Between 1851 and 1908 the U. S. government kept records of all federal land transactions in Oregon. These records can contain genealogically significant information.
The records include land transactions under various laws and acts, including: donation land, homesteads, timber and stone, timber culture, desert land, mining, and some cash sales. The records also include tract books (township, range, section, and fraction of section) with lists of owners.
There are records of homestead entries and final certificates, desert land declarations and entries, timber culture entries, abstracts of land sold, and patents delivered. In addition, some Oregon land records include abstracts of military land warrant certificates and soldier declaratory statements.
The records here do not include the land entry case files. Those records are available from the National Archives, in Washington, D. C. Record copies of donation land patents issued are kept by the Bureau of Land Management, and are not included here.
Oregon’s Federal Land Offices were located in various places over the years, including: Burns, Harney, La Grande, Lakeview, Linkville (Klamath Falls), Oregon City, Portland, Roseburg, The Dalles, Vale, and Winchester.
Some information on this page was summarized from NARA publications:
- M145 — Abstracts of Oregon Donation Land Claims, 1852–1903
- M815 — Oregon and Washington Donation Land Files, 1851–1903
- M1621 — Federal Land Records for Oregon, 1854–1908
Copies of these records are kept at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Pacific Alaska Region facility in Seattle, Washington, where I am a professional genealogy researcher. Contact me to start a discussion about the possibilities of researching your family’s history. Likewise, if you would like more information about my genealogical research services, including information about fees, and range of materials available to research, I’d love to hear from you.