Oregon Gazetteers

Online Gazetteers

 * FamilySearch Places
 * Oregon City and County Reference
 * Polk's Oregon and Washington Gazetteer and Business Directory R L Polk & Co. Polk's Oregon and Washington Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1909-1910. Tucson, Arizona : W.C. Cox & Co., 1974
 * Oregon business directory and state gazetteer John Mortimer Murphy. Oregon Business Directory and State Gazetteer. Portland, Or., S. J. McCormick 1873
 * The National Gazetteer of the United States of America U S Genealogical Survey. The National gazetteer of the United States of America, United States Concise 1990. Washington : U.S. G.P.O. ; 1990.

Print Only Gazetteers

 * Oregon geographic names Lewis A. McArthur. Oregon Geographic Names. Portland, Oregon : Oregon Historical Society, c1992
 * Main Street, northeastern Oregon : the founding and development of small towns Barbara Ruth Bailey. Main Street, Northeastern Oregon : the founding and development of small towns. Portland, Oregon : Oregon Historical Society, c1982

Why Use Gazetteers
A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers list or describe towns and villages, parishes, states, populations, rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. They usually include only the names of places that existed at the time the gazetteer was published. Within a specific geographical area, the place-names are listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. You can use a gazetteer to locate the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and religious jurisdictions over those places.

There are many places within a state with similar or identical place-names. You will need to use a gazetteer to identify the specific town where your ancestor lived, the state the town was or is in, and the jurisdictions where records about the person was kept.

Gazetteer Contents
Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as:


 * Different religious denominations
 * Schools, colleges, and universities
 * Major manufacturers, canals, docks, and railroad stations
 * The population size.
 * Boundaries of civil jurisdiction.
 * Ecclesiastical jurisdiction(s)
 * Longitude and latitude.
 * Distances and direction from other from cities.
 * Schools, colleges, and universities.
 * Denominations and number of churches.
 * Historical and biographical information on some individuals (usually high-ranking or famous individuals)