Ohio Genealogy News Winter 2010

Pound for pound, quarter after quarter, Ohio Genealogy News is the most practically informative genealogy magazine I know of.

The current issue's cover story, "Ohioans in Religious Newspapers," is especially pertinent because so many of us have ancestors who came through Ohio, but something like it could be written for almost any state. But co-editor Deb Cyprych wrote it for Ohio, with descriptions and locations for periodicals associated with almost two dozen denominations: Baptist, Baptist (German), Christian Church (American Christian Convention), Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, Church of God, Congregational, Episcopalian, Evangelical Association (German), Jewish, Lutheran, Lutheran (German), Mennonite, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist (German), Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, Protestant Union, Reformed (German), Roman Catholic, Society of Friends (Quakers), United Brethren in Christ, and Universalist.

Other articles review the holdings of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, the website of the Terrace Park Building Survey (it's a village in Hamilton County), online Hamilton County probate records, and Palatines to America.

Ohio online!

The winter issue of Ohio Genealogy News contains good news for researchers (as well as a full program for the 22-24 April OGS conference in Toledo and glimpses of the Big Three Repositories in that northwesern quadrant of the state):

(1) Via the University of Cincinnati Libraries, the city's birth records (1874-1908) and death records (1865-1908) will be digitized and available on the web beginning in August 2010.

(2) The Archives and Rare Books Library at the U of C has posted indexes to information from two compilations by Lois Hughes: Wills Filed in Probate Court, Hamilton County, Ohio, 1791-1901, and Hamilton County, Ohio Citizenship Records, 1837-1916. Original copies can then be ordered.

(3) Via the Ohio Historical Society, issues of thirteen selected Ohio newspapers published between 1880 and 1920 are being digitized and uploaded to the Library of Congress Chronicling America web site. Check the site as they become available. Locations to be included are Canfield, Perrysburg, Marion, Akron, Canton, Mount Vernon, Springfield, Hillsboro, Logan, and Marietta.

Sanborn maps in Cincinnati!

I blogged about Sanborn fire insurance maps, a great resource for buildings up close and personal, in May and June. Now the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has digitized two volumes with more to come. They're in color, 1904-1917 and 1904-1930. Even if they cover the same area (not a given), the distinction is important because these were working maps and often changes were pasted right over the original version.

While you're there, enjoy their excellent collection of Cincinnati city directories, beginning in 1819 and covering pretty much every year 1849-1895. That kind of close coverage is what researchers need.

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.

Central and Southwestern Ohio Resources

The Fleshman Files website offers a variety of substantial index resources in Franklin, Delaware, and Hamilton counties: Green Lawn and Obetz cemeteries in Columbus, Oak Grove Cemetery in Delaware, and Wesleyan Cemetery in Cincinnati. Also in Cincinnati, Christ Church Cathedral and Fuldner Mortuary. Use with care, as some listings contain information beyond what's actually on the gravestone.

What NEHGS Knows That You Don't

The New England Historical and Genealogical Society is making major moves into New York research, and extending little pseudopods even farther west. Here are Midwestern resources highlighted by Valerie Beaudrault in recent issues of their email newsletter:

Hamilton County, Ohio, Genealogical Society -- that's Cincinnati and suburbs to ordinary folks -- with online Cincinnati Newspaper Obituary Index (seven newspapers, some in German) and Cincinnati Marriage Indexes from several sources. The society also offers a transcription of the 1894 History of Cincinnati and Hamilton Co. Ohio.

Cook Memorial Public Library District in Libertyville, Lake County, Illinois (confusingly, the county just north of Cook County), with a local newspaper obituary index from 1894, and images of local telephone books from 1913 and most years 1924-1959. The library also has an online genealogy newsletter, and if you go there, offers access to the premier resource for original records from Sweden, Genline.

Winneconne Cemetery, Winnecone, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, with online indexes by name and section, and a cemetery map.

The Ohio Frontier

I'm reading my way across the Midwest, in the order it was conquered and settled, thanks to a highly readable series of four books Indiana University Press published in the late 1990s. I started with R. Douglas Hurt's The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. He begins, appropriately, with the end: the final expulsion of the Wyandots from the state in 1843. So far these books are distinguished from the history I grew up with by taking Indians seriously as people.

That's not the only reason the triumphalist, individualist historians of a century and a half ago might not recognize the frontier Midwest of today's historians.

Between 1788 and 1795, some thirty settlements had been planted in Hamilton County alone. Fourteen of these settlements had been founded by loosely organized family-related groups. Only four settlements originated from the location of a single person, while five sprang from the location of single [nuclear?] families. Family ties and informal social and community relationships were more important for the establishments of settlements on the Ohio frontier than individual action.