Genealogy on the corner in Dayton

I'm a fan of Herstoryan's exploration of the corner of Brown and Hess streets in 1879 in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.

Ohio City Directories before 1850

I've blogged before about the Morgan Bibliography of Ohio Imprints, but their ongoing project of indexing all 16 city directories from the five Ohio cities that published before 1850 -- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, and Steubenville -- deserves its own mention. These are indexes, not images. The unique advantage here is that you can search across all directories.

Montgomery County, Ohio

The October 8 issue of NEHGS eNews includes an appreciation of the online resources at the website of the Montgomery County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society. These include cemetery reading indexes; a selection of transcribed marriages, obituaries, and other articles from Dayton newspapers; and more.

Two reasons among many to hope your research targets dropped anchor here (alas, only two of my relatives did so):

A local gazetteer, the kind of thing you desperately need when a source casually mentions a place that appears in no one's map or memory. You may at any time need to know that "Pinch Gut" is a local name for Taylorsburg.

Dayton History Books Online, masterminded by Dayton writer Curt Dalton, with transcriptions of more than 100 books and articles about local history, ranging from the obvious standards to an 1881 telephone book, a mournful poem about the 1913 flood, and a manual for women employees of Rike's Department Store in 1968 ("The smart woman is always accessorized properly from head to toe").

June issue of OGSQ

Articles and resources in the June issue of the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly (info here):

"My Own Story," by William H. Hannum

"2007 First Families of Ohio Roster," by Karen Miller Bennett, CG

"The Brook Buxton Family," by James H. Edge

"Registry of Births, Salem, Shelby Co., Ohio"

"Ohio School for the Deaf"

"1902 Deaths in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Burials Outside of Hamilton County,"

"Extracts from Manumission Record of Freed Slaves 1834-1857, Logan County Clerk of Courts." These records are most interesting, and not all are manumissions. Many appear to be legal registrations of black people who were born free; some are from Logan County, and some appear to have been made in slave states and re-filed in Logan County. A brief and incomplete web search suggests that these records would benefit from some historical and legal context: the registrants may have been complying with Ohio's 1804 "Black Code," if indeed it was still in effect. Ohio Black Laws has the text, and historian Douglas Harper offers some context at "Slavery in the North." If someone can point to a more thorough discussion on or off line, I would appreciate it.

"World War I Memorial, Dayton, Ohio," by Beryl Unger

"Pigeon Run School, Amanda Township, Allen County, Ohio," by Dwane Grace

"1977-2008, Our Past, Our Present, and Looking Forward, Wood County Chapter OGS," by Eileen Aufdencamp