Not 100%

The ProGenealogists blog did a very nice thing in getting permission from author William B. Saxbe, Jr., to reprint his article from the March 1999 National Genealogical Society Quarterly, "Nineteenth-Century Death Records: How Dependable Are They?"

Read the whole thing, but basically Saxbe carefully compared three different records of deaths in Champaign County, Ohio, between 1 June 1879 and 31 May 1880: a county death register, the US census mortality schedule for the county, and obituaries published in the three county-seat newspapers. Conclusion: "No more than 35 percent of the known deaths produced obituaries, only 56 percent appeared in the county death registrations, and only 84 percent were picked up by that year’s mortality census." And almost half of the known deaths appeared in only one of the three sources.

Ohio Genealogy News Spring 2009

Somehow the spring issue of Ohio Genealogy News got stuck at the bottom of my pile, which is too bad because it's a goodie:

"Armchair Sleuthing in the Internet Age: Reconstructing Family Stories," by Gail G. Whitchurch

"The Western Reserve Historical Society Library -- An American Family History Research Center," by Ann Sindelar. Besides library materials including the top periodicals, this Cleveland repository also boasts over 5000 manuscript collections, including Civil War and Shaker materials and papers of "local historians Charles Whittlesey, Joel Blakeslee, Alfred Mewitt and Winifred Wolcott," and Marion Turk's Channel Islands Genealogical Papers on "several hundred Channel Islands families from their earliest settlement to the 20th century." More on these resources next week.

"Cemetery Chronicles" from Trumbull, Henry, and Fairfield counties, by Lolita (Thayer) Guthrie

"George Washington's Valet Honored in Champaign County Cemetery," by Doris Hayden Gorgas

"Diocese of Toledo Parish Records and Ohio Tax Records Online" at FamilySearch Labs

December's OGSQ

In the December 2008 Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly:

"The Family of William H. Fyffe of Champaign County," by Martha Orsborn Gerdeman*

"Society of Civil War Families of Ohio Roster 2008"

"Ohio Genealogical Society 2008 Writing Competition" [closing 28 February 2009]

"Nathan L. Glover, Akron's Premier Music Educator," by Rena Glover Goss

"1903 Deaths in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Burials Outside of Hamilton County," comp. Kenny R. Burck and Doris Thomson

"Rose's Research," by Mary Alice Austermiller Betley

"The Smiths of Champaign County, Ohio, with connections to Epps, Hall, Stoddard" by Nancy Wright Brennan, CG*

"Decennial Tax Valuation, Cincinnati Real Estate 1892," comp. Jean Overmeier Nathan

"Hulda Emilie (King) Richholt Harris Otterbach," by Joanne Richholt Allison

*Footnoted.