The Frontier Justice Collection consists of valuable information about laws and justice throughout the Territory of Washington prior to statehood in 1889. One of the counties’ records in the collection, Asotin County, has been scanned so in addition to the general information about each case, you can see the actual court documents. Of the 277 items in the Asotin records, there are 8 probate, 21 criminal, and 73 civil court cases. The types of cases include: collections, foreclosures, deeds, divorce, custody, guardianship, estate administration, adultery, murder, fornication, horse and cattle theft, burglary, and illegal liquor sales. The criminal and divorce cases can provide quite an amusing read – Enjoy! Asotin Frontier Justice Records.

Federal censuses between 1790 and 1840 did not include American Indians; 1860 was the first time they were included in the general population, provided they lived near a military fort. The census act of 1879 authorized the enumerations of all Indians within the United States. However, it wasn’t until the census act of July 4, 1884 that Indian agents/superintendants were required to include all Indians – those living on reservations and those living within the general population – on all censuses taken thereafter.

The Office of the Secretary of State’s Historic Records Project and the State Archives are in the process of making these records available online through indexing and digitizing the Indian Census rolls for Washington between 1884 and 1940. Not all reservations, nor groups, are included in the collection, but there are 29 tribes recorded in all. Three titles are currently available online: The Columbia Tribe (1887-1910), the Colville Tribe (1890-1907 & 1911-1914), and the Couer d’Alene Tribe (1887-1902), all of which are from the Colville Reservation census rolls.

A scanning project at the Eastern Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives turned up this unusual marriage record from 1913 between King Corn & Queen Alfalfa. “King Corn” is entered as a resident of Spokane, age 17, race as “White Dent,” and occupation as “Building up the Community.” “Queen Alfalfa” was 16, a resident of Yakima, her race was “Green” and her occupation was “Helping King Corn.” Research by Lee Pierce, Archives Assistant, revealed that the marriage license was part of a publicity stunt for a local agricultural fair. Click here to explore thousands of Washington marriage records online at the Washington State Archives, or contact our State Archives research team at research@sos.wa.gov.

Did you know that most records found on our website can be shared with your Facebook friends? Whenever you come across a record you particularly enjoy or find amusing, simply click the button (next to the printer icon), to let all your Facebook friends in on your discovery.

Few people know that the 44th President of the United States once lived in Seattle. Stanley Ann Obama lived with her infant son in a second-floor apartment in this Capitol Hill home while she took courses at the University of Washington during the 1961-1962 academic year. The house at 516 13th Avenue East has long since been razed to make way for an apartment building, but you can still view a photo of the building—and thousands of other King County properties—at the Washington State Digital Archives website. Click here to browse the King County Real Property Record Cards Collection, 1937-1972.

Did you know that you can also follow us on Twitter? Each week we highlight different collections, the most current accessions, or new happenings at the Washington State Archives. Our profile name is WADigitArchives, and here are a few previous tweets.

Where is the Isle of Man? A farmer from there shows up on an 1877#WA Territory #Census http://bit.ly/jpYweP #Trivia #WA

Taking oaths to prove: not an anarchist, 1945 http://bit.ly/lng2CJ able to read, write & speak English, 1960 http://bit.ly/j0vfJC #History #WA More #Mugshots from WaDigitArchives: Men & their big hair, 1919.http://bit.ly/ixPRzq #History #Hairstyle #Archives #Vintage #Hair #WA

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Currently, the cemetery records series provides indexes to 347 cemeteries across the state. Each index was created by volunteers who put boots on the ground to gather information from each gravesite - not an easy undertaking (pun intended). These volunteers not only catalogued each gravesite for the indexes, but they also conducted research in order to provide some background on the cemeteries. For example, Maggie Rail writes of Greenwood Cemetery in Whitman County: "The first listed burial in the cemetery was in Oct 1878, which is when it was the Oregon Territory. This means the cemetery must have been established about that time. There are two other burials that year, one in November and another in December. After walking this cemetery and seeing so many vacant spaces in the older sections, I am convinced there are many unmarked graves, which I do not account for. I will continue to try however to see if I can find more early records." This is but one sample of the great effort put forth by the volunteers, many of whom are members of the Washington State Cemetery Association, in order for the public to have online access to this wealth of information.