Ohio, County Births - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Ohio 

What is in the Collection?
The collection includes a name index and images of county birth records in Ohio. The time period and type of record varies by county.

The records are usually handwritten on pre-printed pages, bound into books. The books are in register style with multiple entries to a page. The records are generally well preserved, though some may have been lost because of fire or other disasters. Some of the records have been sent to the Ohio Historical Society. Some of the birth records may be delayed, and created from other types of records.

The collection covers the years 1841 to 2003.

Coverage Table
A Coverage table for this collection is available in the wiki article Ohio, County Birth Records, Coverage Table (FamilySearch Historical Records).

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. Some of the images in this collection are only available for viewing if you are a registered FamilySearch user. You can register for a free FamilySearch account here. For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

Ohio counties generally began keeping birth records in 1867, when Ohio passed a law requiring this. Physicians or county assessors in cities and townships created the birth records and then sent them to the country probate court. On December 20, 1908, a new state law required the county to send the birth records to the state. Most births that occurred in a county were probably recorded because of the legal requirement for registration.

The state required counties to begin recording births both to document the births and to track public health issues. A delayed registration allowed an individual whose birth had not been recorded to obtain a birth certificate, which was usually needed to receive certain government benefits.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Information found in this collection may include:


 * Date birth was recorded
 * Full name of child
 * Child’s birth date
 * Place of birth, including city, country and state
 * Child's gender and race
 * Parents’ names, including mother’s maiden name
 * Parents' place of residence
 * Name of the person reporting the birth

Later records may also list the following:


 * Parents' birth dates and places
 * Parents' age
 * Parents' occupation
 * Name of attending physician or midwife

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know the following:
 * The child's name
 * The birth place
 * The approximate birth date

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page:' Fill in the requested information on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about those in the list to what you already know about your own ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒ Select the "County" category ⇒ Select the "Record Type, Date Range and Volume" category which takes you to the images

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

With either search keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The parents' birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.
 * The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

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

 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Look for a different index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby counties.

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
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: