Guide to Oregon Provisional and Territorial Government Records
 
 
 
   Oregon pre-statehood records The provisional and Territorial
   Government records in the custody of the Oregon State Archives include
   a variety of topics such as Indian wars, land transactions, court
   cases, and the administration of local government, and include
   correspondence, reports, military rosters, tax lists, wills, divorce
   decrees, voter abstracts, and censuses. Enhanced access to these
   records is possible because of a grant awarded by the National
   Historical Publications and Records Commission. The Guide to Oregon
   Provisional and Territorial Government Records and its components are
   a result of this project.
 
 
 
   Using the Guide The Guide provides consistent descriptions of the
   records of the Territorial and Provisional Governments in the custody
   of the Oregon State Archives. It brings together descriptions of all
   holdings from the Provisional and Territorial periods. Administrative
   histories which define the duties and trace the development of offices
   and public bodies integrate information which is not available from
   any other single source.
 
 
 
   The Guide is divided into three sections: 1} Records of Oregon
   counties which were created before statehood, 2} records of the
   Provisional and Territorial Governments; and 3} records of counties
   that became part of Washington Territory when it was formed in 1853.
 
 
 
   Within each section the user will find agency or county administrative
   histories which describe the creation, development, and functions of
   government during the Provisional and Territorial periods. The entries
   are arranged alphabetically by county or office of origin. These are
   followed by series descriptions arranged alphabetically by title.
 
 
 
   Using the microfilm Not all the records described in the Guide have
   been microfilmed. Records which have been microfilmed include a
   notation in the description indicating either the reel number,
   "calendar microfilm," or both. The calendar microfilm (reels 37
   through 80) was made from a group of 13,201 records which were
   transferred to the Oregon State Archives in 1952. This group of
   records was not arranged in any meaningful way and the only access to
   it was through a sequentially numbered calendar, or descriptive lists,
   of the records. The project staff organized this group of records into
   record series for the purpose of description, but did not physically
   rearrange the records. Since the records in each description are
   scattered throughout the forty-two reels of the calendar microfilm,
   indicating reel numbers would be meaningless. The document numbers
   included in each record series are contained in the database records
   (see Using the indexes).
 
 
 
   Using the computer files All of the series descriptions and
   administrative histories are available on the floppy disk which can be
   ordered as part of the package. Each description and history is
   identified by a database record number and all are described using the
   MARC-AMC format. They are provided in ASCII code and do not include
   application software. Software which can read MARC formatted records
   must be installed before the information on the disk can be used. Two
   commercial applications, MicroMARC:AMC(c) (Michigan State University)
   and MINARET(c) (Cactus Software) are currently available. Users can
   also devise their own database to use this information.
 
 
 
   Using the indexes Two indexes are included in the Guide. The first is
   an index to the contents of each reel of microfilm. The second index
   provides access by subject term, personal name, geographic name and
   agency name. Indexing by personal name is not comprehensive. The user
   will find the series number beneath each entry in the index. This
   series number can be used to find the desired reel of microfilm. For
   those records found in the "calendar microfilm," the database record
   must be consulted for specific record numbers. These are found in MARC
   field 500.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   To Order the Guide to Oregon Provisional and Territorial Government
   Records fill out this form and return to the Oregon State Archives,
   Attn: Terry Baxter,
 
   800 Summer St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97310; telephone (503) 373-0701; FAX
   (503) 373-0953
 
 
 
   Guide - $15.00
 
 
 
   Guide and Computer disk - $17.00
 
   Check one: 3.5" or 5.25"
 
 
 
   Microfilm (fees available upon request)
 
 
 
      Dan Cantrall, Oregon State Archives
      (daniel.e.cantrall@state.or.us)