Tualatin Family History Center 22284 SW Grahams Ferry Road Tualatin, OR 97062 503-692-0481

Oregon DAR Collection

The Oregon DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Records and Index at the Tualatin Oregon Stake Family History Center

Report by Kenneth Stevens, Tualatin FHC Director 

Tualatin Stake Family History Center, 22284 SW Grahams Ferry Rd., Tualatin, OR 97062, 503-692-0481

July 29, 2010

1.   What is this collection of records and where is it located?

2.   How can the index to these records be accessed?

3.   What does the record collection contain?

4.   What does the record collection not contain?

1.   What it is and where it is located:

           The Oregon Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have been active in collecting material valuable to researchers studying their family history.  Since 1926, the Oregon AR has been active in collecting this information, and by 1998 had assembled over 325 volumes of material and placed them in the National DAR Library.

           In 1998-2000, these Oregon DAR record volumes ( a few at a time ) were sent from the National DAR Library to Shirley O’Neil of Tualatin and she alphabetically indexed every name in over 315 volumes.  The original volumes were returned to the National DAR Library. A copy was made of each of these DAR record volumes, and those copies were bound and placed in the Tualatin Oregon Stake Family History Center, where they occupy 22 linear feet of shelf space. They are in two series: Series 1 (collected and submitted from 1926 to 1988) and Series 2 (collected and submitted from 1989 to the present). There are four alphabetized index volumes with a total of 1432 index pages, with a total of approximately 450,000 individual names in these records.   Mrs. O’Neil indexed an average of 500 names a day for 2 ½ years!  In addition to an alphabetized every-name-index for this record collection, Shirley O’Neil created an alphabetized list of the 568 Oregon cemeteries that have records included in these volumes. In June 2010, she alphabetically indexed the individual names of people listed in Volumes 49 to 54 for Series 2. There are about 5600 names in this additional index.  Prior to indexing the Oregon records, she had indexed the Maryland DAR records! Mrs. O’Neil is an organizing Regent of the Champoeg Chapter in Newberg and has been Oregon’s Lineage Research Chairman for many years.  In the past five years she has also written books on the following Oregon counties: Benton, Clackamas (2 volumes), Lake, Marion, Polk and Yamhill (2 volumes).

           According to the DAR National Index, there are currently 582,416 names in the Oregon Index and 10,881,394 names in the National Index.

           This index makes the work of Oregon researchers and librarians easier. Genealogists should welcome this index as an aid to locating information on the Oregon ancestors, and their ancestors, of many people.

           A portion of the national DAR records, including available Oregon DAR Records, was microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1970-72, but over half of the present national DAR collection has not been microfilmed.

2.   How to access the index, find and review records of individuals:

          The alphabetical index to the Oregon DAR records is available in the four index books at the Tualatin Family History Center.

This index is also available on line at the DAR Library’s National Index On-Line at: http://www.dar.org/library , then go to Genealogy Research Tab, and then go to GRC (Genealogical Records Committee) Tab.  Individual’s names can be searched by state, and individual’s surname and first name.  The index will list the individual’s name, state, series # (S1 or S2), volume # (v#), and page within that volume where the listed individual will be found. Examples of names in index:

Glover, Ellen s1 v221 165  [series 1, volume 221, page 165]

Glover, Ellen s2 v19 54      [series 2, volume 19, page 54]   - both listings are of Ellen’s marriage

Glover, Emily Pearl s1 v27 20    [series 1, volume 27, page 20]

          The Oregon DAR record volumes can be read and reviewed at the Tualatin Family History Center, and copies of pages made.

          Copies of DAR record’s pages can be ordered from the National DAR office; you need to tell them the name in the index, the state, series #, volume # and page #, for the specific book in which that name appears.

3.   What the Oregon DAR record collection contains:

          The Oregon DAR records contain a wide variety of historical and genealogical information, which includes:  old family bibles’ vital records, cemetery record transcriptions, old newspaper vital records, old county vital records, marriages-births-deaths by pioneer ministers, old church congregational records, a maternal organization (vol 5), county abstract of wills, family histories and genealogies, interviews of Oregonians, personal and family memoirs, etc.

4.   What the Oregon DAR record collection does not contain:

          The Oregon DAR records does not contain the specific genealogy of individuals belonging to or applying for membership in the DAR.

CONCLUSION and INVITATION

         This is a gem of a collection of Oregon’s historical past as recorded by early Oregonians, and transcribed and indexed by many dedicated Oregon DAR members.  We owe a great deal to all of their efforts.  Particular gratitude is expressed to Shirley O’Neil for all of the hundreds of thousands of names that she has indexed.  As she says, “The fingers did the indexing.”

You are encouraged to investigate this wonderful set of historical records, you may be surprised with who you find!

You can download & print the above text by clicking on the link below. 

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