Linn County, Oregon Genealogy

United States

Oregon

Linn County

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

Oregon Online Genealogy Records

Linn County, Oregon
Map
Location in the state of Oregon, United States Genealogy
Location of Oregon in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	December 28, 1847
County Seat	Albany
Courthouse
Address	Linn County Courthouse 300 4th Ave SW PO Box 100 Albany, OR 97321 Phone: 541.967.3831 Linn County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Lewis F. Linn, a U.S. Senator from Missouri who advocated the American settlement of the Oregon Country. The County is located in the northwest area of the state.

Linn County, Oregon Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1903	1850	1903	1854	1853	1854	1845
*Statewide registration for births and deaths in 1903. General compliance year unknown.

County Courthouse

County Clerk has marriage records from 1850,
divorce, probate, and court records from 1854
and military enumeration from 1905.

Linn County Courthouse

Quick Facts

28 December 1847: Linn county was created from Champoeg County . Named for U.S. Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri.

• County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Linn County Court House as of October 2004.
• Record Loss:

Boundary Changes

Parts were taken for

• 28 January 1851: Lane and Umpqua counties

• 11 January 1854: Part taken for Wasco 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.

Record Loss

1861 The original county courthouse was destroyed by fire.

Populated Places

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

The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Albany Alford Brownsville Fox Valley Gates Halsey	Harrisburg Idanha Lebanon Lyons Mill City Millersburg	Scio Sodaville Sweet Home Tangent Waterloo
Unincorporated communities
Calapooia Foster Jordan	Kingston Marion Forks	Riverside Santiam Junction
Native American communities
Warm Springs
Census-designated places
Cascadia Crabtree Crawfordsville	Holley Lacomb Peoria	Shedd South Lebanon West Scio
Ghost towns
Burlington Orleans	Rowland Tallman	Thomas

Defunct Post Offices

• Abberdeen: Established 13 June 1892 with Mary Flaugher as postmaster. The office closed 24 April 1894 and business turned over to Lacomb post office. May have been named for Aberdeen, Michigan, where the Flaughers came from. FamilySearch Catalog
• Alford: a station on the Southern Pacific line between Halsey and Harrisburg. It bears the name of Thomas Alford, a pioneer of 1850, upon whose donation land claim it is situated. The station was originally known as Muddy, on account of Muddy Creek, which flows nearby. The name appears in the Oregonian as early as Nov. 7, 1857. A post office was established in this locality in Feb. 1874, with the name Muddy Station. It was in service about a year. Liverpool was the name of a post office that served the area 8n 1877-79. The name of railroad station was changed from Muddy to Alford some time after 1900.

Neighboring Counties

Benton | Deschutes | Jefferson | Lane | Marion | Polk

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
ORInterment
ORGravestones
Billion Graves
See Oregon Cemeteries for more information.

• Oregon Metro
• Oregon Genealogy Cemeteries

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1850	994	—
1860	6,772	581.3%
1870	8,717	28.7%
1880	12,676	45.4%
1890	16,265	28.3%
1900	18,603	14.4%
1910	22,662	21.8%
1920	24,550	8.3%
1930	24,700	0.6%
1940	30,485	23.4%
1950	54,317	78.2%
1960	58,867	8.4%
1970	71,914	22.2%
1980	89,465	24.4%
1990	91,227	2.0%
2000	103,069	13.0%
2010	116,672	13.2%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church History and Records

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

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 $

Rivers and Waterways

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

Vital Records

The Family History Library has copies of some county records as following:

Linn County records of deaths 1903-1915, 1915-1947 (the cover title of this one is "Register of Physicians, Midwives and Undertakers", death certificates 1903-1947, coroner's inquest 1909-1960, index 1909-1960.

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 and Museums

Linn Genealogical Society
300 SW 4th Ave
Albany, OR 97321
Telephone: 541-791-1618
Website

Linn County Historical Museum
PO Box 607
101 Park Ave
Brownsville, OR 97327
Telephone: 541-466-3390
E-mail:lchm@co.linn.or.us
Website
Website

Willamette Heritage Center
1313 Mill St SW Suite 200
Salem, OR 97301
503-585-7012
Website
Facebook Page

Linn Libraries of Oregon
8 Libraries Listed
Website

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

• Lebanon Oregon Family History Center
• Sweet Home Oregon Family History Center

Websites

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