Ohio Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in the Collection?
This collection includes probate records from 1789 to 1996.

Probate records were used to legally dispose of a person’s estate after his or her death. If the deceased had made a will, the probate process transferred the following from the deceased to an executor or executrix: the legal responsibility for payment of taxes, care and custody of dependent family members, liquidation of debts, and transfer of property title to heirs. If there was no will, the transfer went to an administrator or administratrix. A guardian or conservator was appointed if the deceased had heirs younger than 21 or if the heirs were incompetent due to disability or disease. Probate records are generally well preserved, but some may have been lost in fires or other disasters.

The collection consists of probate records and estate files from county courthouses in Ohio. The content and time period varies by county.

Fires have destroyed some Ohio county courthouse records. The following list may be helpful to you:


 * Adams County. A courthouse fire in early 1910 destroyed most of the probate records up to that point. Will book abstracts from 1849 to 1860 and some pre-1860 guardianship papers survived.
 * Delaware County. A fire in 1835 destroyed most early records. Will records from 1812 survived.
 * Hamilton County. The courthouse has had three fires: one in 1814, the second on 9 July 1849, and the third on 30 March 1884. The 1884 fire resulted in the most lost records.
 * Licking County. A courthouse fire on 3 April 1875 destroyed many of the early probate court records.
 * Champaign County. A courthouse fire in 1948 destroyed the intestate records in the probate court.
 * Fulton County. The first courthouse was located in Ottokee. A fire broke out on the night of July 14, 1864, and destroyed many of the early records. It seems that a Judge Barber had made a personal record of the early wills. This old book is referred to as "Barber's Abstracts" and is available at the county records center.
 * Henry County. The courthouse was destroyed by fire on 17 April 1847. The court records were destroyed in the fire.
 * Seneca County. The courthouse was destroyed by fire on 29 May 1841. Probate records exist from 1828. Some of the records in this county have been reconstructed in part by using other documents such as deeds and early newspaper accounts of individuals’ deaths.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Probate records include petitions, inventories, accounts, decrees and other court documents. They include the following information:


 * Name of the testator or deceased
 * Names of heirs, such as spouse, children, other relatives, or friends
 * Name of the executor, administrator, or guardian
 * Names of witnesses
 * Residence of the testator
 * Document and recording dates

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * The location or date of the event

View the Images
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 * 1) Select County
 * 2) Select Volume, title and year

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

What Do I Do Next?
Indexes and transcriptions may not include all the data found in the original records. Look at the actual image of the record, if you can, to verify the information and to find additional information.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.
 * Use a Probate record to identify adoptions, guardians, heirs and relatives.
 * Use a probate record to approximate a death date, then find a death certificate.
 * For earlier years, use the probate record to substitute for civil birth and death records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find church and vital records such as birth, baptism and marriage records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find immigration and land records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in censuses.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records were kept years before counties began keeping records. They are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Check the info box above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
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