Ohio, Stark County Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
These records are from the Court of Common Pleas located at the Stark County Record's Center. The records include Land Records and Naturalization Witnesses and Depositions.

The earlier records are generally handwritten. From the late 1800s printed forms were used.

The county began keeping records as soon as it was organized.

For a list of records by event and date currently published in this collection, select the Browse.

This collection includes records for the years 1809 to 1917.

Naturalization is the process of granting citizenship privileges and responsibilities to foreign-born residents. Ohio’s counties recorded naturalization procedures in the court records as legal proof of citizenship.

Land records were made to provide legal proof of ownership and to transfer titles.

Information that was current at the time of the event was usually reliable. However, there was always a chance for misinformation. Errors may have occurred because of the informant’s lack of knowledge or because of transcription errors or other circumstances.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.

Digital images of original housed at various municipal archives throughout Ohio.

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.

Record Content


Declaration of Intent and Naturalization Petitions usually included the following:


 * Name of the immigrant
 * Country of birth
 * Arrival date
 * Date of Declaration of Intent or Naturalization
 * Birth date
 * Birthplace
 * Age
 * Race
 * Last foreign residence
 * Current residence
 * Arrival place
 * Marital status
 * Name of spouse
 * Maiden name of wife
 * Birth date of spouse
 * Residence of spouse
 * Names of witnesses
 * Signature of judge or court official

Land records usually contain the following:


 * Names of persons involved in the transaction
 * Date
 * Money exchaned
 * Legal description of land
 * Witnesses

How to Use this Record
To begin your search you will need to know the following:


 * The full name of your ancestor
 * The event date
 * The ancestor’s residence

If you are looking for an immigration and do not know this information, check the 1900 census and then calculate the possible year of naturalization based on the date of immigration. The 1920 census may tell you the exact year of immigration or naturalization.

Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

For example, you can use naturalization records to:


 * Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
 * Confirm their date of arrival
 * Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
 * Find records in his or her country of origin, such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests.

You may also find these tips helpful:


 * Look for the Declaration of Intent soon after the immigrant arrived, then look for the Naturalization Petition five years later, when the residency requirement would have been met. Look for naturalization records in federal courts and then in state, county, or city courts.
 * An individual may have filed the first and final papers in different courts and sometimes in a different state if the person moved. Immigrants who were younger than 18 when they arrived did not need to file a Declaration of Intent as part of the process.
 * If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
 * Continue to search the naturalization records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have naturalized in the same area or nearby.
 * The witnesses named on naturalization records may have been older relatives of the person in the naturalization process. Search for their naturalizations.
 * You may want to obtain the naturalization records of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors.

If you do not find the name you are looking for, try the following:


 * Check for variant spellings. Realize that the indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings and misinterpretations.
 * Try a different index if there is one for the years needed. You may also need to search the naturalization records year by year.
 * Search the indexes of nearby counties.

Related Web Sites

 * Local Court Records from Ohio
 * Stark County, Ohio Free Public Records Directory

Related Wiki Articles

 * Ohio Naturalization and Citizenship
 * Ohio Land and Property
 * Ohio Court Records
 * Stark County, Ohio

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Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
"Ohio, Stark County Court Records, 1809-1917." images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org&amp;nbsp: accessed 26 March 2012.) entry for Joshua D. Atwater; citing Court Records, Stark, Common Pleas records, 1840, v. Q, Image 44; Stark County Court of Common Pleas, Canton, Ohio.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: Help:How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.