Helpful Websites

African American Heritage

African American Heritage is a digital resource exclusively devoted to African American family history research. This collection was created in partnership with leading African American genealogists and recognized leaders in genealogical information to develop a comprehensive mix of resources, records, and tools specifically pertaining to African Americans.

Akron-Summit County Public Library Special Collections Genealogy and Local History

Includes a link to digital quarterly newsletter on local history and genealogy topics, from Akron-Summit County Public Library

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the American Jim Crow South

A selection of 410 recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Bowling Green State University

Genealogical research aids, including manuscript collections and local government for Northwest Ohio counties.

Caring for Private and Family Collections, Northeast Document Conservation Center

From the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Caring for Your Family Archives, National Archives

Chronicling America

Historic American newspapers, from the Library of Congress. Includes some Trumbull County papers.

Civil War Archives, Regimental Index

Union Regimental Information compiled from The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and a variety of other sources.

Cleveland Public Library

CPL’s genealogy page, with books and search guides.

Cyndi's List

Categorized genealogy links, forms, and other resources.

Digital Library on American Slavery

Provides access to the Race and Slavery Petitions Project, the North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database and Slavery Era Insurance Registries databases.

Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Public Library of America is a union catalog for public domain and openly licensed content held by the nation’s archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.

Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter

Daily historical and genealogical articles and news aggregator, complete with social networking links.

Ellis Island Online

Passenger records from Ellis Island, 1892-1924.

Family Search

Database of records, family trees, and other resources; free to use.

Find-a-Grave

Search for graves of ancestors, cemetery information, and related records.

Freedmen’s Bureau Records

The contents of the Freedmen’s Bureau are accessible online, making available millions of records that contain the names of hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved individuals and Southern white refugees.

General Register Office, Original Vital Records for England and Wales (1837-)

Where to order birth, marriage, death, and other records from England and Wales.

HeritageQuest

HeritageQuest Online is an essential collection of genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, with coverage dating back as early as the 1700s. The collection provides a comprehensive treasury of genealogical sources rich in unique records, local and family histories, and finding-aids.

International African American Museum

The IAAM’s Center for Family History contains digitized collections of colored troops’ pension files, Bible records, marriage records, obituaries and funeral programs, and ancestor photo archive and more.

Ireland General Register Office, Original Civil Vital Records (1864-)

Where to order birth, marriage, death, and other records from Ireland.

Lowcountry Africana

African American genealogy in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, including genealogies of South Carolina slaveholders and records of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

National Archive Veterans Service Records

Request military service records, learn about researching military records

National Archives Genealogy Resources

Census, immigration, and other records and guides.

Ohio Adoption Records

How to request adoption records from the Ohio Department of Health

Ohio Death Records and Indexes

Guide to finding obituaries, cemetery burials, and death records.

Ohio Genealogical Society

Information about the resources and events of OGS, plus access to many free databases.

Ohio History Connection

Formerly the Ohio Historical Society; events and news on Ohio history topics.

Ohio History Connection's Select Ohio Public Records Index

No description given.

Ohio Marriages 1789-2013

Over 4.7 million names indexed from marriage records collected from the probate courts of all the Ohio counties.

Ohio Memory Project

Ohio Memory is the collaborative digital library of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio, which includes collections from more than 360 cultural heritage institutions from all of Ohio’s 88 counties.  It can be searched by subject, name or contributor.

Ohio Public Records Index

Search for and request copies of death certificates for certain time ranges.

Ohio Soldiers' & Sailors' Orphans' Home

Records on children applying to live in the home from 1877-1919.

Ohio Veterans Homes

The Ohio Veterans Homes are a State of Ohio establishment comprised of three facilities—a nursing home located in Georgetown, and a nursing home and a domiciliary located in Sandusky.

Probate Court of Cuyahoga County

Allows docket search for marriages, estates, guardianships, trusts, etc.

Probate Court of Hamilton County

Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County

Genealogy research and contact information for Mahoning County.

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Ohio Obituary Index

An index to over 3,000,000 obituaries, death & marriage notices & other sources from Ohio from the 1810s to the present day.

Slave Voyages

This digital memorial offers access to documentation available about the slave trade. Analyze these slave trades and view interactive maps, timelines, and animations to see the dispersal in action.

Small Town Papers

Over 250 free small town papers, dating back to 1846.

Soldiers and Sailors Database

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Other information on the site includes histories of Union and Confederate regiments, links to descriptions of significant battles, and selected lists of prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, which will be amended over time.

Stark County Recorder

Searchable archives; requires free registration.

Terminology and Meanings of Genealogical Terms

Alphabetical listing of genealogical abbreviations and terms, antiquated illnesses and occupations, nicknames and other words.

Trumbull County Archives

Houses Trumbull County maps, deeds, and other records.

Trumbull County cemetery records, plats vol 1 1800-1930

Trumbull County cemetery records, plats vol 2 1800-1930

U.S. Genealogy Records Directory

The directory lists 1,142,393 record sources from 1,528 websites and archives. All sources have been organized by state, county, city, and record type. Only actual genealogy records are listed. Both online and archive sources are included.

USGenWeb

Free genealogy websites listed by state.

Virginia Death Indexing, Library of Virginia

A fully-searchable index to Virginia city and county death registers compiled 1853-1896. This is an on-going project sponsored by the Virginia Genealogical Society. Fifteen cities and counties have been indexed to date. The death registers are available on microfilm.

Virginia Military Dead Database

The database honors Virginian veterans from the French & Indian War through the Iraq War and in peacetime.  Entries include name, gender, race, county or city, conflict, branch of service, date of death, listed residence, regiment, rank, cause of death, place of death, and information source.

Virginia Untold

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture launched Unknown No Longer in 2011 to make accessible biographical details of enslaved Virginians from unpublished historical records in its collections. The site provided researchers with the ability to discover information on ancestors not found in other sources. Beginning in 2019 the content is available through the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Untold: African American Narrative, providing users with access to an expanded collection of resources for researching African American history in Virginia.

West Virginia Death Certificates

Searchable death records by county through 1963.

West Virginia Vital Records

The Vital Research Records Project is placing Birth, Death, and Marriage certificates on-line.  Users can search the records and view scanned images of the original records.  Certified copies of these records are available only from the issuing county or the West Virginia Vital Registration Office.

Western Reserve Historical Society

Library Collections Search

Where to write for Vital Records

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).