Find Genealogy Records in Klickitat County

Klickitat County genealogy records are spread across multiple offices and archives. The County Auditor in Goldendale holds marriage records going back to 1867 and birth records from 1891 to 1907. The Washington State Archives Digital Archives has put many of these records online for free. The county also uses VitalChek for birth certificate orders, and the Washington State Department of Health issues certified copies for events after July 1907. If you are tracing a family that settled in the south-central Washington area near the Columbia River, Klickitat County records are an important resource. This guide walks through each source, what it holds, and how to access it.

Klickitat County Auditor

The Klickitat County Auditor in Goldendale records and maintains marriage licenses, real property documents, and other official county records. As county recorder, the auditor's duties include keeping permanent, historic records that go back to the county's early years. Real property documents such as deeds, contracts, and liens are filed with the auditor and indexed so that researchers can retrieve them. Each document gets a date, time, and unique file number.

Marriage records are a key resource here. The Klickitat County Auditor's office has issued and kept marriage licenses for well over a century. The auditor also records surveys, plats, veterans' discharge papers, and name changes. For genealogists, these non-vital records can sometimes be the only proof of a family event or residence.

Klickitat County Records in the Digital Archives

The Washington State Archives Digital Archives has two major Klickitat County collections online. The first is the Klickitat County Auditor Birth Records, 1891-1907, which contains 971 records. This collection includes an index and images of birth records. For best results, search by the parents' names rather than the child's name. The mother's last name will be her maiden name. The collection covers births from the period when county auditors handled vital registration before the state took over in 1907.

The second collection is the Klickitat County Auditor Marriage Records, 1867 to present, which is one of the largest marriage collections in central Washington. It holds 26,261 records. Copies of marriage records from 1867 to 1893, and marriage certificates from 1893 to 1997, were digitized and indexed by the Washington State Archives Central Region Branch from their Klickitat County holdings. Electronic copies from 1988 to present were transferred directly from the Klickitat County Auditor. Document types in this collection include Community Property Agreements, Marriage Applications, Marriage Certificates, and Marriage Dissolutions.

Both collections are free to search and open for public research. Contact the Central Regional Branch at (509) 963-2136 or cebrancharchives@sos.wa.gov with questions.

The image below is from the Digital Archives marriage records collection for Klickitat County.

With over 26,000 entries, the marriage records collection spans from 1867 to the present and includes both index and image copies of original documents.

Vital Records for Klickitat County

For certified birth certificates, Klickitat County uses VitalChek for online orders. The fee is $25 per copy, with additional processing fees. Effective January 1, 2021, new state laws changed who can receive a certificate. Only individuals with a specific legal relationship to the person on the record can get a certified copy. You will need to provide identification and proof of eligibility.

Klickitat County can issue birth certificates for events from July 1, 1907 forward. For births before that date, you need to contact the county auditor's office directly, since the auditor held birth registers prior to statewide registration. If the birth took place in a larger county, you may need to check with the local health department of that county.

Death certificate orders also go through VitalChek. The county can only issue a death certificate if the death was registered through the Washington State Electronic Death Registration System. The Department of Health issues death certificates from July 1, 1907 onward. The Department of Health does not issue marriage or divorce certificates. For those, contact the State Department of Health separately.

The image below is from the Klickitat County vital records page on the county's official website.

The county's vital records office explains the eligibility requirements and ordering process for certified birth and death certificates.

Washington State Archives Central Branch

The Central Regional Branch in Ellensburg serves Klickitat County along with eight others. Beyond birth, death, and marriage records, the branch holds naturalization records, probate records, and county censuses from before statehood. School censuses from roughly 1890 to 1932 can help you trace children in a household from year to year.

Land and property records at the Central Branch include patents, deeds, mortgages, tax assessments and rolls, timber cruise ledgers, mining claims, plat books, and water rights records. These can be valuable when you want to trace where a family lived and what they owned. Legal records at the branch include original civil, criminal, and probate case files from Superior Courts from about 1889 to 1980, miscellaneous district court records, and select county sheriff's records.

Note: The Central Branch covers Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanogan, and Yakima counties. Researchers working in more than one of these counties can often address multiple county research needs in a single visit or inquiry.

Klickitat County Genealogy Online

The FamilySearch Wiki for Klickitat County provides an overview of record types, repositories, and online links. The wiki notes that the county was named for the Klickitat tribe of the Yakama Nation and that it was created from Skamania and Walla Walla counties on December 20, 1859. The county has no known history of courthouse disasters, which means records are largely complete.

The FamilySearch Wiki also references the Western States Marriage Index, which covers marriages in the region from 1867 onward. This can be a useful cross-reference tool. FamilySearch hosts its own catalog of Washington collections, and some Klickitat County records have been extracted and indexed by volunteers. Check the catalog under "Klickitat County, Washington" for a full list of what is available.

The image below is from the Digital Archives birth records collection for Klickitat County, covering the period from 1891 to 1907.

The 971 birth records in this collection were transcribed and proofread by Emmalie Eckhart of the Washington State Archives and are searchable by parent names.

Cities in Klickitat County

Klickitat County includes Goldendale, White Salmon, Bingen, Lyle, Trout Lake, and other smaller communities. None currently have individual city genealogy pages. All county genealogy records for these communities are handled through Klickitat County offices.

Nearby Counties

These counties border Klickitat County. Families often moved between adjacent counties, so searching nearby records can fill gaps in your research.