8/1/2004
By Connie Lenzen
Connie Lenzen
Q. My great-grandmother Ona May Boyer's death certificate gives Washington as her birthplace on April 7, 1887. How can I find out where exactly she was born? I've documented older siblings born in Iowa and younger ones in Oregon.
A. Before Washington became a state in 1889, it was part of Washington Territory. Fewer records — including vital records — were created pre-statehood, which poses a challenge for genealogists. If a family lived in the territory for a short time, as yours did, it's not easy to track them.
Censuses are a useful tool for territorial research. Even before statehood, the government kept tabs on territories' residents, and many of those census records have been microfilmed. The Washington State Archives' Historical Records Search <www.secstate.wa.gov/archives> includes an index to some 1887 records. My search for Daniel Boyer, Ona May's father (named on the siblings' birth certificates), unfortunately didn't return any hits. But you can order the remaining 1887 censuses through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City <www.familysearch.org> for viewing at your local Family History Center.