Providing free online genealogical & historical information

OHGenWeb is an association of dedicated volunteers whose goal is to provide online genealogical information at no cost to the visitor.

You will find all 88 counties in Ohio represented here. We are totally non-commercial and all information you will find in the county sites is free.

Unlike other non-commercial concerns, we never solicit funds to continue operating. However, we continually solicit donations of information, photos, documents and time. To provide information regarding a specific county, contact that county's coordinator. To volunteer to adopt a county, contact your State Coordinator ~ Maggie Stewart Zimmerman.

What resources might you find here?

  • Transcribed census records, tombstones, deed records, etc.
  • Local courthouse and government offices information
  • Local Genealogical and Historical Society information
  • Local Historical Maps
  • Surnames of others researching similar family names
  • Possible ancestor photos,and or historical landscape photos

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Volunteer Information

Volunteers needed:

For folks wishing to volunteer for The OHGenWeb Project, there are several ways in which one may help. If you are interested in coordinating a county website, first check to see if the particular county or state is "Up for Adoption." If you find that it is, you should contact the State Coordinator regarding adoption of the county.

Also located on the National Resources page is a link to The Archives Project. This is where you can submit all types of data - wills, probate records, biographies, etc. This is a very useful site in that the data is searchable by surname.

If you have quite a bit of information regarding a specific county or counties, but a coordinator is already in place, you might consider contacting the county coordinator to offer your help as an assistant coordinator. Or, you could offer any data of a general nature related to the county in question. For instance, a transcribed index to a county history, a listing of churches with addresses, marriages, a bibliographic listing related to the county, etc. Most any data that falls in the realm of public domain type documents would be welcomed.

In addition, if you have vital records information or references related to a specific region, you might consider volunteering to do look-ups. If you are interested, you should contact the coordinator of the appropriate county(ies).

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Brief History of Ohio

The settling of Ohio began in 1788 with the arrival of 48 members of an expedition sponsored by the Ohio Company, a group that purchased more than one and a half million acres of the Northwest Territory by Congress. They chose what would become the city of Marietta as their first settlement.

The Ohio Company’s mission was helped along when General Anthony Wayne negotiated the Treaty of Greenville with the Native Americans in 1795. This treaty opened the door for settlement in much of the eastern and southern parts of the territory. Within three years, the male population of the area reached 5,000.

At that point, as provided for under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the settlers were given the right to elect a house of representatives. The first meeting of the legislature met in Cincinnati in 1799 and the body elected Edward Tiffin as Speaker of the House and William Henry Harrison as the territory’s representative to Congress.

The area that would soon be officially known as the State of Ohio continued to grow in population. In 1802, Congress passed a bill that authorized the formation of a state government in Ohio, and in 1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union as the 17th state.

From "o HI' o Defined", published by the office of the Ohio Secretary of State