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Most requested Lorain County records
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Local record guide
About public records in Lorain County
County profile
Lorain County at a glance
- State
- Ohio
- County seat
- Elyria
- Population
- 312,964
- Area
- 923 sq mi
- Founded
- 1822
- Cities and towns
- 12
Lorain County offices and records
Sheriff & Law Enforcement. Lorain County Sheriff's Office is responsible for maintaining law and order in Lorain County's unincorporated areas.
Police Departments. Lorain County is served by several law enforcement agencies, including Lorain County Sheriff's Office and municipal police departments such as the Elyria Police Department, Lorain Police Department, and Avon Lake Police Department.
Law Enforcement & Arrests. Lorain County Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency for unincorporated areas and provides countywide services including jail operations, civil process, and court security. The official website is www.loraincountysheriff.com. Lorain County Jail, operated by the Sheriff's Office, houses inmates awaiting trial and those serving short sentences; the facility provides an online inmate roster searchable by name and booking date at the Sheriff's website under the Corrections Division section. Arrest records in Lorain County are public records under Ohio Revised Code § 149.43, the Ohio Public Records Act, which mandates that government agencies provide access to public records upon request with limited exceptions.
Arrest Records. Arrest records in Lorain County are maintained by Lorain County Sheriff's Office and local police departments.
Mugshots & Booking Photos. Mugshots in Lorain County are taken and retained by Lorain County Sheriff's Office during the booking process. These booking photos are part of the public record and can be accessed through the Sheriff's Office website or through a formal records request.
Municipal courts handle misdemeanors, traffic offenses, and civil cases up to $15,000; Lorain County has multiple municipal courts including Elyria Municipal Court (serving Elyria and surrounding townships) at 328 Broad Street, Elyria, OH 44035, phone (440) 326-1760, Lorain Municipal Court at 200 West Erie Avenue, Lorain, OH 44052, and Oberlin Municipal Court at 85 South Main Street, Oberlin.
Abandoned mine records
Old mine workings in Lorain County
Where the workings are, and the office that holds the mine maps.
From the old mine records
What is on record in Lorain County
- Old mine sites
- 3
- Sites with no status in the records
- 1
- Still producing
- 7
- Main minerals
- construction sand and gravel; crushed stone
- Holes drawn on the old survey maps
- 27
- Shafts and tunnels
- 0
- What they are
- quarry, gravel pit, gravel/borrow pit - undifferentiated, borrow pit
- Maps surveyed
- 1953 to 1994
- Records behind them
- 39 records for 38 sites, the rest are the same working written down more than once
- Sources
- USGS mineral file and USGS topographic mine features
Is an old working under a property here?
The mine records hold 11 named mine sites inside the county, 3 of them worked out or abandoned; the old survey maps add 27 holes drawn inside the county, 0 of them shafts or tunnels. The minerals the records name are construction sand and gravel; crushed stone.
A point in either file is a location, not a property line: the sheet shows the opening on the surface, not the rooms under it. The record that shows what runs under a parcel is the mine map. The OSMRE National Mine Map Repository holds scanned underground mine maps and answers requests for a named mine or an area. Coverage is automatic in the 26 mandatory counties (Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Scioto, Stark, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Vinton, Washington) and optional in 11 more.
Ohio mine map and abandoned mine records
- ODNR Ohio Mines Locator (Mines of Ohio)Locations and permit information for thousands of mapped surface and underground coal and mineral mines, found by entering a street address or clicking mining features, with statewide shapefile download; the viewer itself opens at https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/MapViewer/?config=OhioMines.
- ODNR Division of Mineral Resources Management, Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation ProgramsThe state and federal AML programs that investigate and fix hazards from pre law coal mining; questions and concerns to minerals@dnr.ohio.gov.
- ODNR Map Viewer, Mines of Ohio layers (Divisions of Geological Survey and Mineral Resources Management)The map application behind the Mines Locator with the abandoned underground mine polygons digitized from archival mine maps, organized by county, with a Data tab listing the shapefiles.
- ODNR Mine Subsidence Insurance (Ohio Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund)The 1985 state fund administered by the Mine Subsidence Insurance Governing Board through the Ohio Mine Subsidence Insurance Underwriting Association: in 26 mandatory counties the cover is added to every homeowner policy for $1 a year, in 11 optional counties it is $5 a year by choice, and claims go to the homeowner agent or insurer.
Named workings recorded in Lorain County (11 shown, 27 unnamed on the map)
- Lorain Plant-National GypsumGypsum-Anhydrite | Plant | A processing plant, not a working
- Lorain Plant - Marathon SteelIron | Producer | A processing plant, not a working
- Lorain Plant - U.S. SteelIron | Producer | A processing plant, not a working
- Lorain Elyria Sand Company, Inc PitSand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | 2 records for this one site
- Loraine Loading DockSand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | Offshore
- National Sand & Gravel Co DredgeSand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Offshore
- Finnegan QuarryStone | Producer | Surface
- Lorain Cnty Hwy Dept. Stone QuarryStone | Producer | Surface
- Birmingham QuarryStone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | Surface
- Cleveland QuarryStone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer
- Cleveland QuarryStone, Crushed/Broken; Flagstone | Producer | Surface
Disclaimer: The mine information here is for general information only. Old mine records can be incomplete, outdated or wrong, and finding nothing here does not mean there is nothing there. Check with the mine map office named here before you rely on it, and have a qualified engineer look at any ground you are worried about. PublicRecordCenter.com assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions, or consequences arising from the use of this information.
Lorain records: the current docket route, deed accounts and older holdings
Start from the Clerk's current docket link
The Clerk of Courts notice warns that other search-engine links may not correspond to the current dockets. It identifies the current e-services route for civil, criminal, domestic-relations and appellate records. Save the case number and court category after locating an entry, and use that reference for a particular order. An outdated bookmarked search can give a misleading impression of missing or stale case information.
Treat the late-1980s coverage boundary cautiously
The Clerk FAQ displayed with its fee information says online dockets begin in October 1987, while the main Clerk introduction describes coverage from 1988. Confirm the specific file when researching that transition period rather than promise a complete earliest year. The FAQ directs older-record inquiries to the Records Department. Name variants can also affect results, so distinguish an indexing issue from a record outside the online period.
Use the Recorder account workflow for land documents
The Recorder search instructions describe an account-based service with searches by name, parcel and date. These are land-record functions, separate from the Clerk court system. Capture the recording reference and instrument type before moving from an index entry to an image. A parcel search can gather related documents without establishing that every item concerns the current owner or that every older instrument carries the modern parcel number.
Choose between an available research copy and office certification
The Recorder service directory offers free deed copies through Property Search and directs certified-copy users to the office. It also says the Recorder does not supply blank legal forms or complete them for users. Retrieving an existing deed and preparing a new transfer are different services. Preserve the full recorded instrument, including attachments relevant to its description, instead of treating only the first image as the complete deed.
Keep recording and copying formulas separate
The 2026 Recorder schedule lists $39 for the first two recording pages and $8 for each later page for its main instrument category. A copy costs $2 per page, with $1 additional certification. Each printed side counts as a page for recording, and referenced instruments can add notation charges. Identify whether the request concerns an existing copy or a new instrument before calculating a total.
Distinguish historical holdings from unrestricted online access
The Recorder FAQ dates property holdings to 1824 and describes continuing digitization. That is a collection start, not a guarantee that every early image is online. It separately describes military discharge records as protected and available only to authorized people. The Ohio records guide supplies state criminal-history and judicial routes when the question extends beyond Lorain's land collection or local case docket.
Where to go
Lorain County offices that hold the records
Each office below was read on its own site. A field the office does not publish is left out rather than filled in from a directory.
Lorain County Recorder
Recorded land instruments and authorized military-record services.
- Address
- 226 Middle Avenue, Room 102, Elyria, OH 44035
- Phone
- 440-329-5148
- Hours
- Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Office page: loraincountyrecorder.gov
Straight answers
Lorain County public-records FAQs
Open only the answer you need.
Where can I find mugshots or booking photos in Lorain County, Ohio?
Booking photos are kept by the agency that made the arrest, such as the Lorain County Sheriff's Office or a city police department in Lorain County. Ask that agency for its record. Under Ohio Revised Code 2927.22 no one who publishes criminal record information, booking photographs included, may ask for or accept a fee to remove, correct or stop publishing it; a violation is a first degree misdemeanor.
How do I get a criminal background check in Lorain County, Ohio?
The Ohio criminal history record comes from the Ohio Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Checks are fingerprint based: submit fingerprints electronically through a WebCheck location, or mail the BCI Civilian Background Check card with payment to P.O. Box 365, London, Ohio 43140. Fee: $22.00 for a BCI check.
How can I look up sex offenders in Lorain County, Ohio?
Search the Ohio Attorney General Electronic Sex Offender Registration and Notification (eSORN), or every state at once on the National Sex Offender Public Website run by the U.S. Department of Justice.
How do I register to vote in Lorain County, Ohio?
Register with the county board of elections or through the Ohio Secretary of State. You can also register online with the state online registration. Registration forms must be received or postmarked by the 30th day before the election.
How do I look up property records in Lorain County, Ohio?
Deeds and other recorded land documents in Lorain County are kept by the Lorain County recorder. Property values are set by the county auditor, and tax bills come from the county treasurer. Source: Ohio Revised Code 5713.01.
How do I get a birth or death certificate in Lorain County, Ohio?
Certified birth and death certificates for Ohio come from the Ohio Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. More than 100 local vital statistics offices at local health departments in Ohio offer in person or other same day certified copies of Ohio vital records. Online through the Department of Health order portal with a credit card, by mail with check or money order to PO Box 15098, Columbus, Ohio 43215-0098, or in person at a local vital statistics office; the state office at 4200 Surface Road, Columbus serves same day birth record requests Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fee: $21.50 for each certified birth or death record.
How do I find business license records in Lorain County, Ohio?
Business entity filings are searched with the Ohio Secretary of State, Business Services Division. Ohio.gov says some licenses and permits come from the state and others come from your city or county.
Why should Lorain court research begin from the Clerk's current link?
The Clerk notice warns that search results can point to other, noncurrent docket routes.
Is Lorain's earliest online court year stated consistently?
The FAQ says October 1987, while the Clerk introduction says 1988; confirm boundary-period cases.
Does Lorain recording research require the court e-services account?
The Recorder instructions describe a separate property-search account workflow.
Can a Lorain deed research copy be obtained without office certification?
The Recorder directory identifies free available copies through Property Search.
What does Lorain charge for Recorder certification?
The schedule lists $1 in addition to $2 per copied page.
Does Lorain's $39 recording charge cover only one page?
The schedule applies that amount to the first two pages of its main category.
Does Lorain's 1824 holdings date prove complete online images from then?
The FAQ describes both physical and digital preservation and continuing digitization.
Are Lorain military discharge records open like ordinary deeds?
The FAQ restricts access to the veteran or authorized individuals.
Same county
Cities, towns and neighboring counties
Use the city page when a record was created by a municipal police department or city office; use the county page for courts, deeds, vital records and jail custody.