Harney County, Oregon Genealogy

United States

Oregon

Harney County

Guide to Harney County, Oregon ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Oregon Online Genealogy Records

Harney County, Oregon
Map
Location in the state of Oregon, United States Genealogy
Location of Oregon in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	February 23, 1889
County Seat	Burns
Courthouse
Website: www.co.harney.or.us
Named for: Gen. William Shelby Harney

County Information

Description

The County was named for William S. Harney, a military officer of the period, who was involved in the Pig War and popular in the Pacific Northwest. The County is located in the central area of the state.

Harney County, Oregon Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1903	1889	1903	1885	1889	1889	1845
*Statewide registration for births and deaths in 1903. General compliance year unknown.

County Courthouse

Harney County Courthouse
450 North Buena Vista Avenue
Burns, Or 97720
Phone: 541-573-6641

County Clerk has marriage records from 1911,
land and probate records from 1889, military
records from 1943 and naturalization records.
Clerk Circuit Court has divorce and court records.

Harney County Government

County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Harney County Court House as of July 2008.

Harney County Court is structured differently. Check the County Records Inventory link for addresses for location of records (left column).

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Historical Facts

Named for Brig. Gen. William S. Harney of U.S. Army, who was involved in "Pig War" and popular in the Pacific Northwest.

Parent County

23 February 1889: Harney county was created from Grant County.

Boundary Changes

No parts were taken to create any county.

For animated maps illustrating Oregon County boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Oregon County Boundary Maps" (1843-1975) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Places / Localities

Populated Places

The following are locations in the county:

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator

Cities
Burns	Hines
Unincorporated communities
Buchanan Diamond Drewsey Dunnean Fields Frenchglen	Frost Mill Harney Indian Village Lawen New Princeton Riley	Suntex Trout Creek Van Venator Voltage Wagontire
Native American communities
Burns Paiute Tribe	Malheur Indian Reservation
Census-designated places
Crane	Denio
Ghost towns
Andrews	Blitzen	Narrows

Defunct Post Offices

• Alberson: For more than a score of years Alberson was a post office on the extreme east edge of Harney County, in the locality of T30S, R36E. As with similar offices,it was moved around a little. The office was established Sept. 20, 1907 with William E. Alberson first of nine postmasters. The office was named in honor of the official, who was an early settler in the vicinity of Juniper Lake. The office was discontinued Sept. 29, 1930. FamilySearch Catalog

The preceding list of places includes incorporated cities and towns, unincorporated towns and communities, and place names that may have been used in family histories. Some have well-organized records and even have web sites. Some are simply social communities with no official records, but which may be referenced in small-town newspapers. The list is provided to help researchers identify localities within the county. As records or histories of these localities are identified, a page will be added for each of these place names.

Trivia Tidbits

Information about localities, too small or too brief to describe in separate pages. Exception to this are Post Offices. > Trivia Tidbits

Resources

Cemeteries

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
ORGenWeb	WorldCat	Billion Graves
ORGenWeb Archives		FamilySearch Places
Tombstone Project
Billion Graves
See Oregon Cemeteries for more information.

• Oregon Metro
• Oregon Genealogy Cemeteries

Census

==== Census ====

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1890	2,559	—
1900	2,598	1.5%
1910	4,059	56.2%
1920	3,992	−1.7%
1930	5,920	48.3%
1940	5,374	−9.2%
1950	6,113	13.8%
1960	6,744	10.3%
1970	7,215	7.0%
1980	8,314	15.2%
1990	7,060	−15.1%
2000	7,609	7.8%
2010	7,422	−2.5%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church History and Records

Lutheran

• Records of the American Lutheran Church, Hines, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Gazetteers

• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

Maps

• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

Military History and Records

Civil War

• 1861-1865 - Oregon, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 at FamilySearch — index

World War I

• 1919-1920 - Oregon, World War I, County Military Service Records, 1919-1920 at FamilySearch — index
• 1921-1938 - Oregon, World War I, Veteran State Aid Applications, 1921-1938 at FamilySearch — index and images

Newspapers

[Online Historical Newspapers] - identifies historical archived and digitized newspapers available online on both free and pay-to-access websites.

Probate Records

Online Records

• 1833 – 1963 Oregon Wills and Probate Records 1833-1963 at Ancestry.com — index and images $

Rivers and Waterways

Details about the rivers and waterways where farms and settlements are often found along them. >> Rivers and Waterways

Vital Records

Many early marriages are listed on the Western States Marriage Index.

See also How to order Oregon Vital Records, order electronically online or download an application for Oregon Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate, Divorce Certificate, Death Certificate Application to mail.

Birth Records

• 1860 - 1952 - Oregon Births, 1860-1952 at FamilySearch — index

Delayed Birth Certificates

Birth Registers

Marriage Records

1. 1826-1975 - Oregon, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
2. 1849-1884; 1991-2006 - Oregon Marriage Index, 1849-1884; 1991-2006 at FamilySearch — index and images; collection is incomplete.
3. Extractions of early marriages are listed on the Western States Marriage Index
4. Marriage Index 1885-1896 Actually is a book of affiants reporting the marriages. Historical Records Collection

Societies, Libraries, Museums

Harney County Historical Society
18 West D St
Burns 97720-1226
Telephone: 541-573-5618
Website
Facebook Page

Harney County Library
80 W D St
Burns, OR 97720
541-573-6670
Website
Facebook Page

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Affiliate Libraries

• Burns Oregon Family History Center

Websites

• Harney County, OR History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
• Oregon Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
• The Harney County GenWeb Project, part of The ORGenWeb Project
• Linkpendium
• The USGenWeb Archives Project
• The USGenWeb Archives Project (backup site)
• FamilySearch.org

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.