Good and bad genealogy news in Ohio

Second installment on the fall issue of the Ohio Genealogical Society's Ohio Genealogy News, which comes bearing both good news and bad:

* The Preble County District Library has scanned and indexed county marriage records 1808-1996 and various other historical records.

* Bowling Green State University's Center for Archival Collections includes manuscripts with online finding aids; local government records including hunting and fishing licenses, poll books, tax lists, and peddlers licenses, plus online indexes for Henry County 1853 plat books and Wood County probate estate case files 1820-1870; and online databases of Great Lakes vessels including photographs.

* OGS will sponsor its third annual writing contest (750-5000 words), accepting entries in January and February 2010. This is a great place to jump-start your genealogy writing career and get some critiques. If you're doing a lot of work in Ohio, you can submit up to two entries in each of four categories -- eight total.

Bad news: the Ohio Historical Society's archives and library will be open only on Thursdays during 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. Library hours will be reduced at the Hayes Presidential Center and at Columbus Metropolitan as well.

Ohio Records and Pioneer Families #3, 2008

One of OGS's four quarterlies, this time out Ohio Records and Pioneer Families focuses on Cuyahoga and Williams counties, along with Erie, Richland, and Preble:

"Joanna Wickham & Seth Doan Family, Cleveland OH" submitted gby Melissa Danielsson

"Norman & Electa Hale Hills, Erie County, Ohio," submitted by Linda Hills, including a discussion of farms displaced in 1941 for wartime construction.

"First Families of Ohio: The Early Years," abstracted by Kay Ballantyne Hudson

"Revolutionary War Pension Application Abstracts," abstracted by Lois Wheeler

"Official Register of Physicians by County, 1896 -- Williams County"

"Merchants, Manufacturers & Traders of Ohio, 1885"

"Divorces, Richland County, Ohio, 1848-1859," abstracted by Missy Derrenberger. Admit it -- these always make good reading. By my count 11 of the 28 divorces were sought by men.

"Josephine Wilson Photographs, Preble County, Ohio," submitted by Diane VansKiver Gagel

"Elizabeth Meily Spitler," by Sarah June Black, age 12

"War of 1812: Ohio Raised Regiments for US Army," submitted by Eric Johnson

"Ohio's Forgotten Military Cemeteries," submitted by Eric Johnson

If you've got old Ohio goodies and an itch to write them up, action editor Susan Dunlap Lee wants to hear from you: "Articles are needed NOW for future issues."

Midwesterners in NGSQ

Midwesterners figure in two of the intricate methodological adventures in the current (March) issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

In "Clara V. Moore and Carrie Peterson: Proving a Double Enumeration in the 1910 Census," J. H. Fonkert, CG, manages to prove that 34-year-old Norway-born Clara V. Moore and her "sister" 37-year-old Norway-born Carrie Peterson in the household at 24 Thirteenth Street in Minneapolis were in fact the same person -- the double entry being the product of some extraordinarily inept census-taking. Conclusion: "Clara was Carrie, Vivian was Sigrid, and Earl was Hjalmar....Researchers must always question census information."

In "Tying Together Indirect Evidence: Finding Frederick Drollinger's Father," Kay Germain Ingalls, CG, produces what seems at first to be genealogical sleight-of-hand, proving that Frederick's father was John from a Preble County, Ohio, Chancery Court case that was litigated long after Frederick and John were both dead, in a state where neither ever lived.