Defiance County, OhioEdit This Page

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Guide to Defiance County Ohio genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

	Ohio Online Records

Defiance County, Ohio
Map
Location of Ohio in the U.S.
Courthouse
Address	Defiance County Courthouse 500 Court St. Defiance, Ohio 43512-2157 Defiance County Website

Historical Facts

• Parent Counties: Formed from Henry, Paulding and Williams Counties 4 March 1845.^[1]
• County Seat: Defiance
• Neighboring Counties: Defiance County, Ohio residents may also have records in ^[2]Williams (north) · Henry (east) · Paulding (south) · Putnam (southeast) · Allen County, Indiana (west)

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Defiance County boundary changes.

Record Loss

Resources

Bible Records

Biography

Business Records and Commerce

Cemeteries

BillionGraves (Headstone photos, Google map, transcriptions, searchable database, both by individual cemetery and the entire site):

• Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery, Defiance
• Evansport Cemetery, Defiance
• Hire Cemetery, Defiance
• Independence Cemetery, Defiance
• Marysdale Catholic Cemetery, Ney
• New Saint Johns Methodist Cemetery, Defiance
• Ney Cemetery, Ney
• Old Saint Johns Methodist Cemetery, Defiance
• Pleasant Bend and Ayersville Cemetery, Defiance
• Riverview Memory Gardens, Defiance
• Saint Michaels Catholic Cemetery, Defiance
• Taylor Cemetery, Defiance

Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

See Ohio Cemeteries for more information.

Census

 Church Records

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Ohio denominations, view the Ohio Church Records wiki page.

Catholic

• 1796–2004 Ohio, Diocese of Toledo, Catholic Parish Records, 1796-2004 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free. This collection includes images of parish registers recording the events of baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage, and death in the Diocese of Toledo (Ohio), Roman Catholic Church. These records are accessed by browsing the images by county. In addition to traditional parish registers, this collection includes miscellaneous cemetery records, Books of the Elect, Professions of Faith, Sick Call registers, etc.
  

Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

Additional church records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Defiance County, Ohio Church Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Court Records

Emigration and Immigration

Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups

Gazetteers

Genealogy

History

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See Ohio Land and Property for additional information about early Ohio land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

Maps

Military

• Civil War
  Civil War service men from Defiance County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Defiance County.

- 100th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Company D

- 111th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Companies E and F

Naturalization and Citizenship

Newspapers

Defiance County, Ohio newspapers may contain genealogical value including obituaries, births, marriages, deaths, anniversaries, family gatherings, family travel, achievements, business notices, engagement information, and probate court proceedings.

To access newspapers, contact public libraries, Ohio Genealogical Society chapters, college or university libraries, the Library of Congress, Google News, or the Ohio Historical Society. The Ohio Genealogical Society Obituary Database is another source of newspaper information.

For more Ohio newspaper information see the Newspaper Guides on the wiki page Ohio Newspapers.

Obituaries

Periodicals

Probate

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Defiance County, Ohio Probate Court. From 1797 or the creation of the county, probate records were held by the Court of Common Pleas. Most counties transferred all records to the Probate Court, but in some circumstances, Court of Common Pleas records should be searched for records prior to 1852. Most records are housed at the Defiance County, Ohio Courthouse. Some records are on microfilm at the Ohio Genealogical Society and the Family History Library. For more complete information about the location of county probate records see:

• Carol Willsey Bell, Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index (1981). ^[3] FamilySearch Books Online - Free online copy.
  

See the wiki page Ohio Probate Records for information about how to use probate records.

Content: Probate Records may give the decedent's date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their place of residence.

Record types: Wills, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, marriage, adoption, and birth and death records (1867-1908 only).

Public Records

Repositories

Courthouse

Defiance County Courthouse
510 Court Street
Defiance, OH 43512-2157
Phone: 419.782.4761 

County Recorder has birth and death records 1867-1908,
marriage records from 1845, land records from 1843,
probate records from 1845, divorce and court records 1800’s,
naturalization records 1872-1903 and military discharge records
1865-1973; County Health Department has birth and death records
from 1908^[1]

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Libraries

Museums

Societies

Taxation

Vital Records

Vital records consist of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. Although Ohio enacted a statute in 1856 -1857 requiring registration of births, deaths and marriages, many did not comply. A second law was written in 1867 but, again, was not always followed. By 1908, the law was more clearly defined and kept. Any existing birth and death records from 1867 through December 19, 1908 are located at the Defiance County, Ohio Probate Court. The Ohio Department of Health has birth records filed after December 20, 1908 and death records filed after January 1, 1954 while the Ohio Historical Society houses death records from December 20, 1908 through December 31, 1953.

Original marriage records are held at the office of the Defiance County, Ohio Probate Court with divorce records located with the Defiance County, Ohio Clerk of Courts.

Birth

Marriage

Death

• Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as birth date of deceased, city, county, and state of death, name of spouse if married, names of parents, maiden name of mother, name of informant, if deceased was single, married, windowed or divorced, occupation of deceased.

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog

Places

Populated Places

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), [FHL book 973 D27e 2002].
2. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Defiance County, Ohio" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_County,_Ohio (accessed 10 May 2012).
3. ↑ Carol Willsey Bell, Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index (Columbus, Ohio: the author, 1981). FamilySearch Books Online - Free online copy.

• This page was last modified on 17 May 2013, at 01:25.
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