The Oregon Vital Records office, known as the Center for Health Statistics (CHS), is where you can get certified copies of Oregon birth records as well as other vital records in Oregon. Oregon law requires that all vital events such as births, marriages, divorces, and registered domestic partnerships, dissolution of registered domestic partnerships, fetal deaths and deaths be permanently recorded and registered. These are the legal records documenting a vital event. Certified copies of vital records are required to get social security benefits, a driver’s license, passport or other legal documents. Oregon birth records have been filed with the state since 1903. Oregon has a one hundred year access restriction on birth records, meaning that a birth record is not open to the public until after one hundred years of the event.
The State of Oregon keeps their vital statistics office as part of their Public Health department. It’s labeled under the Center of Health Statistics. Oregon death records date from 1903 to present. The State uses the information they gather to help influence public health policies and State planning. They do not consider all vital records public information, and the access to those death records is restricted to only family members, legal representatives, governmental agencies, any person licensed by the state, and if you can provide proof to either a personal or property right.
This is restrained to fifty years, if the date of the record you are attempting to acquire is older than fifty years it is then considered part of the public record.
However if you are not included in the group of people eligible to make the request, you are allowed to request permission from one of them, you will be required to furnish a note stating their permission to grant you access to the records with their signature notarized.
The Oregon State Archives becomes responsible for records that are over fifty years old. Oregon allows for ordering by fax, phone, internet, mail and in person.
