Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, has a lot of resources for the family history researcher, and these resources often seem scattered to those that are new to researching in the area. I keep a personal list of genealogy resources in the area, and thought I would share it here to help others who are researching there.
I host a scan of a Cincinnati-area map on my blog, taken from my copy of the 1897 Century Atlas of the World. It can be found here.
Resources in the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Area
- The Hamilton County Probate Court website has a tremendous amount of scanned records in their Archives. It includes much more than just probated estates.
- FamilySearch hosts numerous Hamilton County marriages in its “Ohio, County Marriages, 1790-1950” database, particularly many reconstructed marriage records from after the Hamilton County courthouse burned in 1884. Their “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953” database includes Hamilton County. In late 2013 they were also in the process of adding a number of Hamilton County court records; while many appear to be duplicates of what was already available on the Hamilton County Probate Court website, it is worth checking to see whether they have something useful to you that the Probate Court site does not.
- The University of Cincinnati Library has created a database of names in their index card collection of Cincinnati Birth and Death Records, 1865-1912; scans of the index cards are on the site. These are index cards that served as a guide to the original records; the card collection was donated to the University. As far as I have been able to determine, U of C does not appear to hold the original records.
- Hamilton County Genealogical Society hosts two databases under the rubric of Hamilton County Record Indexes, focused on death notices and marriage announcements from 19th century newspapers. It includes some German-language papers of the area. (They also have a number of additional resources in their members-only area.)
- Spring Grove Cemetery has scanned their index card collection for old burials, and also includes textual references to many more recent burials. You can search by lot or by name at their Genealogy Page.
- The University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library has a collection of original wills for Hamilton County, 1791-1901, with an index to the names available in searchable PDFs at this page. You can order a copy of the original will by printing out a form at the site and paying $10 per request. The original wills are different copies than the wills housed at the Hamilton County Probate Court, the latter of which has the copies that were from the probate books.
- The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County has a lot of material scanned online, including old city directories, yearbooks, maps, and rare books. You can view their collection at this page.
- There are also numerous Cincinnati city directories at this site.
- The Cincinnati History Library and Archives has a collection of digitized journals that is searchable. They also have numerous other resources, accessible from their main page. You must accept cookies for searches on this site to work.
- The Cincinnati Panorama of 1848 is viewable at this site. You can pan and zoom the scans of the daguerreotypes of the Cincinnati waterfront.
- Ohio Genealogical Society’s Ohio Civil War Center site includes Hamilton County. It has some free databases and some subscription ones. The free databases include Names of Union Soldiers with Civil War Service in Ohio Units.
- The Hamilton County Probate Court hosts a page entitled Helpful Guide for Genealogy Research that discusses many area repositories and resources. Last revised in 2009 as of the time of this writing, it remains useful.
[links last verified January 2014]
Liz,
I connected to your blog through your tweet. I love this list of Hamilton Co. Resources. Is there any chance that you belong to the Hamilton Co. Genealogical Society? If so, I’d like to list your blog on our blog for links to member blogs. http://hcgsohio.blogspot.com
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Thanks very much for your nice note. I’m glad you like the list of resources. I compiled it from my bookmarks in hopes it would be useful to others researching the area. Yes, I am a member of the Hamilton County Genealogical Society. I’d be honored to be added to your blogroll, if you don’t mind that I write about other locations as well as Hamilton County. Thanks very much!
Liz