In property sales, the company that issues an abstract guarantees the title is free and clear. Usually the abstract companies retain these documents in their files.
Recently, the Southern Oregon Historical Society received a huge donation of abstracts accumulated by the Jackson County Abstract Company from the 1930s to as far back as the 1850s.
One striking revelation from a cursory reading of just a few abstracts is how many people lost their property during the Great Depression.
Other pieces of information are genealogical in nature, because these abstracts tell all the different names an individual may have used, for example A. J. Jones, Alan Jones, and Alan James Jones. The abstracts contain the owners’ marital status, their property location and whether they had mortgages.
Abstracts also reveal court cases; for example, California Oregon Power Company lawsuits in 1920 over land procurement and easements.
The Southern Oregon Historical Society faces an enormous task of cataloguing the abstracts and is looking for volunteers who may want to help.
Source: Five abstracts chosen at random from the Jackson County Abstract Company collection at the Southern Oregon Historical Society Research Library in Medford, Ore.
