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What Everybody Ought To Know About Ohio Genealogy

March 17th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Here Is A Source That Is Helping Ohio Genealogy Research

Most states use the county courthouse as the primary storehouse for genealogical records. In Ohio, meaning “Good River” in Iroquois, some of the most valuable genealogical records have been centralized in eight regional network centers known as the Ohio Network of American History Research Centers (ONAHRC). By spreading the centers out, this can make genealogy research on mobile ancestors a lot more accessible. Here’s a list of the centers:

l The Ohio Historical Society

l The University of Akron

l Bowling Green State University

l University of Cincinnati

l Ohio University

l Western Reserve Historical Society Library

l Wright State University

l Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor

New Englanders initially settled the “Buckeye” state and as more land resources became available settlers from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina people joined the fray. With such a diverse migration trail, Ohio has a variety of records to further Ohio genealogy research.

First Settled In Marietta

While searching for Ohio genealogy records, you will come to learn that Ohio which was the state that provided access to the western regions of the United States was first permanently settled by white people in Marietta, Washington County in the year 1788. When the land in this state opened up some more, there were many people coming here from Pennsylvania and Virginia as well as North Carolina and Maryland, which mean that if you are looking for your ancestors through Ohio genealogy records, you will probably find that your ancestors had roots in those places as well.

Polsky Building

Furthermore, there are many archives and also libraries in ONAHRC that include the Ohio Historical Society which covers the central parts of the state, the University of Akron Polsky Building that has information pertaining to some parts of the northeast of the state, Bowling Green State University that covers northwest Ohio, and various other resources that will prove useful for Ohio genealogy searching.

Eastern Ohio Ancestors

What’s more, if you find that your ancestors lived in north eastern parts of Ohio, then your Ohio genealogy search should take you to places such as New England and Pennsylvania because that is where most of the original inhabitants came from, while if you are looking for ancestors in south as well as southeastern Ohio, then you may well find that your ancestors were from Virginia and also Kentucky.

Other Ethnic Immigrants

Of course, the first immigrants were the Native Americans who crossed the land bridge at the Bering Straits about 20,000 years ago. By the time the first settlers came to Ohio, there were many Native American tribes already occupying Ohio. Immigration from overseas began in 1775 and a steady flow continued until 1850. The majority of these Ohio immigrants came from Northern Europe, especially Germany. Irish Immigrants were driven from their lands by the potato famine in Ireland and many landed in Ohio. They worked initially in the canal and railroad industries. By the year 1900, “more than forty languages could be heard on the streets of Cleveland”. Other immigrants included Welsh, Italian, Russian, and Poles. In addition, by 1900, it is estimated that 4.4% of Cincinnati was African American who mostly migrated north from the southern regions of the United States