The
Coos County Home Historian
County
Records
Before
starting on any historical research on your home,
set realistic expectations. Remember that not every
house can be traced that far back in time and that
you may not find anything about your house besides
the previous owners names. And while this guide is
designed to streamline the process of researching
your house, you may need to revisit the archives or
spend long hours looking at microfilmed records with
little or no success. But even with these
limitations, the process of researching your home
will acquaint you with how record keeping has
changed over the years and you are sure to discover
interesting facts about the area - even if they
don't involve your house or its former owners.
The
first step in your research should be a visit to the
County Court House, the "Hall of records".
There are three departments that you will visit, the
Assessor's office and the Surveying office on the
second floor and the main Hall of Records in the
Clerk's office on the main floor. Take along a copy
of the Ownership
worksheet and enough money to make copies of the
material you find.
Beginning
with the Assessor's
office, you can either search online or may
request the current ownership information from the
clerk at the desk. You will need to know the street
address of the property and the zip code. You may
also want to review Understanding
Assessment Information before you visit the
court house.
The
next step is to visit Surveyor's office. Here you
will use the information obtained from the
Assessor's office and may look up the plat maps
showing the lot and subdivision information for your
house. The names of the subdivision are
described as additions to the towns, and often can
provide clues as to the original ownership of the
property - before it was divided up into lots where
houses were built. You can also view these maps at
the City Hall if your home is located in a city.
The
final office to visit is the "Hall of
Records" in the County Clerk's office. Here is
where you will do the majority of your research in
identifying the previous owners of your house. Here
you will need to request help from the clerks before
using the records. Keep in mind that often the
records you are viewing are the only copies of these
documents and extra special care is needed. Only use
a pencil to ensure no marks are placed on the
documents and indexes. Be careful lifting the books
and placing them safely on the tables as most are
very heavy. Use the Ownership
worksheet to record your finding and review Understanding
Deeds and Indexes before you go. You will also
want to make copies of the deeds you find as you
will refer back to them frequently as you continue
your research. The actual deed lists all of the
official owners of the property, usually including
both the husband and the wife's name, while the
index to the deeds will often only list one member.
You
may discover that there are gaps in the deed records
because property passed from one owner to another
through a mortgage or a will. A lot of these
records, as well as others, are kept in the Hall of
Records, but researching them will require
additional research time. Two excellent sites for
understanding what other records are available are
the Coos
County Records Inventory, an Oregon Historical
County Records guide, and Connie Lenzen's Oregon
Guide for Genealogists.
You
may also find that you can follow the trail of the
property by going back to the original plat maps and
using the subdivision/addition information to locate
the original sale of the property. Here, you can
follow the trail from the beginning forward, rather
than through the previous owner. Once you have
identified one or more families that owned your
house, you are ready to continue finding out more
about the individuals that lived in your house and
to create their biographies.
Go
to Biographies >>
|