Washington genealogy records

Births and deaths before July 1, 1907

Before July 1, 1907, county auditors collected birth and death records. The State Archives warns that many births and deaths went unrecorded in this period and that how complete the records are varies from county to county. To search them, contact the State Archives regional branch that covers the county where the event happened.

Birth and death certificates from 1907

Beginning July 1, 1907, the State Department of Health recorded births and deaths. For deaths, the Digital Archives has an online statewide index for 1907 to 2014, except 1960 to 1964; for those five years, contact the nearest regional branch or the State Government Archives. For births, a statewide index for 1907 to 1919 is available through a regional branch or the State Government Archives. The State Archives notes that copies of birth and death certificates from July 1, 1907, can only be obtained from the Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics.

The Department of Health issues certified copies only to people with a qualifying relationship to the person on the record, with proof of identity and relationship. For family history, it also sells noncertified informational copies, marked as not valid for legal purposes. As of 2026, anyone can request a noncertified informational copy of a birth or death record without proving a relationship, and fees start at $25 per copy. The informational death copy has the same information as the short form death certificate. To order a birth record you need the full name, the date of birth, the city or county of birth, and the names of all parents listed on the record; for a death record, the date or approximate month and year of death.

Marriages and divorces

Marriage records before 1968 were filed with county auditors and date from each county's formation. The State Archives regional branches hold several kinds: marriage returns, marriage registers, applications, licenses, affidavits, and certificates. The regional branches can also help locate divorce records from this period. Contact the branch for the county where the license was issued.

From 1968, the Department of Health recorded marriages and divorces for the state, and certified copies from 1968 on come only from the Department of Health. Statewide indexes to marriages and divorces for 1968 to 1997 are available through the State Archives, and the regional branches may also hold later county applications, licenses, and affidavits.

Census records

Washington Territory was organized from part of Oregon Territory on March 2, 1853, and Washington became a state on November 11, 1889. The Census Bureau has census data for the Washington area from 1850, when it was still part of Oregon Territory. Most of the 1890 federal census was destroyed as a result of a 1921 fire in the Commerce Department building, but the special 1890 schedules of Union veterans and their widows survive for Washington.

The State Archives also holds territorial censuses, taken in some years in the counties that existed between 1857 and 1892. They are not indexed, and not every county took a census every year. School censuses, mostly from the late 1800s to the early 1930s, counted children by school district, though they do not survive for every district or every year. Ask the State Government Archives or a regional branch about both.

Land and homesteads

Washington is one of the 30 public land states. Homestead records are federal, but when a settler completed a homestead claim, the government issued a patent, a kind of deed, and patents, like deeds, were filed with the county auditor. For patents, deeds, and assessment records, all filed at the county level, contact the State Archives regional branch for the county.

The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office website lists only patented land. For claims that were never completed, contact the National Archives with the township and range. Early settlers may also have taken a donation land claim: an 1850 act granted land to certain settlers in Oregon Territory, which then included Washington, if they lived on it and cultivated it for 4 years. The Oregon State Archives has the National Archives microfilm of Washington Donation Land Claims, 1851 to 1903. In the Oregon files, which the same page describes, a completed claim includes an affidavit of settlement with the settler's date and place of birth and, if married, the marriage.

Courts, naturalization, and military records

Probate, naturalization, and other court records were collected county by county; contact the regional branch for the county. Voter registers and poll books, when available, are another good source; ask the regional branch for the county. For military ancestors, county auditors filed discharge papers from World War II forward, and the State Records section holds bonus applications for World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, plus territorial muster rolls.