Ohio Genealogy Search

Ohio family history has a strong record base: county probate courts kept birth and death registers from 1867, four decades before statewide registration in 1908, and the counties kept marriage records from their founding, the earliest from 1788. The Ohio History Connection in Columbus holds the state's records, including death certificates from 1908 to 1953 with a free online index, and the Ohio Memory site digitizes county and state records free. Ohio took no state censuses, but the annual quadrennial enumerations of adult men and the tax duplicates from the 1800s substitute.

Ohio was the first public land state, and the Virginia Military District, the Connecticut Western Reserve, the Ohio Company and the federal land offices each left their own land records.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

Ohio statewide genealogy links

• Ohio Genealogical SocietyGenealogcial Society
• State Library of Ohio
• Ohio Department of HealthVital Records
• Ohio Public Records
• Land Entry Records in Ohio for Family HistoriansLand Records
• Search Ohio Death Records
• Ohio GenWeb ProjectSearch GenWeb Project
• Ohio Historical Society Archives Library

Ohio began statewide birth and death registration in December 1908, with county probate courts keeping birth and death registers from 1867, and the Ohio Department of Health's Vital Statistics office in Columbus holds the certificates from 1908, with copies at county health departments. Death certificates from 1908 to 1953 are held by the Ohio History Connection with a free online index and images on FamilySearch, and Ohio death records are public. Birth records are also public in Ohio, unusually, and available from the state. Marriage records are held by the probate court of each county from the county's founding, and divorce records sit with the clerk of the common pleas court.

• Ohio History Connection death certificate indexDeath certificates 1908 to 1953 and county records, checked September 25, 2026
• Ohio Department of Health Vital StatisticsBirth and death certificates from 1908, checked September 25, 2026
• Ohio Vital Records guideHow to order certificates and what is public

The Ohio History Connection holds the death certificates, the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home registers, Ohio's Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I records including the Ohio Soldiers in the War of 1812 and Civil War rosters, the Ohio Penitentiary registers, county records on microfilm, the quadrennial enumerations of adult men taken every four years and the tax duplicates. Ohio Memory offers free digitized records, and the Ohio Genealogical Society in Bellville holds the largest state genealogical society library in the country. Federal land patents are at the General Land Office site, and the National Archives at Chicago holds Ohio's federal court and naturalization records.

• Ohio MemoryFree digitized Ohio records, newspapers and photographs, checked September 25, 2026
• Ohio Genealogical SocietyLibrary and databases for Ohio families, checked September 25, 2026
• National Archives at ChicagoFederal court and naturalization records for Ohio, checked September 25, 2026
• FamilySearch Ohio research guideFree indexed Ohio records and death certificates, checked September 25, 2026

Ohio probate courts hold marriage licenses, wills, estates, guardianships and the 1867 to 1908 birth and death registers, and county recorders hold deeds and mortgages from each county's founding, with most recorders and many probate courts posting free online indexes and images. Clerks of the common pleas court hold civil, divorce and naturalization files. The Ohio History Connection has microfilmed older records of most of the 88 counties, and the Cuyahoga County records, covering Cleveland, and the Hamilton County records, covering Cincinnati, are the largest sets, though the 1884 Hamilton County courthouse fire destroyed many early Cincinnati records.

• Ohio County Public RecordsProbate courts, recorders and clerks of court for all 88 counties
• Ohio Court RecordsCommon pleas and probate court case searches

These federal and national sources complement Ohio's state-level records. They are the authoritative sources you should cross-check when Ohio state records are incomplete or out-of-state activity matters.

NARA, National Archives The federal government's primary archive. Holds the U.S. census (1790, 1950), ship passenger lists, naturalization records, military service files, and land entry files.

FamilySearch Free online genealogy platform operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Digitized microfilm copies of many county and state records worldwide.

Library of Congress, Local History & Genealogy The LoC's research guides, city directories, newspapers, and Civil War records, most accessible free online through loc.gov.