Talk:Washington, United States Genealogy

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 * Washington is a public land state. The area that now comprises the state was part of the public domain and was administered by the federal government through local land offices under the direction of the General Land Office (GLO), later known as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The first land office in Washington was established at Olympia in 1855.
 * In the early 1800s, traders and trappers came from Canada, Russia, Latin America, and the United States into what is now Oregon and Washington. Most well-known was David Thompson starting in 1809.
 * In 1811 The American Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor, an American, established the first white settlement at Astoria, Oregon.
 * Protesant missionaries settled in Walla Walla and Tshimakain in 1836 until the Whitman Massacre in 1847.
 * Washington Territory was created February 8, 1853 from northern part of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River in the west, and north of the 46th parallel east of the Columbia River.
 * Gretna Greens. When a Washington State couple's marriage is not in their home county, search for it in alternate places like Port Orchard for the greater Seattle area, Coeur d'Alene ID for Spokane and eastern Washington, and Canadian communities on the border.