Lane County, Oregon Genealogy

United States

Oregon

Lane County

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

Oregon Online Genealogy Records

Lane County, Oregon
Map
Location in the state of Oregon, United States Genealogy
Location of Oregon in the U.S.
Facts
Founded:	January 11, 1851
County Seat	Eugene
Courthouse
Address	Lane County Courthouse

County Information

Description

The County was named for Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor. The County is located in the west central area of the state.

Lane County, Oregon Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1882	1855	1882	1852	1855	1852	1845
*Statewide registration for births and deaths in 1903. General compliance year unknown.

County Courthouse

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Lane County Courthouse
125 East 8th
Eugene, Or 97630
Phone: 541-682-4234

Deeds and Records Archives has marriage, land,
military and naturalization records from 1855.
Court Archives has probate and divorce records.
Clerk Circuit Court has court records.

County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Lane County Court House as of July/August 2012.

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

Lane County Courthouse for additional information about some addresses and records.

Lane County Information

Lane County's civil records start the following years:

Birth	Marriage	Death	Census	Land	Probate
1882-1928	1852	1882-1928	1854	1854	1852

Historical Facts

Joseph Lane

Named for Joseph Lane, the first governor of Oregon Territory.

Boundary Changes

28 January 1851: Lane county was created from Linn (Non-County Area 3) and Umpqua (Non-County Area 4) Counties. (Source: Newberry Library)
11 January 1854: Part was taken to form Wasco
07 January 1852: Lost small area to creation of Douglas. (Ore. Terr. Laws 1851, 3rd reg. sess., p. 18)
22 December 1853: Gained from Umpqua (extinct); gained from Non-County Area 4; exchanged with Douglas. (Ore. Terr. Special Laws, 1853, 5th reg. sess., p. 13)
19 November 1885: Gained from Douglas. (Ore. Laws 1885, gen., 13th sp. sess., p. 3)
16 February 1887: Gained from Linn. (Ore. Laws 1887, gen., 14th reg. sess., p. 126)
19 Feb 1903: Gained from Douglas. (Ore. Laws 1903, 22nd reg. sess., pp. 115-116)
29 January 1907: Exchanged with Linn. (Ore. Laws 1907, gen., 24th reg. sess., ch. 3/pp. 12-14)
19 February 1907: Gained from Linn. (Ore. Laws 1907, gen., 24th reg. sess., ch. 63/pp. 114-115)
12 February 1915: Gained from Linn and exchanged with Douglas. Area annexed from Linn was approximately 120 acres along the Willamette River near the present town of Lancaster [too small to map]. (Ore. Laws 1915, gen., 28th reg. sess., ch. 65/pp. 74-77)
15 February 1923: Lost to Benton and Lincoln. (Ore. Laws 1923, gen., 32nd reg. sess., ch. 92/pp. 129-131)
3 March 1927: Boundary with Lincoln redefined to correct minor errors in 15 February 1923 description [no change]. (Ore. Laws 1927, gen., 34th reg. sess., ch. 278/pp. 350-351)
6 March 1931: Gained small area from Lincoln when boundary was redefined to correct an error in the previous description. (Ore. Laws 1931, gen., 36th reg. sess., ch. 288/p. 514)

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.

Record Loss

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

Trivia Tidbits

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

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
Coburg Cottage Grove Creswell Dunes City	Eugene Florence Junction City Lowell	Oakridge Springfield Veneta Westfir
Unincorporated communities
Ada Alma Alpha Alvadore Austa Belknap Springs Blachly Black Butte Blue River Bohemia Brickerville Camp Creek Canary Cedar Flat Cheshire Cloverdale Crow Culp Creek Cushman Deadwood Deerhorn Dexter Disston Dorena Elmira Fall Creek	Finn Rock Franklin Gillespie Corners Glenada Glenwood Goldson Goshen Heceta Beach Horton Indiola Inlow Jasper Lancaster Latham Leaburg Linslaw London Springs Lorane Low Pass Mabel Mapleton Marcola McKenzie Bridge Minerva Mohawk Natron	[https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod,_Oregon Nimrod] North Beach Noti Pleasant Hill Rainbow Riverview Saginaw Searose Beach Siltcoos Swisshome Tide Tiernan Trent Triangle Lake Unity Vaughn Vida Walden Walker Walterville Walton Wendling Westlake Wildwood
Ghost towns
Divide Luper	Malabon	Yarnell

Defunct Post Offices

• Ada: Post Office established 1892. Named for Miss Ada Wilkes, a daughter of an old-time resident. She was subsequently Mrs. Ada Cleveland. FamilySearch Catalog
• Alma: Alma is in the southwest part of Lane County on the Siuslaw River. Post Office was established in 1888, with A. P. Condray as first postmaster. Named for Alma Johnson, daughter of Arthur and Alice Johnson, early settlers in the community.
• Alpha: The post office at Alpha was established in 1890, and was named for Alpha Lundy, the daughter of the first postmaster, Mrs. Flora B. Lundy. Alpha is the first letter of the greek alphabet.
• Alvadore: Alvadore was named for Alvadore Welch of Portland, who built the Portland, Eugene and Eastern Railway through the community. The railway was later acquired by the Southern Pacific Railroad, but in 1936 the track was torn up. Alvadore post office was established in 1914.

Resources

Biography

Trivia Tidbits: Little biographic bits associated with the names of non-population localities.

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
ORInterment
ORGravestones
Billion Graves
See Oregon Cemeteries for more information.

• Oregon Metro
• Oregon Genealogy Cemeteries

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1860	4,780	—
1870	6,426	34.4%
1880	9,411	46.5%
1890	15,198	61.5%
1900	19,604	29.0%
1910	33,783	72.3%
1920	36,166	7.1%
1930	54,493	50.7%
1940	69,096	26.8%
1950	125,776	82.0%
1960	162,890	29.5%
1970	213,358	31.0%
1980	275,226	29.0%
1990	282,912	2.8%
2000	322,959	14.2%
2010	351,715	8.9%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church

Lutheran

• Records of Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran Church, Eugene, 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

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

Oregon 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 $

Repositories

• Lane County Archive and Records Center
• Lane County Historical Museum
• Lane County Public Service Building
• Oregon State Archives
• Oregon Historical Society
• University of Oregon, Knight Library
• Lane Education Service District

Rivers and Waterways

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

Societies

Lane County History Museum
740 W 13th Ave
Eugene 97402-4010
541-682-4242
Website
Facebook Page

Cottage Grove Genealogical Society
700 Gibbs Ave
Cottage Grove, OR 97424
541-942-9570
Website

Libraries of Lane County
13 Libraries Listed
Website

Vital Records

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. 1852-1921 - Oregon, Lane County, Marriage Records, 1852-1921 at FamilySearch — index and images
4. Extractions of early marriages are listed on the Western States Marriage Index
5. Marriage Index 1885-1896 Actually is a book of affiants reporting the marriages. Historical Records Collection

Libraries

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

• Cottage Grove Oregon Family History Center
• Eugene Oregon Family History Center
• Florence Oregon Family History Center
• Oakridge Oregon Family History Center

Websites

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

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.