Guide to Oregon Provisional and Territorial Government Records

 
The provisional and Territorial Government records in the custody of the Oregon State Archives include a variety of topics such as Indian wars, land transactions, court cases, and the administration of local government, and include correspondence, reports, military rosters, tax lists, wills, divorce decrees, voter abstracts, and censuses. Enhanced access to these records is possible because of a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The Guide to Oregon Provisional and Territorial Government Records and its components are a result of this project.

Using the Guide

The Guide provides consistent descriptions of the records of the Territorial and Provisional Governments in the custody of the Oregon State Archives. It brings together descriptions of all holdings from the Provisional and Territorial periods. Administrative histories which define the duties and trace the development of offices and public bodies integrate information which is not available from any other single source.

The Guide is divided into three sections: 1} Records of Oregon counties which were created before statehood, 2} records of the Provisional and Territorial Governments; and 3} records of counties that became part of Washington Territory when it was formed in 1853.

Within each section the user will find agency or county administrative histories which describe the creation, development, and functions of government during the Provisional and Territorial periods. The entries are arranged alphabetically by county or office of origin. These are followed by series descriptions arranged alphabetically by title.

Using the microfilm

Not all the records described in the Guide have been microfilmed. Records which have been microfilmed include a notation in the description indicating either the reel number, "calendar microfilm," or both. The calendar microfilm (reels 37 through 80) was made from a group of 13,201 records which were transferred to the Oregon State Archives in 1952. This group of records was not arranged in any meaningful way and the only access to it was through a sequentially numbered calendar, or descriptive lists, of the records. The project staff organized this group of records into record series for the purpose of description, but did not physically rearrange the records. Since the records in each description are scattered throughout the forty-two reels of the calendar microfilm, indicating reel numbers would be meaningless. The document numbers included in each record series are contained in the database records (see Using the indexes).

Using the indexes Two indexes are included in the Guide. The first is an index to the contents of each reel of microfilm. The second index provides access by subject term, personal name, geographic name and agency name. Indexing by personal name is not comprehensive. The user will find the series number beneath each entry in the index. This series number can be used to find the desired reel of microfilm. For those records found in the "calendar microfilm," the database record must be consulted for specific record numbers. These are found in MARC field 500.

To Order the Guide to Oregon Provisional and Territorial Government Records fill out this form and return to the Oregon State Archives, Attn: Reference,

800 Summer St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97310; telephone (503) 373-0701; FAX (503) 373-0953

Guide - $15.00

Microfilm (fees available upon request)

---

Search | Contact Us | OARs | Legislative | Records Mgmt | Genealogy | Governors | Holdings
State Agency | Local Govt | Web Exhibits | Tour | Blue Book | Oregon.gov | Archives Home | SOS Home