Preble County, OhioEdit This Page

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

	Ohio Online Records

Preble County, Ohio
Map
Location of Ohio in the U.S.
Courthouse
Address	Preble County Courthouse 101 East Main St. Eaton, Ohio Preble County Website

Historical Facts

• Parent Counties: Formed from Butler and Montgomery Counties in 1808.
  
• County Seat: Eaton
   
• Neighboring Counties: Preble County, Ohioresidents may also have records in ^[1]Darke (north) · Butler (south) · Franklin County, Indiana (west) · Union County, Indiana (northwest) · Warren (east)  · Montgomery (northeast)

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Preble County boundary changes.

Record Loss

Resources

Bible Records

Biography

Business Records and Commerce

Cemeteries

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.

Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

Additional church records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Preble 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

Genealogical & Historical Records of Preble County contains the scanned images of obituary and marriage records of Preble County and new records are added on a regular basis.

Miami Valley Genealogy Index is an Index to more than a half million pointers to records all over Miami Valley including Preble County.

History

Local histories are available for Preble County, Ohio. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories see the wiki page section Ohio Local Histories.

Local Histories

• Biographical History of Preble County, Ohio. (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1900)
• History of Preble County, Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions by R. E. Lowry. (Indianpolis, Indiana: B. F. Bowen, c1915. Reprint; Owensboro, Kentucky: Cook & McDowll Publications, 1981)
  
• History of Preble County, Ohio: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, 1798-1881. (Cleveland, Ohio: H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1881)
• Pictorial History of the One-Room Schools of Preble County, Ohio (Evansville, Indiana: M. T. Publishing, 2010)
• Preble County: Celebrating Our Heritage One Township at a Time: 1808-2008 (Eaton, Ohio: Key Printing, 2008)
• Preble County, Ohio.  (Eaton, Ohio: Preble County Historical Society, 1992)
• Visiting our Past 200 Years: The Bicentennial Celebration of Eaton, Ohio 1806-2006. (Eaton, Ohio: The Eaton Bicentennial History Committee, 2006)

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.

• Ohio Historical Inventory for Preble County this resource provides a listing of historical and architectural significant houses and buildings of Preble County.
  

Maps

• Atlas of Preble County, Ohio from Actual Surveys by D. J. Lake (Philadelphia: C. O. Titus, c1871)
  
• Composite Collection of Cadastral Maps of Preble County, Ohio by Seth Schlotterbeck (Eaton, Ohio: Preble County Historical Society, c1978)
• Plat Book of Preble County, Ohio: Compiled from County Records and Actual Surveys.  (Des Moines, Iowa: Northwest Publishing Co., 1912)
  
• Township Maps of Preble County, Ohio: Compiled from County Records and Actual Surveys. (Richmond, Indiana: F. B. Robinson, c1897)

Military

Naturalization and Citizenship

Newspapers

Preble 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.

The following is a list of Preble County newspapers that are available on microfilm and owned by the Preble County District Library (PCDL), unless noted.  The dates/years next to a title are the years available on microflim, and not the years published.

• Camden Gazette (1896-1902)
• Camden Herald (1877-1879)
• Camden Herald and Camden Gazette (1877-1879)
• [Camden] Preble County News (1903-1989)
• [Eaton] Bulletin (1937-1953)
• Eaton Democrat (1854-1856, 1875-1926, 1935-1938)
• [Eaton] Democratic Press (1860-1865)
• [Eaton] Gospel Herald (1847-1848)
• Eaton Herald (1900-1901, 1906-1918)
• Eaton Independent (1873-1874)
• [Eaton] Ohio Graphic (1928-1990) - not ownd by PCDL
• [Eaton] Preble County Democrat (1857-1859)
• [Eaton] Preble County Democrat (1902-1908)
• Eaton Register (1830-1918)  [scattered issues from 1830-1875]
• [Eaton] Register-Herald (1918-Present)
• Eaton Semi-Weekly News (1927-1935)
• Eaton Weekly Democract (1870-1873)
• Eldorado Bee (1898-1901, 1908-1927)
• Eldroado News (1927, 1930-1931)
• Lewisburg Leader (1897-1982)
• New Paris Graphic-Mirror (1958-1962)
• New Paris Mirror (1883-1922, 1930-1931)
• [West Alexandria] Record (1905-1910) - not owned by PCDL
• [West Alexandria] Twin Valley Eco (1899-1931) - not owned by PCDL
• [West Alexandria] Twin Valley News (Microfilm: 1955, 1973-1991; Bound vols: 1954-2010)

Currently published newspapers.

• [Eaton] Register-Herald
• [West Alexandria] Twin Valley News

Obituaries

Periodicals

Probate

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Preble 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 Preble 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). ^[2] 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).

• 1806–1854 Preble County, Ohio Wills Vol. I and Vol. II at Ancestry.com ($) Will Abstracts.

Public Records

Repositories

Courthouse

Preble County Courthouse
100 Main Street
Eaton, OH 45320
Phone: 937.456.8160

Probate Judge has birth and death records from 1867,
probate records from 1800 and marriage records from 1808;
Clerk Court has divorce and court records from 1850;
County Recorder has land records from 1804^[3]

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Libraries

• Preble County Room, houses the genealogical and local history collections of the Preble County District Library.
  

Museums

Societies

• Preble County Genealogical Society
• Preble County Historical Soceity

Taxation

Ohio tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses before 1820 or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information see the wiki page Ohio Taxation.

Finding Tax Records at Other Repositories

Additional tax records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Preble County, Ohio Tax Records in online catalogs like:

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

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 Preble 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 Preble County, Ohio Probate Court with divorce records located with the Preble 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.

An excellent source of early marriage and obituary information is the online database entitled Genealogical & Historical Records of Preble County, Ohio, sponsored by the Preble County District Library. A searchable database of marriages, obituaries and some cemetery records links to the actual scanned image of the genealogical and historical documents, which date back into the 1800s.

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog

Places

Populated Places

Cities and Villages

• Camden
• College Corner - currently part in Butler County & Preble County
• Eaton, City of
• Eldorado
• Gratis
• Lewisburg
• New Paris
• Verona - currently part in Montgomery County & Preble County
• West Alexandria
• West Elkton
• West Manchester

Townships

• Dixon
• Gasper
• Gratis
• Harrison
• Israel
• Jackson
• Jefferson
• Lanier
• Monroe
• Somers
• Twin
• Washington

Neighboring Counties

• Butler
• Darke
• Montgomery
• Union County, Indiana
• Wayne County, Indiana

References

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Preble County, Ohio" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preble_County,_Ohio (accessed 10 May 2012).
2. ↑ Carol Willsey Bell, Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index (Columbus, Ohio: the author, 1981). FamilySearch Books Online - Free online copy.
3. ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Preble County, Ohio. Page 545 At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.

• This page was last modified on 17 May 2013, at 19:37.
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