Thurston County is
717 sq. mi. in size, and is located at the southern tip of Puget Sound. Mount
Rainier and the Cascade Mountains are nearby to the east, while Washington's
Pacific Ocean coast is just an hour west. Thurston county is 60 miles south of
Seattle, WA and 100 miles north of Portland, OR. The county seat is
Olympia, which is also the State
Capital. 
At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the
collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. The
Washington GenWeb Project is an extension of the Kentucky GenWeb Project. My name
is Jerri McCoy, and I am the coordinator for
Thurston County. Please contact me, if you would like to add your data to the
database.
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Tumwater is the oldest American settlement in the Puget Sound area (1845),
and is located on the falls of the Deschutes River. The name comes from the
Chinook Indians.
Olympia was first named Smithter (1846), which gave way to the more
conventional Smithfield. It was later renamed for the Olympic Mountains at the
suggestion of United States customs collector Isaac N. Ebey.
Lacey was originally known as Woodland, after Isaac Woods, who settled the
area in 1852. When Woods petitioned for a post office, the name was rejected
because it duplicated a town name in Cowlitz County. His attorney, O.C. Lacey,
substituted his own name on the application to expedite matters.
Bush, now Bush Prairie, was named for its first settler, George Bush, who
came in 1845 with the Michael T. Simmons party. He was the first Negro to settle
in what is now Washington State.
Yelm comes from the Indian word chelm, meaning "heat waves rising
from the earth."
Gate was originally called Gate City, as it is situated at a narrow end of a
valley, and was considered the gateway to the Grays Harbor country.
Littlerock was named by an early settler for a stepped boulder which is
shaped by nature for a perfect [horse] mounting stone.
Tenino comes from Chinook jargon, meaning "fork" or "junction". The name
was given to a point on an old Indian trail that later expanded to a military road
during the Indian Wars of 1855-56.
Rainier, which is situated on the Tenalquot Prairie, was named for Mt.
Rainier.
Bucoda was originally called Seatco, an Indian word meaning "devil". The
town was the site of the first territorial prison, 1874-88. Prisoners worked
adjacent coal mines owned by J.M. Buckley, Samuel Coulter, and John B. David. To
avoid name confusion with Seattle, the three men coined a new name by using the
first two letters of their surnames -- Bu-Co-Da. The railroad adopted the name in
1874, the state in 1890.
Grand Mound is situated in Mound Prairie, which is characterized by peculiar
symmetrical humps of earth. The town is located near the largest of the mounds, a
125-foot-high hill covered with trees.
Rochester was originally named Moscow by a Russian immigrant. With the
establishment of the post office in 1890, the town was renamed for the New York
home town of another settler.
Other early settlements in Thurston County included Arcadia, New Kamalchie,
Boston Harbor, Puget City, Sherlock, Guslander, Belmore, Delphi, Plum, Bordeaux,
Mima, McIntosh, Tono, Ramstads, and Meadow.
(From Washington State
Placenames, by James W. Phillips, Univ. of WA Press.)
Another good source for placenames is Postmarked Washington: Thurston County,
by Guy Reed Ramsey, pub by Thurston County Historic Commission, 1988.
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|
Washington State Department of Health Center for Health Statistics P.O. Box 9709 Olympia, Washington 98507-9709 |
Holds birth and death records dating from July 1, 1907; marriage and divorce records from
January 1, 1968. If you are in Washington state and the birth certificate you are requesting is in the range of 1954 to present, you may contact your local county health department. Most of the county health departments are linked into the CHS database and can issue birth certificates state-wide 1954 to present. |
|
Washington State Archives 1120 Washington Street SE P.O. Box 40238 Olympia, Washington 98504-0238 |
Holds pre 1907 vital records (births and deaths from 1891, marriages from 1860). Holds State and Territorial Census Records for 1871, 1873, 1875, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1883, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1892. |
| Thurston County Courthouse 2000 Lakeridge St SW Olympia, WA 98502 |
County Auditor holds pre 1907 birth and death records (from 1891), marr records (from 1860), deeds (from 1852). Co Clerk holds probate records (from 1889), divorce records, and civil court records (from 1852). |
| Washington State Library PO Box 42460 Olympia, WA 98504 | Federal Census Records for 1850 (as Oregon Territory), 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920. Also has a large collection of WA State Newspapers (on microfilm). |
| Lacey Museum 829 Lacey Street SE Lacey, WA 98503 360-438-0209 | Most holdings are related to the Lacey area, although occasionally we may have the broader South Sound region. Research files by subject and surname, often including obituaries and/or funeral notices. Collections that may include documents, photos or artifacts related to local families. Lacey school class photographs. Historic property inventory form notebooks with photos (Lacey proper, not surrounding areas). Lacey Leader newspaper archives plus their negatives. |