Josephine County, Oregon Genealogy

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

County Courthouse
County Clerk has marriage and land records from 1857. Clerk Circuit Court has divorce, probate and court records.

Records Held at the Courthouse

 * County Records Inventory listing the records held at the Josephine County Court House as of September 2005.


 * Record Loss:

Quick Facts
Named for Virginia Josephine Rollins Ort, the first white woman to settle in southern Oregon.

Parent County
22 January 1856: Created from Umpqua County.

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.

Cities
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Cave Junction | Grants Pass

Communities
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Galice | Fruitdale | Harbeck | Kerby | Merlin | O'Brien | Redwood | Selma | Sunny Valley | Takilma | Waldo | Williams | Wolf Creek

Defunct Post Offices
Almeda | Altamont |

Neighboring Counties
Curry | Douglas | Jackson | California counties: Del Norte | Siskiyou

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

Cemeteries

 * Oregon Metro
 * Oregon Genealogy Cemeteries

Census

 * 1850
 * 1860
 * 1870
 * 1880
 * 1890
 * 1900
 * 1910
 * 1920
 * 1930

Civil War

 * 1861-1865 - at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers
Oregon Online Historical Newspapers - identifies historical archived and digitized newspapers available online on both free and pay-to-access websites.

Historic Oregon Newspapers as a division of the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program has digitzied more than 644,000 pages of newspapers throughout Oregon. Dates range from 1846-1922 with selected issues continuing through 1973.

Of particular interest to Josephine County researchers:

Grants Pass Daily Courier (Grants Pass) Rogue River Courier (Grants Pass)

Probate
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. &gt;&gt; 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 - at FamilySearch — index

Delayed Birth Certificates

Birth Registers

Marriage Records

 * 1) Extractions of early marriages are listed on the Western States Marriage Index
 * 2) Marriage Index 1885-1896 Actually is a book of affiants reporting the marriages. Historical Records Collection

Societies and Libraries
Rogue Valley Genealogical Society 500 NW Sixth Street, RM 170 Grants Pass, OR 97526 Telephone: 541-474-5240 Fax: 541-474-5246 E-mail:[mailto:clerk@co.josephine.or.us clerk@co.josephine.or.us] Website

Family History Centers

 * Cave Junction Oregon Family History Center309 S Junction Ave Cave Junction OR 97523 United States Location Map
 * Grants Pass Oregon Family History Center 1969 Williams Hwy Grants Pass OR 97527 United States Location on Map

Websites

 * Josephine County, OR History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * Oregon Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Oregon Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * The Josephine County GenWeb Project part of The ORGenWeb Project
 * Linkpendium
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project (Backup site)