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OVERS Information for State Employees

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General Information

Should you be using OVERS?

If you require access to Oregon birth, death, marriage, or divorce records in the course of your work, you must use the Oregon Vital Events Registration System (OVERS). OVERS is a secure, web-based system, so you must establish a user account before accessing vital events.

To gain access to OVERS
  1. Complete the OVERS Enrollment Form (pdf) for state users (updated 06/2022). You must include your state email address as well as your OR number, RACF ID, or P number. Please do not alter this form. Handwritten signatures only.
  2. Fax the form to 971-673-1201 to request our email address.
  3. A Center for Health Statistics employee will notify you by email when your account is created. You can start using OVERS upon receiving your username and password.
  4. For easy access to the system, create a shortcut to or bookmark the OVERS website in your browser.

To remove an OVERS user from the system

When an employee with OVERS access leaves their position, please notify our office as soon as possible. We will disable their access to the system and remove their affiliation with your office.

  1. Complete the top portion of the OVERS Enrollment Form (pdf) for state users (updated 06/2022). Be sure to check the box stating that the user should be removed from access. No contact information or signatures are required.
  2. Fax the form to 971-673-1201 to request our email address.
  3. The user's access will be revoked by a Center for Health Statistics employee.

Confidentiality of information

Confidentiality of vital records is different from most client records. Usually, the client can authorize the release of any information in their file. However, under Oregon law, the information contained on a vital record can only be released by the Center for Health Statistics. The Center for Health Statistics has authorized use and release of vital records information in circumstances where the employee is required to use the information for official duties.

For example, if an employee is representing a child in the custody of the State, the employee may release a birth certificate to the child’s school so they may be enrolled. However, if a client requests a copy of their child’s birth certificate to enroll their child in school, the employee must direct the client to obtain the record from the Center for Health Statistics.

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Training Materials

Training Webinars

Date: September 2020

Topic: State Users Training: Locating and previewing records in OVERS

OVERS website access

As of June 12, 2022, the Oregon Vital Events Registration System cannot be accessed with Internet Explorer (IE). We recommend accessing the site using another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome. Give our Help Desk a call at 971-673-0279 if you have any questions or encounter any other issues using OVERS.

Getting started

All state users are encouraged to read the following documents for a general overview of searching for vital records in OVERS.

OVERS Orientation for Birth and Death Searches (pdf) (updated 04/2013)

OVERS Orientation for Marriage and Divorce Searches (pdf) (new as of 09/2016)

Child Support Program employees can access training materials on the Child Support Central website.

Helpful resources

Once you gain access to OVERS and begin viewing vital records, the following documents will be helpful to you. We suggest printing them and having them available for your use.

Specific topics

Important Updates

New Way to Find Records That Need to Be Validated

Change: Effective January 6, 2020, OVERS will have a new way to find records that need to be validated.

What This Means: Every night a process will run in the 'New Event' queue, which will identify records that have not been validated. Those records will be moved from the 'New Event' queue to the appropriate queues for completion, which will make them easy for all users to located and update as needed.

Change in Unregistered Records Viewing Access

Change: Effective April 16, 2018, OVERS vital record screens will only display vital records that are registered with the state. Unregistered records will no longer be available on the OVERS screens. You will see this change in the preview screens for:

  • Birth record searches
  • Death record searches

What This Means: When you verify a vital record using the OVERS screen, you will see the vital record that has been officially registered with the state. This means it is the completed legal vital record. Prior to April 16, 2018, state government agency users were able to see records that had been started, but not officially registered with the state. Verification of vital records for benefit and service purposes must be based on the registered vital record.


Sex Designation Functionality

Change: Effective April 16, 2018, OVERS has new options for sex designation. The selections of Female, Male, Undetermined and Unknown are the same, but you will also see X. X, indicating nonbinary, has been added to include individuals who are not exclusively male or female. X will be an option in the sex drop-down on the birth and death search screens. You can leave this field blank if you are unsure of the sex of the individual when completing a search.

You can find more information on our birth registration and death registration instruction pages, with helpful FAQs and Quick Reference Guides.


Marriage and Divorce screens in OVERS

With the transition of converting marriage and divorce records from the Mainframe and into OVERS, we’d like to address some key changes:

Change: OVERS will duplicate the Party/Partner Name information into the Party/Partner Legal Name at Birth field. The Mainframe did not collect legal name at birth information, so there was no record information to convert into OVERS for these fields.

What this means: When verifying marriage and divorce record information, keep in mind that the Party/Partner Legal Name at Birth field should not be used to verify an individual’s current legal name. This field is populated with whatever name is in the Party/Partner Name field, which is what the person reported on the marriage or divorce record.


Change: Individuals with two first names (i.e. Mary Ann) will not appear as such in OVERS. The Mainframe had a single field for first and middle name. When records were converted from the Mainframe, we could not know if the second name was part of the first name or a middle name. Therefore, only the first name was moved into the first name field. The second name (determined soley by a space between names) was moved into the middle name field.

For example, if an individual’s name in the Mainframe displayed as ‘Mary Ann Rose’, the record was converted into OVERS as ‘Mary’ in the first name field and ‘Ann Rose’ in the middle name field

What this means: If performing a search where an individual has two first names, consider searching using the wildcard symbol. In the example above, searching for Mary% will search for all records that begin with Mary in the first name field. You can also try refining your search criteria by not searching by the first name at all, but rather the last name along with other criteria.


Change: Individuals with a suffix (i.e. Jr) in the last name field will now have suffixes in a separate field. The Mainframe had a single field for last name and suffix. When records were converted from the Mainframe, common suffixes (Jr., III, others) were removed from the last name field and moved to the suffix field.

For example, if an individual’s last name in the Mainframe displayed as ‘Smith Jr.’, the record was converted into OVERS as ‘Smith’ in the last name field and ‘Jr.’ in the suffix field.

What this means: If performing a search where an individual has a suffix, search for the last name only. If uncertain if intended as a suffix or the individual has an uncommon suffix, use the wildcard (%) after the last name to search for all records that have the last name field. If a common suffix, disregard in the search or enter into the suffix field for the search.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  1. I'm having problems logging on to OVERS. What do you suggest?
  2. How do I search for a record in OVERS?
  3. Where is the birth certificate number?
  4. What if the SFN is blank on the record?
  5. How long does it take for a record to appear in OVERS?
  6. I know the child was born in Oregon, but I can't find the child in OVERS.
  7. How can I locate the birth records for a mother's children?
  8. A child was adopted. Will I see that information in OVERS?
  9. There are blank fields on a record, but the last record I looked at was complete.
  10. A client wants a copy of the vital record. How do they order it?
Q: I'm having problems logging on to OVERS. What do you suggest?

Both your Username and Password are case sensitive.

  • Make sure the letters in your Username are typed in upper case (capital) letters.
  • Type your password slowly to assure accuracy.

If your account is locked, the OVERS Help Desk at 971-673-0279 is available during business hours to reset your password.

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Q: How do I search for a record in OVERS?

The OVERS search tool allows a number of different methods to search for records. OVERS search features include:

Wildcard (%) – OVERS allows the use of a wildcard key (%) which can be used at the end of a partially entered phrase. The wildcard will return all matches to the partial entry. For instance, if the phrase “Sm%” is entered, all items that begin with “Sm” will be returned as results. This can be useful when searching for individuals with hyphenated or two last names, or when searching using a middle initial. Do not use the wildcard (%) at the beginning of a partially entered phrase because doing so will significantly hinder the system’s performance speed.

Soundex – The Soundex button is a way of searching information based on how the word sounds rather than how it is spelled. It allows for variations in spelling so that a misspelled name entered as the search phrase will retrieve all items that sound like or are close to the spelling of the entered phrase.

A few tips to keep in mind when searching in OVERS:

  • The Registrant is the person named on the record. For birth records, the Registrant is the Child on the record. For death records, the Registrant is the decedent.
  • A last name is required to search for a record. If you want to use any part of a name to search, you must include the last name of that person. For example, if you enter a father’s first name, you must also include his last name.
  • Searches are not case-sensitive, so you do not need to capitalize names.
  • Limit your search by using two or more criteria. For example, search by last name and by date of birth. If your search is too broad, you will see a maximum of 200 records, but you will not see all of the records that match your criteria.
  • Names including a special character (for example, an ñ or an ö) can be found by using the basic Latin version of the letter instead (n or o, respectively).
  • If a name includes a space or hyphen and you aren’t certain how the name is entered in OVERS, use the wildcard (%) at the end of the first half of the name.

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Q: Where is the birth certificate number?

The birth certificate number is now shown as SFN, which stands for State File Number.

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Q: What if the SFN is blank on the record?

If there is no SFN assigned, do not use a record. Check back periodically to see if a SFN has been assigned.

The SFN, or State File Number, is blank when information on the birth or death certificate is still being collected or if the information needs to be confirmed. During this process, the record is not final and therefore cannot be used to verify information on the record.

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Q: How long does it take for a record to appear in OVERS?

External partners, such as birth facilities and funeral directors, must report birth and death events to OVERS within five days of the event. However, it can take longer for all of the information on a record to be final. If the information on the record is not final and there is no SFN, then the record cannot be used.

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Q: I know the child was born in Oregon, but I can't find the child in OVERS.

Carefully review the training materials and Question 2 of this FAQ. These tools provide helpful tips for searches in OVERS.

If these resources do not answer your question or help you find the record, you may call the OVERS Help Desk for assistance.

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Q: How can I locate the birth records for a mother’s children?

To find a mother’s children who were born in Oregon, you can search using the mother’s maiden name. The search results will display all birth records for children born to a woman with the name you entered. View each record to confirm it applies to the case you are working on. If a child was born outside of Oregon, you will not find that child’s birth record in OVERS. For an example case showing how to identify legal family relationships in OVERS, see our reference guide for Searching for Relatives/Family Relationships (pdf).

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Q: A child was adopted. Will I see that information in OVERS?

If a child was born in Oregon and adopted, there will be a birth record for the child in OVERS. The birth record will show the legal parents of the child, or the adoptive parents. As a state agency user, there will be no specific notation that an adoption has taken place when you Preview the record.

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Q: There are blank fields on a record, but the last record I looked at was complete.

Not all records in OVERS will always look the same. Blank fields usually mean the record was converted from the Mainframe and so did not have all the information recorded that is now available on records that were entered directly into OVERS. Birth records with dates of birth before 2008 and death records with dates of death before 2006 were converted from the Mainframe and may have blank fields.

Please review the training materials which are available by clicking on the links provided at the top of this webpage. The Birth Preview Screen Descriptions and Death Preview Screen Descriptions available on this webpage will give you more information about converted records.

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Q: A client wants a copy of the vital record. How do they order it?

A client has several options for ordering a vital record. See our Get Vital Records pages for more information.

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