Oregon Court Records – A Guide to Courthouse Research

Oregon Government records cover a broad range of genealogy subject areas that can help you as part of your research, such as land ownership, courts, taxes, and naturalization’s. Given that Oregon court records cover such a wide selection of topics, they could aid you in many different ways. As an example, they could aid you in finding ancestors’ residences, identify occupations, locate financial information, determine citizenship status, or shed light on relationships between individuals. The whole thing relies upon on the type of court records that the ancestors” names show up in. For Definitions of all court terms see the Genealogy Encyclopedia.

Oregon Courthouse records change extensively from county to county in both level of quality and volume. You will find different kinds of court records that are most likely to possess information related for your genealogical research below.

Oregon Court Records

There are several courts that make up the Oregon court system. They are: Circuit Courts, County Courts, District Courts, Justice Courts, Municipal or City Courts, Supreme Court.

Circuit courts presided over major trials. Those included divorces, criminal cases, guardianship cases, and probate cases. In some cases, county courts existed. If so, they tried some probate and juvenile cases. Minor criminal cases were tried by district courts for each county. Justice courts shared county jurisdiction with circuit courts and also handled minor criminal matters. Liquor control violations and violations of municipal laws were handled by the municipal or city courts. The supreme court handled appeals and had the final say over all cases in the state.

The Oregon State Archives and some of the county courthouses hold most of the court records for the state. The “Oregon Historical County Records Guide” on the website for the Oregon State Archives has an inventory of those records and lists their locations. See Also Research In Court Records.

• U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871
• Oregon Court Record Books (amazon.com)

Oregon Land Records

On September 27, 1850, a Congressional act was passed that gave land to both white settlers and Native American/white “half-breeds.” Some settlers who came to the area between December 1, 1850 and December 1, 1853 were also eligible to receive land under that act. However, acreage received varied anywhere from 160 acres to 640 acres. It all depended on the settlement date, marital status, and other factors. It was a requirement that each settler claiming land in that way stay on the land for at least 4 years to cultivate it and live on it. Claims were filed with land offices. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon has now indexed, abstracted, and published those claim records. The index is organized according to both location and name. Many libraries have those publications on file. The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) files for Oregon land claims is on file on microfilm at both the FHL and the Oregon State Archives.

The following Oregon Towns had public land offices: Oregon City (pre-1855-1905), Winchester (1855-59), Roseburg (1860-unknown), Burns (1889-1925), Le Grande (1867-1925), Linkville (1873-77), Lakeview (1877-unknown), The Dalles (1875-unknown), Portland (1905-25).

Some of the records that were filed at those offices may include: Cash Entries, Homestead Final Certificates, Canceled Homestead Entries, Timber-Culture Final Certificates, Canceled Timber-Culture Entries, Desert-Land Final Certificates, Canceled Desert-Land Entries, Town Lots, Indian Allotments.

Some records may also include notifications to the Oregon Surveyor General of settlers who lived on lands that were not surveyed.

BLM survey notes, tract books, and plat books for Oregon are on a series of microfilms at the Genealogical Forum of Oregon Library. The FHL also has copies of those records on file.

Congress used the 5-year Homestead Act of 1862 to give as much as 160 acres of land to any person who agreed to stay on that land for at least 5 years. However, in 1912 that requirement was lowered to only 3 years. The National Archives-Pacific Alaska Region, which is located in Seattle, Washington, has most of those original homestead applications for Oregon on file. The FHL has microfilms of those records, which may include names of applicants whose claims were canceled, on file. It also has an index to those records available.

Mortgages, deeds, and all subsequent records relating to a tract of land were recorded on a county level from the time of each county’s formation. The Oregon State Archives has deeds on file, and the FHL has microfilmed copies. See Also Guide to U.S. Land Records Research

• BLM Land Records (glorecords.blm.gov)
• Index to Oregon donation land claim files in the National Archives
• Oregon Land Record Books (amazon.com)

Oregon Probate Records

The circuit courts and county courts kept probate records in Oregon. The Oregon State Archives has a collection of those records on file. The Oregon State Archives online database, which is called “Oregon Historical County Records Guide,” can indicate which probate records are available and where they can be found. That website also goes into detail about each type of record and which records are still held by the courthouses in the various Oregon counties. A microfilmed collection of many county probate records is available through the FHL. See Also Guide to U.S. Probate Records Research

• Oregon Probate Record Books (amazon.com)

Oregon Tax Records

The Oregon State Archives holds some tax roll and assessment records from 1845 to 1900. However, most of those records are still kept in the courthouse of the county where they were recorded originally. “Reports of Estates, 1903- 1913” is a state treasurer tool, which has been provided to the Oregon State Archives. It contains information on those who died testate (with wills) including the names of their heirs and the date on which they died. The tool lists that information according to county and year that they event took place.

“Tax Lot Cards” were created by each county. They list real property and track the size of the property and ownership of the property. They function as deed references. The “Oregon Historical County Records Guide” on the Oregon State Archives website has an inventory of those records.

Tax rolls were required to be kept until 1905 for each county. Any records made after that year must be kept for 50 years, but may be destroyed after that time has passed. However, records from years ending in five or zero are never destroyed because they are used as research tools. See Also Guide to U.S. Tax Records Research

• Oregon Tax Record Books (amazon.com)

Oregon Immigration & Naturalization Records

There were six immigration ports in Oregon. They were: Astoria, Newport, North Bend, Portland, Reedsport, Tillamook.

The National Archives-Pacific Alaska Region in Seattle, Washington holds the Portland port records, which include those from the Portland Collector of Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Portland Office. There have been no passenger lists found for Portland or the smaller ports to date.

Any court could naturalize a foreign-born resident of Oregon. Each county may hold its own records from prior to 1906. However, those records could be in court minutes, journals, naturalization books, or other records. Many citizenship records can be found in a collection at the Oregon State Archives. See Also Guide to U.S. Immigration Records Research

• Oregon Immigration Project (usgwarchives.net)
•  Oregon Passenger and Crew Lists, 1888-1957
• Oregon Immigration Record Books (amazon.com)

Oregon County & City Government Links

Oregon contains 36 counties. Each county is the local level of government within its borders. The links in the table below link to county and city government offices and is limited to government-maintained websites. If you know of a Oregon county that has an official government web site but is not linked, or if the link is in error, please contact us so we may edit our database. Oregon State Government is located in Salem.