Marion County, Oregon Genealogy

United States

Oregon

Marion County

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

Oregon Online Genealogy Records

Marion County, Oregon
Map
Location in the state of Oregon
Location of Oregon in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	September 3, 1849
County Seat	Salem
Courthouse
Address	Marion County Courthouse Courthouse Square 555 Court Stree NE Salem, Or 97309 Phone: 503-588-5225 Marion County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Francis Marion. The County is located in the northwest area of the state.

Marion County, Oregon Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1871	1849	1907	1841	1850	1843	1845
Statewide registration for births and deaths in 1903. General compliance year unknown.

Quick Facts

The county is named after "The Swamp Fox" Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion (c1732-1795).

County Courthouse

County Clerk has marriage records from 1849 and land records from 1850. District Court has divorce, probate and court records. State Archives has wills 1853-1891, Naturalization Records 1849-1975 and assessment rolls 1857-1925.

In August of 2010, the building at 555 Court Street NE, known as Courthouse Square was evacuated and declared unsafe for use. All of the county offices in this building were relocated to other places in the county. You can follow updates on the Marion County page at Marion County.
In the meantime, the county clerk can be contacted for specific information on the files you are requesting:

Clerk's Office
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 14500, Salem, Oregon 97309
E-mail: ClerksOffice@co.marion.or.us
Web Site:
Phone: (503) 588-5225

Archives/ Records Management
100 High ST NE # 1331, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: ClerksOffice@co.marion.or.us
Phone: (503) 588-5490

Records held at County Courthouse

• County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Marion County Court House as of July 2006.

Record Loss

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

Quick Facts

3 September 1849: Marion county was renamed from Champoeg County.
Named for Francis Marion, a Continental Army general in the American Revolutionary War.

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

Parent County

None, one of original counties.

Boundary Changes

Originally one of the four districts named in July of 1843, Champooick District (later called Champoeg) ranged from the Willamette river on the west to the Continental Divide on the east and south to California.

In 1845 the districts were renamed counties, and in 1849, the name of Champoeg District was changed to Marion County to honor Revolutionary War hero General Francis Marion. Marion County was already smaller than when it started, because 28 Dec 1847 the Provisional Legislature created Linn County out of the southern portion of Champoeg, establishing the boundary at the North Fork of the Santiam River. Then, on 11 Jan 1854, the Territorial Legislature created Wasco County from the eastern parts of Marion, Linn, Clackamas and Lane Counties. This set the eastern border of Marion County at the Cascade Range, where it remains today.

Originally the county had a county court form of government, but as the state judiciary branch of state government grew, there was less need of a county court. In 1941 the county court system was stripped of judicial function and the remaining probate and civil cases were transferred to the Circuit Court. In 1963 the county changed to a county commissioner form of government.

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

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
Aumsville Aurora Detroit Donald Gates Gervais Hubbard	Idanha Jefferson Keizer Mill City Mt Angel St Paul Salem	Scotts Mills Silverton Stayton Sublimity Turner Woodburn
Unincorporated communities
Breitenbush Champoeg Chemawa Clear Lake Macleay McKee	Middle Grove Monitor Niagara North Howell Pratum Rosedale	Saint Benedict Saint Louis Shaw Talbot Waconda West Stayton
Native American communities
Warm Springs
Census-designated places
Brooks Butteville Four Corners	Hayesville Labish Village	Marion Mehama
Ghost towns
Champoeg	Mission Bottom

Neighboring Counties

Clackamas | Jefferson | Linn | Polk | Wasco | Yamhill |

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	2,749	—
1860	7,088	157.8%
1870	9,965	40.6%
1880	14,576	46.3%
1890	22,934	57.3%
1900	27,713	20.8%
1910	39,780	43.5%
1920	47,187	18.6%
1930	60,541	28.3%
1940	75,246	24.3%
1950	101,401	34.8%
1960	120,888	19.2%
1970	151,309	25.2%
1980	204,692	35.3%
1990	228,483	11.6%
2000	284,834	24.7%
2010	315,335	10.7%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church History and Records (Rural)

• Early Catholic records.The earliest Catholic church registers have been transcribed and published in a series of seven books.

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Gazetteers

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

History

• The French-Canadians, Oregon's First Settlers

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

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

Willamette Heritage Center
1313 Mill St. Suite 200
Salem, OR 97301
Telephone: 503-585-7012 ext 257
research@willametteheritage.org
willametteheritage.org (website)

St. Paul Mission Historical Society
PO Box 158
St. Paul, OR 97137-0158
E-mail:mernst@mtangel.net
Website

St. Paul is the core of the French Prairie, the earliest settlement in Oregon. The Society website includes history, photos, and artifacts.

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes.

• For current information about a center near you, go to the Family History Center Map
• Salem Oregon East Family History Center
• Salem Oregon Family History Center
• Woodburn Oregon Family History Center

Websites

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