Linn Genealogical Society
Search Tools

Welcome to the Linn Genealogical Society's Search Page. We've assembled a suite of powerful search tools, on this page, which will allow you to find surnames, place names and other words that may be of interest to you.

We've also included links to powerful search tools at other genealogical networks and sites and links to search engines that can help you find both ancestors and living people world-wide, so that if you find information on people who may be living relatives, you can search for them.

You'll find the following Search Tools on this page. You can click on the name of any tool to go to it, but if this is your first visit to this page, we recommend that you scroll down the page, looking at each of the tools in order to familiarize yourself with it.

We'll be adding more tools, as time goes by, so you might want to "bookmark" this page for future reference and then check back, now and then, to see what we've been up to.

Index of Search Tools

• Rootsweb Search Tools

• Search Ancestry Site

• Surname Helper (Worldwide Surname Search Tool)

• Oregon Donation Land Claims Search

• Land Grant Search (GLO - Eastern Region)

• Worldwide Database Search

• Genealogy Online Events Database

• Find a Person

Use these tools and enjoy them!! If you find that a tool is not functional as described, please notify our webmaster, Byron Bray (byron.bray@cmug.com), so the tool can be updated.

• the Linn Genealogical Society site,

• the Linn County GenWeb site,

• the Oregon GenWeb site or

• the Rootsweb Genealogical Data Cooperative

To VISIT a site in the list above, click on its name.
To SEARCH these sites from this page, use the Search Tools below.

The search tools below work like most search engines; enter the word or words you're looking for and a list will pop up. Clicking an item on the list will take you to the page, on the site you're searching, which contains that item. You can search for the following kinds of words:

• Surnames (e.g. "Finley", "Monteith", etc)
  
• Entire Names (e.g. "R.C. Finley", "Dick Finley", "Richard C. Finley", etc.)
  
• Place Names (e.g. "Horse Butte", "Calapooia River", McDowell Creek", etc.)
  
• Business Namess (e.g. "Swanson & Sons", "Boston Mills", "Finley Mill", etc.)
  

Enter the words you wish to search for and make any menu selections you wish. You do not need to use quotes. If you need help, see the Rootsweb Search Tool Guidelines below.

Then press the "Search" button.

The Search Engine for these tools was provided by the Rootsweb Genealogical Cooperative, which also hosts our web-site. Rootsweb supports more free internet access to genealogical information than any other organization in the world; far too much to list here. You can find out more about the tremendous range and depth of free data and resources offered by the Rootsweb Cooperative by clicking on the word "Rootsweb" anywhere in this paragraph OR by clicking on the Icon at the right of this text OR by going to:

http://www.rootsweb.com/

This tool will search Ancestry.com's extensive databases of genealogical information for the names or keywords you seek. Some of them (like the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) are free. Many of Ancestry's other databases can only be accessed by members, but this tool will easily allow you to determine if there is data on the Ancestry site that would be useful to you.

While this statement is in no way meant to be an advertisement, I have reviewed dozens of fee-based genealogical database websites and I find Ancestry's to be the most comprehensive and reasonable, at $59.95 per year for unlimited access to 274 Million Names in 1676 Databases.

Please Note: Clicking one of these links will open a separate window, in your browser, containing the search engine you've selected. This page has been designed this way so that you can easily search from here without hopping back and forth, using your "Back" button to return to this page each time. It is best to explore each resource and then close its window. Having too many windows open at once can drastically slow down the performance of your browser and can even cause your browser to shut down.

• Search Oregon Donation Land Claims This index of Oregon Donation Land Claims lists the names of all pioneers who obtained Donation Land Claims. Extensive information about the claims and information on how to obtain copies of the claim books compiled and written by LGS member Dick Milligan can be found here.

  
  

• Find A Person This Search Engine, courtesy of AltaVista, will find any listed person. Just enter the facts you know. If you don't find the results you seek, try broadening your critereia (e.g., if they are not in the town you specified, try a nearby town or the whole state).

  
  

• Surname Helper (Search for a Surname) This Search Engine will search for any Surname across World GenWeb, US GenWeb, Personal Genealogy Pages and Surname Pages in any area of the world (or ALL of the world). You can specify what kind of information you want to see, for that Surname (Bible Records, Biographical, Birth, Cemetery, Census, Court, Death, Land, Marriage, Miltary, Obits, Pension, Tax and Will Records, among many others!!!

  
  

• Search Land Grant Records Search Land Patent Records from the General Land Office's Eastern States region, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. You can search by a variety of criteria and can view, print or order certified copies of the original documents right online! Find your ancestors' Land Patents!!

  
  

• Search Genealogical Databases Worldwide This site contins an index page to all known SEARCHABLE genealogical databases. It does NOT include individual family pages or sites unless there are searchable databases at that site. It is indexed by Surname, Subject and Area.

  
  

• Genealogy Online Events Database This database consists of thousands of events, arranged by surname, for births, marriages, deaths, wills, all entered by contributors. You can search by Soundex code or by exact name search., Other features are being added now . . .

You can enter more than one word in the Search Engine's "Search:" field. The words you enter and the choices you make in the "Match:" and "Format:" menus above the "Search:" field will affect your results.

Here are some guidelines for using the Search Engine:

• The "Match:" menu
  • Using "Match: Any", will find places where any one of the words you enter occur. For example, entering "Holly Bridge" will find instances of either "holley" or "bridge".

  • Using "Match: All", will find places where all of the words you enter occur. For example, entering "Holly Bridge" will find instances of either "holley" and "bridge".

  • Using "Match: Boolean", will allow you to enter multiple words separated by the words AND, OR and NOT to tailor your search. For example, entering "Shamanek OR Holley AND Bridge" will find all instances of "Shimanek Bridge" and "Holley Bridge".

  
  
• The "Format" menu
  • Using "Format: Short" will display an abbreviated list of the words you searched for. Each item in the list is a link to the item's location; clicking on the link will take you to that item.

  • Using "Format: Long", will display the first few lines of the text where your words are found. This can help you determine which of the entries are most interesting to you. Each item in the list is a link to the item's location; clicking on the link will take you to that item.