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Beginning Genealogy Research at the Archives & Library of the Ohio History Connection

General Reference

Below are a sample of the books available in the Archives & Library that may be helpful in starting your genealogical research.


Online Book Resources

The HathiTrust Digital Library has millions of books digitized online, including military rosters from the Civil War and World War I. The Internet Archive is another great resource for digitized print materials. Google Books provides access to digital print materials, including many published county histories. The FamilySearch Catalog makes available genealogical materials including books and online materials.


City Directories

City directories list residents, businesses and organizations within a specific city or metropolitan area. These listings may include addresses, family names and business owners. Directories can be valuable in placing a person or business in time. The Archives & Library holds a large collection of Ohio city directories, dating from the 1800s to the early 2000s, organized alphabetically Akron to Zanesville. We also have a small collection of county directories and telephone directories. You can search our Library Catalog using a city or county name and "directory" to view our holdings.

If we do not have a specific directory you're researching, you may want to contact the local library in the Ohio county or city your ancestors resided.

U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 on Ancestry.com includes many directories from Ohio cities.


County Histories

County histories provide a historical sketch of specific Ohio counties during a particular time period. These books typically include a brief history of the area when the county was established, individual communities, biographies of prominent people and information on important institutions, such as churches, schools, and businesses. The Archives & Library has a large county history section that includes printed materials related to every Ohio county; Adams to Wyandot. Publications related to county records and cemeteries are included. You can search our Library Catalog for resources rlated to a particular county in Ohio.

Many of the materials in our county history section were created by local genealogical societies. You may want to contact the genealogical society in the county where the family lived for more information. A list of Ohio county genealogical societies is available on the Ohio Genealogical Society website.

Local public libraries may also have a local history section that includes county histories.


Newspapers

Newspapers may contain birth notices, obituaries and special articles related to your Ohio ancestors. You can search our newspaper holdings using our Library Catalog.

Visit our Newspapers Research Guide for search strategies and and links to some popular Ohio Obituary Indexes .

Some newspapers from our collections have been digitized on Chronicling America. You can search for Ohio's Digitized Newspapers here.