Ohio Biography

United States Ohio  Ohio Biography

Biographies provide useful genealogical information such as a person’s birth date and place; names of family members, including maiden names; education; occupation; and social, political, and religious affiliation. They may also contain a physical description of the person, previous residences, and immigration information. Biographies are the product of family knowledge or previous research about early settlers and prominent citizens of a state, county, or town. Local histories may contain biographical sketches of lesser-known people.

Biographical Encyclopedias

 * Upton, Harriet Taylor. History of the Western Reserve. Three Volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing, 1910. A digital version is availble through the FamilySearch catalog entry. The complete text is also viewable at Google Books
 * Upton, Harriet Taylor and Lake County Genealogical Society, An Every-Name Index to the History of the Western Reserve (Mentor, Ohio: Lake County Chapter, OGS, 1988.) ;


 * Galbreath, Charles B. History of Ohio. Five Volumes. (Chicago, Illinois: American Historical Society, 1925.) The last three volumes contain biographical sketches of prominent Ohio citizens. (The entire 3,562 page book is viewable at HeritageQuest online, through most public library websites.)


 * Boardman, Alice, Marjorie Price, DAR (Ohio), Ohio Historical Society, The Ohio Surname Index (Columbus, Ohio:Ohio Historical Society, 1984) Ohio Historical Society,1984;  An every-name card index to about 450,000 persons mentioned in various biographical sections of Ohio county histories.

Family History Library
The Family History has a large collection of county histories which include biographical information. To access biographies in the FHL catalog, use a Place-name Search for:


 * OHIO - BIOGRAPHIES
 * OHIO, [COUNTY] - BIOGRAPHY
 * OHIO, [COUNTY] - HISTORY
 * OHIO, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - BIOGRAPHY
 * OHIO, [COUNTY]. [TOWN] - HISTORY

Statewide Collections

 * Ohio Biographyis searchable by name, county and occupation.
 * Ohio Biographies Project*
 * Ohio Biographies
 * Ohio Biographies