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Oregon - Obituaries Death Notices

By Claire Dowell


Getting free access to certified copies of public documents is not really an issue in most states in the US, especially in Oregon. The State Vital Records office stores and maintains a grand collection of birth certificates, death reports, marriage licenses, and divorce decrees. Oregon death records in this office, in particular, go as far back as 1903. In the city of Portland alone, death reports ranging from 1862 up to 1902 are available, including a statewide database that houses death reports from 1903 all the way to 1955.

Certified copies of public documents are available to individuals for $20 per copy, and an additional $15 for extra copies ordered simultaneously. You can address the payment to the Oregon Health Authority's Vital Records Division, in the form of either money order or personal check. If you want to, you can check the agency's official website for the correct procedures and requirements necessary to acquire such documents. Contact numbers and current processing fees are also listed in the site. You can contact them by phone or visit their office in person if you have no Internet access.

In addition to the Vital Records office, the Oregon State Archives is also a possible source of public information, especially to those conducting a genealogy research. When researching someone's bloodline or family tree, having a good and reliable source of old public documents can provide you with a huge advantage. Of course, verifying every data you have gathered is still a crucial aspect in the research, but at least when it comes from the state archives, there is a pretty good chance that the information is fairly accurate. Oregon requests will cost $5, while out-of-state requests costs $10.

According to state laws, death reports in the state of Oregon have a fifty-year access restriction. This means that third party access to recently filed reports will only be reserved to family members of the deceased and authorized government workers and agencies. So unless you are the next of kin or have a notarized letter of consent, or a court order from a judge, you cannot obtain certified copies of death certificates that are less than fifty years old. For a death report to be available to the general public for third party access, it has to be at least fifty years or older from the date of the subject's death.

Online retrieval websites, on the other hand, may be unconventional as far as public document gathering is concerned. But most experienced researchers and genealogy experts would agree that these online record providers do deserve a certain level of recognition and praise when it comes to its record fetching capabilities, especially when weighed against more traditional data sources such as government record services and programs. With a seriously broad database of vital reports that cover multiple states and counties, any curious individual would find these data search websites really easy to appreciate and patronize.

In a few short minutes, from the moment you register an account to the time you pay the one-time registration fee, you can begin performing background checks and family history searches like there is no tomorrow. Whether out of curiosity or professionalism, whether you just want to checkup on your daughter's new boyfriend or verify a great grandparent's death record, you can be certain that a trusted data retrieval service will be a great addition to your data gathering tools.




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