Ottawa County, OhioEdit This Page

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

	Ohio Online Records

Ottawa County, Ohio
Map
Location of Ohio in the U.S.
Courthouse
Address	Ottawa County Courthouse 315 Madison St. Port Clinton, Ohio 43452-1993 Ottawa County Website

Historical Facts

• Parent Counties: Formed from Erie, Lucas, and Sandusky Counties 6 March 1840.^[1]
• County Seat: Port Clinton
• Neighboring Counties: Ottawa County, Ohio residents may also have records in ^[2]Lucas (north) · Sandusky (south) · Wood (west) · Erie (southeast)

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Ottawa County boundary changes.

Record Loss

Resources

Bible Records

Biography

Business Records and Commerce

Cemeteries

Harris-Elmore Union Cemetery (aka) Guss, Union, Elmore

Harrington Cemetery (aka) Old Elmore, Elmore

Rymers Cemetery (aka) Rice, Elmore

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

See Ohio Cemeteries for more information.

Census

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.

Catholic

• 1796–2004 Ohio, Diocese of Toledo, Catholic Parish Records, 1796-2004 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free. This collection includes images of parish registers recording the events of baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage, and death in the Diocese of Toledo (Ohio), Roman Catholic Church. These records are accessed by browsing the images by county. In addition to traditional parish registers, this collection includes miscellaneous cemetery records, Books of the Elect, Professions of Faith, Sick Call registers, etc.
  

Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

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

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).

Court Records

Emigration and Immigration

Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups

Gazetteers

Genealogy

History

Local histories are available for Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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 Ottawa County.

- 41st Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Companies F and I

- 100th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Company G

Naturalization and Citizenship

Newspapers

Ottawa 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.

The Ohio Obituary Index includes references to more than 1.5 million death, marriage and obituary notices.  What began as a project at the Hayes Presidential Center grew into a partnership with 40 public libraries throughout the state of Ohio.  Some of the listings date back as far as 1830.  In addition to newspaper obituaries, the index includes entries indexing church records, federal mortality indexes, family papers, etc.

Obituaries

Periodicals

Probate

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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).

Public Records

Repositories

Courthouse

Ottawa County Courthouse
315 Madison Street Rm 103
Port Clinton OH 43452-1936
Phone: 419.734.6752

County Health Department has birth, death and burial records;
Probate Judge has marriage and probate records; Clerk Court
has divorce and court records from 1840 and naturalization 1905-1929;
County Recorder has land records^[1]

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Libraries

• Harris-Elmore Public Library
  328 Toledo St.
  Elmore, Ohio
• Ottawa County Genealogical Society (OGS Chapter)
  310 Madison St.
  Port Clinton
  They meet at the Ida Rupp Public Library
• Ida Rupp Public Library
  310 Madison St.
  Port Clinton

Museums

Societies

• Elmore Historical Society

Taxation

Ohio tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses before 1820 or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information see the wiki page Ohio Taxation.

Finding Tax Records at Other Repositories

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

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).

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 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 Ottawa 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 Ottawa County, Ohio Probate Court with divorce records located with the Ottawa County, Ohio Clerk of Courts.

Birth

Marriage

Death

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, windowed or divorced, occupation of deceased. Finding Vital Records at Other Repositories

Additional vital records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Ottawa 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).

Web Sites

• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Family History Library Catalog

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, "Ottawa County, Ohio" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_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 25 May 2013, at 20:47.
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