Morrow County, Oregon Genealogy

United States Genealogy

Oregon

Morrow County

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

Oregon Online Genealogy Records

Morrow County, Oregon
Map
Location in the state of Oregon, United States Genealogy
Location of Oregon in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	February 16, 1885
County Seat	Heppner
Courthouse
Address	Morrow County Courthouse 100 North Court Street Heppner, Or 97836 Phone: 541-676-5603 Morrow County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Jackson L. Morrow, who was a member of the state legislature. The County is located in the north central area of the state.

Morrow County, Oregon Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1905	1885	1905	1885	1861	1885	1845
*Statewide registration for births and deaths in 1903. General compliance year unknown.

County Courthouse

County Clerk has divorce, court and land records from 1885.

Morrow County Government

County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Morrow County Court House as of August 2008.

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

Historical Facts

Parent Counties

16 February 1885: Morrow county was created from the western portion of Umatilla and the small eastern portion of Wasco Counties.

Named for Jackson L. Morrow, one of the first settlers of Morrow County, who was a member of the state legislature when the county was created.

The county seat is Heppner.

• County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Morrow County Court House as of September/October 2003.
• Record Loss:

Boundary Changes

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.

Places / Localities

Populated Places

Cities

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
Boardman Heppner	Ione Irrigon	Lexington
Unincorporated communities
Castle Rock Cecil Clarke Eight Mile	Ella Gooseberry Lena Morgan	Pine City Ruggs Valby
Ghost towns
Hardman

Discontinued Post Offices

• Acton: Acton was a post office on Butter Creek in the east part of the county about 16 miles north-northeast of Heppner. Established 11 July 1879, with John Barker first postmaster. It remained in service until 19 June 1888. It may have been transferred to Pine City. It may have been named for a family by name of Acton. Identity is unknown. FamilySearch Catalog
• Adamsville: Adamsville post office was established Apr. 15, 1884, with Silas W. Miles first postmaster. It was discontinued June 30, 1885. Old maps show the place in the vicinity of the present site of Hardman. FamilySearch Catalog
• Alpine: Just what there was to suggest the name Alpine for a post office in eastern Morrow County about 20 miles north of Heppner, can not be imagined, but that is the record. This office was established October 3, 1884 with G. H. Parsell first postmaster. It continued in service until July 27, 1894, when it was closed out to Galloway, a nearby office. A directory for 1886 says Alpine was a special supply post office, but there is no explanation of the term. The locality is not alpin ein character. As of 1940 a diagram of Morrow County showed a precinct called Alpine in the Northeast part of the county.

Neighboring Counties

Gilliam | Grant | Umatilla | Wheeler | Benton, Washington | Klickitat, Washington

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
Billion Graves
See Oregon Cemeteries for more information.

• Oregon Metro
• Oregon Genealogy Cemeteries

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1890	4,205	—
1900	4,151	−1.3%
1910	4,357	5.0%
1920	5,617	28.9%
1930	4,941	−12.0%
1940	4,337	−12.2%
1950	4,783	10.3%
1960	4,871	1.8%
1970	4,465	−8.3%
1980	7,519	68.4%
1990	7,625	1.4%
2000	10,995	44.2%
2010	11,173	1.6%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church History and Records

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Maps

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

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

Migration

Early migration routes to and from Morrow County, Oregon Genealogy for European and African American settlers included:

• Columbia River
• Oregon Trail 1830s to 1890s from western Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon

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 $
• 1886 - 1941 - Morrow County Oregon list of will book testators SAMPUBCO - Browsable index of testators of wills - free

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

Morrow County Museum
444 N Main St
Heppner, OR 97836
Telephone: 541-676-5524
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 Libraries

• Boardman Oregon Family History Center

Websites

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