Jackson County Obituary Indexes

Our RVGS volunteers have been clipping obituaries from the Ashland Daily Tidings, the Medford Mail Tribune, and the Upper Rogue Independent newspapers since 1953. Because these were not complete until more recent years, we have begun a program of digitizing microfilm images of obituaries from the Medford Mail Tribune. The indexes for these will be put online as they are completed. We also have bound and indexed collections of miscellaneous obituaries donated by our patrons from earlier years, but these are obviously not complete. These "donated" obituaries were bound when a sufficient number were collected to make a volume, making overlap in year range inevitable. Our library also includes many volumes of obituaries clipped from the Grant's Pass Courier newspaper from our neighboring Josephine County. Our volunteers are currently indexing these volumes and these indexes will be put on our website as they are completed. Follow this link, Grant's Pass Courier Obits to view these indexes.

Our library is beginning a new program to publish memorials and obituaries on our website. The obituaries would take the same form as traditional newspaper obituaries, but would be perpetual. These will be listed under the heading JCGL Obituaries below as they are produced. Memorials are less formal and more personalized. Follow this link, JCGL Memorials and Obituaries to learn more.

Our volunteers have also abstracted or transcribed news items of genealogical interest from the early years of the Ashland Tidings, the short-lived Medford Sun, the Gold Hill News, the Central Point Herald, the Medford Mail, and the Medford Mail Tribune. We recently created indexes for just the obituaries in those newspapers. While these are abstracts or transcriptions, not copies of the actual obituaries, they retain all of the essential information that were in the original obituaries.

Bound and indexed volumes of these clippings and abstracts are available for you to use in our library. If you are unable to visit the library, our staff will copy and send you an obituary for $10.00 per individual. This includes all newspaper references for the same person. You should keep in mind that, while newspaper announcements usually contain biographical information provided by family and friends, this is not always the case. If we determine that an obituary contains only the date of death and burial place, we will endeavor to supplement the newspaper obituary with other information in our records. There is, of course, no guarantee that we will find more information in our records than is contained in the newspaper announcement itself.

Follow one of the links below to see the index for that year or year range. If you find a name of interest and would like a copy of the obituary, follow the link for the postal request form at the top of the index, complete and print it, then send it along with a check for $10 to the address on the form. The requested obituary will be mailed to you.

Alternatively, make a secure online payment using the Buy Now button on the page containing the index, then follow the link for the Email Request Form below it. An online request form will be displayed, which you can complete and email to us by clicking the Submit Form button. The requested information will be emailed to you as a .jpg attachment. When you click on the attachment, it will be loaded into your picture viewer from which you can print a hard copy.