This collection is a gift from Chris Sanders. A skilled genealogist, she is married to Lee Sanders, a descendant of the Sanders, Morrow and Root families of Sherman County. We appreciate her untold hours of reading newspapers on microfilm and transcribing obituaries.
It began like this: Three local history fans were with others at the Wasco Methodist and Sun Rise cemeteries during the annual spring clean-up day. During a lunch break, Chris Sanders of Kettle Falls, Washington, asked Mark Fields of Salem, Oregon, how she could help with his Sun Rise Cemetery records update project. Sherry Kaseberg had microfilms of Sherman County newspapers and off-handedly suggested transcribing obituaries for Sun Rise burials. Chris volunteered! She borrowed the films and began to transcribe all of the obituaries and death notices, carefully making note of newspapers not found when the filming was done.
Note that it was the custom of the times to capitalize Columbia but not river, Sherman but not county, Methodist but not church. These are not misspellings.
We encourage you to look for various spellings that were found in the newspapers, and to let us know if you find typos that do happen in the transcribing process. Please note the key to identifying the newspapers. We do not have time to conduct research but newspaper films may be ordered through your library.
The obituaries in this collection are found in the following microfilmed newspapers for the dates shown:
GV – Grass Valley Journal (1898-1907)
MB – Moro Bulletin (1902-1902)
ML – Moro Leader (1898-1900)
MO – Moro Observer (1896-1897)
PR – People’s Republic (1898-1898)
SJ – Sherman County Journal (1931-1966)
SN – Sherman County News (1927-1930)
SO – Sherman County Observer (1897-1931)
WE – Wasco News Enterprise (1923–1927)
WN – Wasco News (1897–1908)
The Hermiston Herald Obituaries