Lake County, OhioEdit This Page

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Guide to Lake County Ohio genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

	Ohio Online Records

Lake County, Ohio
Map
Location in the state of Ohio
Location of Ohio in the U.S.
Courthouse
Address	Lake County Courthouse 47 N. Park Place Painesville, Ohio 44077 Lake County Website

Historical Facts

• Parent Counties: Formed from Cuyahoga and Geauga Counties 20 March 1840.^[1]
• County Seat: Painesville
• Neighboring Counties: Lake County, Ohio residents may also have records in ^[2]Geauga (south) · Ashtabula (east) · Cuyahoga (southwest)

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Lake County boundary changes.

Record Loss

Painesville Twp. records to after 1900 due to flood

Resources

Bible Records

Biography

Lake County OHGenWeb at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake

See History Hall . . . at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlcgs

Business Records and Commerce

Cemeteries

Lake County Cemeteries and Index of names.

Individual cemeteries:

• Leroy Cemetery, Painesville BillionGraves

Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

See Ohio Cemeteries for more information.

Church Records

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Ohio denominations, view the Ohio Church Records wiki page.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

LDS Ward and Branch Records

• Kirtland

Lutheran

• Records of Resurrection Lutheran Church, Painesville, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

Additional church records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Ohio Church Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Court Records

Naturalization Records - An Alphabetical Abstract of the naturalization petitions from Lake County Probate Court (1860-1906) and Lake County Common Pleas Court (1906-1975). This includes Declarations of Intention and petitions that failed for a variety of reasons. Naturalizations between 1840 and 1860 were done in a variety of courts, which will be abstracted later.

Emigration and Immigration

Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups

Gazetteers

Genealogy

History

Local histories are available for Lake County, Ohio. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Ohio Local Histories.

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See Ohio Land and Property for additional information about early Ohio land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

Finding Land Records at Other Repositories

Additional land records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Ohio Land and Property Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog(For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Maps

Military

• Civil War
  Civil War service men from Lake County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Lake County.

- 1st Regiment, Ohio Light Artillery, Battery C

- 105th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Companies D and K

Newspapers

Lake County, Ohio newspapers may contain genealogical value including obituaries, births, marriages, deaths, anniversaries, family gatherings, family travel, achievements, business notices, engagement information, and probate court proceedings.

To access newspapers, contact public libraries, Ohio Genealogical Society chapters, college or university libraries, the Library of Congress, Google News, or the Ohio Historical Society. The Ohio Genealogical Society Obituary Database is another source of newspaper information.

For more Ohio newspaper information see the Newspaper Guides on the wiki page Ohio Newspapers. Online Newspapers

• Select issues ofEvening and Morning Star available at BYU's Digital Collections. Click on newspaper in box on right.
• Painesville Telegraph and Telegraph=Republican available at http://news.google.com/newspapers 

Online Newspaper Abstracts
Newspaper Extracts and Abstracts in Book Form

Obituaries

Index 1822-current available at http://www.MorleyLibrary.org  >Genealogy > Obit Index

Periodicals

Probate Records 

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Lake County, Ohio Probate Court. From 1797 or the creation of the county, probate records were held by the Court of Common Pleas. Most counties transferred all records to the Probate Court, but in some circumstances, Court of Common Pleas records should be searched for records prior to 1852. Most records are housed at the Lake County, Ohio Courthouse. Some records are on microfilm at the Ohio Genealogical Society and the Family History Library. For more complete information about the location of county probate records see:

• Carol Willsey Bell, Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index (1981). ^[3] FamilySearch Books Online - Free online copy.
  

See the wiki page Ohio Probate Records for information about how to use probate records.

Content: Probate Records may give the decedent's date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their place of residence.

Record types: Wills, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, marriage, adoption, and birth and death records (1867-1908 only).

• 1790–1967 - Ohio, Probate Records, 1790-1967 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free. This collection consists of probate records and estate files from county courthouses in Ohio. The content and time period varies by county, with more records being added as they become available. This Collection will include records from 1789 to 1996. Currently, (September 2012) the collection is only searchable by browsing the images. A list of Fires that have destroyed records in the courthouses of several counties are listed on the Record Description page.
  

Probate records 1840-1902 browseable on FamilySearch, not complete. <br>

Finding Probate Records at Other Repositories

Additional probate records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Ohio Probate Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Public Records

Repositories

Courthouse

Lake County Courthouse
47 North Park Place
Painesville, OH 44077-3414
Phone: 440.350.2657 

Clerk Court has court records from 1840

25 North Park Place

Painesville, OH 44077

Probate Judge has marriage and probate records

25 North Park Place, rear

Painesville, OH 44077

County Recorder has land records^[1]

105 Main Street

Painesville, OH 44077

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
• Kirtland Ohio Family History Center
  

Libraries

Morley Library--Best collection of local genealogical materials.

Museums

Lake County History Center http://www.lakehistory.org

Societies

Lake County Genealogical Society This site contains links to their projects, which have a lot of information in them. Lake County Cemetery Inscriptions to 2003, Naturalization Index 1860-1975, Biographies, Index to LakeLines, Memorials and Activities. 

Taxation

Finding Tax Records at Other Repositories

Additional tax records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Ohio Tax Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Vital Records

Vital records consist of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. Although Ohio enacted a statute in 1856 -1857 requiring registration of births, deaths and marriages, many counties did not comply. A second law was written in 1867 but, again, was not always followed. By 1908, the law was more clearly defined and kept. Any existing birth and death records from 1867 through December 19, 1908 are located at the Lake County, Ohio Probate Court. The Ohio Department of Health has birth records filed after December 20, 1908 and death records filed after January 1, 1954 while the Ohio Historical Society houses death records from December 20, 1908 through December 31, 1953.

Original marriage records are held at the office of the Lake County, Ohio Probate Court with divorce records located with the Lake County, Ohio Clerk of Courts.

Birth

Online Birth Indexes and Records

Births1867-1908 now searchable on FamilySearch

Alphabetical transcription at GenWeb www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake/ 

Original Birth Records on Microfilm

Marriage

Online Marriage Indexes and Records

Marriages - Lake County Probate Marriage Records Index 1840-1915

Marriages 1840-1952 now searchable at FamilySearch

Original Marriage Records on Microfilm

Death

Online Death Indexes and Records

Death records 1867-1908 transcriptoin at GenWeb www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake

Death records 1867-1908 now searchable on FamilySearch

Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as birth date of deceased, city, county, and state of death, name of spouse if married, names of parents, maiden name of mother, name of informant, if deceased was single, married, widowed or divorced, occupation of deceased. Finding Vital Records at Other Repositories

Additional vital records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Ohio Vital Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Original Death Records on Microfilm

Divorce

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog
• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake - The GenWeb site has many databases, biographies, vital records, etc.
• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake/vitalrec/probateb.html - Lake County birth records 1867-1908.
• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlcgs - The Lake County Genealogical Society projects page with the cemetery inscriptions, naturalizations and other information.

Places

Populated Places

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), [FHL book 973 D27e 2002].
2. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Lake County, Ohio" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_County,_Ohio (accessed 10 May 2012).
3. ↑ Carol Willsey Bell, Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index (Columbus, Ohio: the author, 1981). FamilySearch Books Online - Free online copy.

• This page was last modified on 13 June 2013, at 19:17.
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