Thanks to guest blogger, Lisa A. Alzo, for this article.
If you have ancestors who lived in or passed through Ohio,
you’ll find a wealth of documents waiting for you online, and at archives,
libraries, and repositories. The first
step for research success is to discover what records are available, and where
they are located. Here are three great
resources for tracing your roots in the Buckeye State.
1. The Cleveland Necrology File. The
Cleveland Necrology File is a database produced from a microfilmed
copy of an alphabetical card file containing local cemetery records and
newspaper death notices gathered by the staff of the Cleveland Public Library. The database
includes paid death notices published in the following newspapers: The Cleveland Plain Dealer –
1850-1975; The Cleveland Herald
– 1833, 1847-1848, 1876, 1878-1879; and The Cleveland Press – 1941-1975. Also included in the database is a small
collection of records from the Cleveland Bureau of Vital Statistics and
some indexed items from the Annals of Cleveland that were also part of the
original card file. You can search
the database for free by surname or keyword. (See the search screen in the
image below for one of my great uncles, Martin Straka).
The site also
provides a link for The Cleveland
News Index where you can search for necrology information after 1975 (Note:
the index does not provide full text access to obituaries or other sources. See the Cleveland Public Library page
for more information on how to obtain copies).
2. FamilySearch. FamilySearch has a number of
digitized records (images and/or indexes) from their historical
records collection available for free viewing on their site. These include selected Ohio births and
christenings, deaths, cemetery interment records, marriages, tax, court,
probate, coroner, and naturalization records (don’t forget to keep
checking back for updates!). The Family History Library has microfilmed
many Ohio records. Go to FamilySearch,
click on "Catalog," and then enter "Ohio" or
"Ohio, [County Name]" to find them. Watch for microfilmed
versions of records that may be rented for use at a FamilySearch
Center near you.
free FamilySearch Wiki
for Ohio for additional information and research guidance.]
3. Ohio’s Local Government Records program. Once you have
explored The
Cleveland Necrology File, and FamilySearch’s
collection of online Ohio resources, you’ll want to check into Ohio’s Local
Government Records program, which according to genealogist, Chris
Staats, is “a wonderful and often underutilized resource.” As Staats explains on his blog, this program, under
the direction of the state archivist at the Ohio
Historical Society, designated seven regional libraries as
repositories for records deemed of historical or genealogical
significance. Some of the records include: Justice of the Peace dockets,
poll and tally books, quadrennial enumerations, militia lists, district
court dockets, county home records, records of indentures, mothers’
pensions, township trustee minutes, Mayor’s Court dockets, and much, much
more.
Click here to see a complete list of
the Network Centers, and the counties each covers. Note: Not all of these records exist for all
areas or timeframes, but it is well worth a look to see what is available for
the place and time you are researching. Unfortunately, this program is no
longer funded, and some of the regional repositories have sent most of their
records back to the Ohio
Historical Society or other local societies and libraries.
Many of the centers have a helpful
online list of the records they hold. The Western Reserve
Historical Society and the Ohio
Historical Society have them cataloged, but not listed separately, so
you’ll need to search their catalogs to find them. For those centers that have
returned records, contact them directly to inquire what they still have, and
what records they returned (Note: On Staats’ site, those Centers
marked with a * indicate that they have returned records, or are in the process
of returning records. Contact that center to determine where records of
interest were sent).
To learn more details about these three resources, and a
number of others you can use to build your Buckeye pedigree, sign up for the
free Legacy Family Tree Webinar on Researching
Your Ohio Ancestors, which will be jointly presented by Lisa Alzo and Chris
Staats on Wednesday, November 13, 2013. Seating is limited, so click here
to reserve your spot now!
Happy Hunting!
Lisa A. Alzo is a freelance writer, instructor, and
lecturer, and has been tracking her ancestors for 23 years. She is a frequent
presenter for the Legacy Family Tree Webinars series and can be contacted via
http://www.lisaalzo.com.
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