ M ^ g e d a de layed certificate, and evidence filed w ith the State Board of Health prion- to 1947, and now in the State Archives, or th e records of the City Board of Health, may fill gaps. F ull copies of certificates of vital records can be ob.r tained from the State Board of Health, or the P ortland Board of Health, for $1.00, provided they know why you w ant th e inform ation. M arriage records since 1850 have survived in most county court houses, or are available at the State Board of H ealth since 1908. They often show the nam es of the couple,-of the bride’s fa th er, th e ages of the bridal pair, and the groom’s occupation. Since 1910 m arriag e dates lead to the society page description of weddings, which includes th e nam es of relations. Equal in im portance to m arriage r e b d r ^ a r e records of their dissolution, or of div orces in w hich th e parties establish the fact of m arriage and account for children. Certificates at th e S tate Board of H ealth since 1925 w ill lead you to the proper court for verifica tion of facts, and th ere m ay be evi dence on file relating to relatives in- volved. Rem em ber m aladjustm ents resulting in. divorce are ages old, call ing for s y m p a th e tic understanding. They are im portant only to th e extent that they reflect fam ily characteristics undpr? strain. Death records of th e S tate B oard of Health since 1903 w ill give the date of birth, tell w here the deceased w as. born, and should include the nam es of parents.;:! The death certificM Malso shows w here the deceased wa.s buried, and there is nothing like a fam ily cem etery to helpEiou in your hunt. Once the death date is established, an obit uary in a local paper m ay be im port ant, although most papers published before 1900 w ere concerned, not w ith the surviving fam ily, b u t w ith the place of the deceased in the com m un ity. Death not only produces a certif icate, but there; m ay be an estate and a will. T h e s e ^ H filed^sW p art of the probate records at the County Court House, and are most helpful in estab- lishing the relationship of fa th e r^ o r m other to their children, or grand children, or of an uncle and aunt to their nieces or nephews. A guardian- ship will likewise reveal the nam es of m inor children, while the tran sfer of real property through an estate ^ i l l positively prove the relationship. You not only w ant to check;.the '& ill itself, but you :H 8 i l « B l l o w through all the court orders recorded in the docket book or in the m inutes of the ternltp r- ial county courts. If you seek Oregon estates prior to 1845, they are rec orded in a th in book in the B ^ e ^ o f the Secretary of S tate in Salem. Newspapers w hich contain obituar i e s deWrip tiq ^ ^ S w eddings and birth n o ti^ s m ay be at the Oregon H istor ical Society in P ortland, th e U niver sity °f Oregon L ib rary at,-Eugene, the Oregon State L i l S w In Salem and the L ibrary of Congress in W ashing- ton, D.C. P rio r to 1880, fine files are (Continued bn Page 20)
