Searching Ohio

If your ancestors settled in Ohio in the late 1700's early 1800's, you're in for some fun. To understand things you'll need a couple of documents. The first one is The Growth and Development of Ohio's Counties: 1777-1851. It explains when each county came into being. As a hint, the first county was Washington County which was formed about 1788. During this time Washington County was HUGE. About a third of what is today the State of Ohio. In 1790, Hamilton County was formed. It ran from west of the Scioto River as far north as the present Michigan line. Those two counties were the start of Ohio.

If your ancestors stopped and stayed in Washington or Hamilton county, please realize they might not have moved around as much as it appears when tracing them. Today there are 88 counties in Ohio. In 1799 there were five counties in Ohio. By 1801 there were 9 counties. By 1803 there were 17 counties. Between 1804 and 1810, twenty-five new counties were added. By 1824 there were another 31 counties added. Things slow down a bit. Between 1825-1845 only 8 new counties were added and between 1846-1851 only 7 new counties.

What one needs to remember, by 1799, every chunk of land in Ohio belonged to one of the five counties present at that time. The other 83 counties are a result of counties being split due to the growing population. My guesstimate, since I'm not sure about my Ohio geography, is the original Washington County ended up being around 30 counties.

Now, what if your ancestors were in Washington County, Ohio. I feel your pain. I really do.

To help clear things up, please read this: Historical & Genealogy "Notes" of all Washington County, Ohio Townships 1788-1880. It's 28 pages and I printed a copy off. I refer to it time and again. Thank you to Debbie Noland Nitsche for compiling all this information. It's saved me so many times.

Why do you need to know all this? After all, you should be able to pick up the phone and call someone in one of the Ohio Historical Societies and they can just tell you what you want to know, right? Wrong. They will know about the county where they live today. It's safe to assume that when the last of the counties were formed, in 1888, no one working or volunteering for any Historical Society in Ohio was born yet.

I know they're supposed to know all about their great state, and they know a lot about it. But each time a county line moved or township dissolved to form a new county is beyond what any of us should expect them to retain in their memory. Especially since it happened before they were born. Long before they were born.

This last map is why it's important to know some Ohio history if your ancestors were in Washington County. I hope you can make it large enough to read. But the whole picture is Washington County in 1810. And even then, it's nothing like the size it was in 1788. The colored area of this map is present day Washington County.

In my case, my ancestors lived in Roxbury and Waterford Townships. In 1851 Roxbury Township was dissolved. Part of it went to Palmer Township in Washington County. The rest of it went to help form Morgan and Nobel Counties. A large chunk of Waterford went to Morgan and I'm not sure where else.

It is up to us, the genealogist, to know some of the history of the areas we're researching. We want to find our ancestors. While everyone I've talked to at the local historical societies are very helpful, our search for specific people is more important to us than it is to them.

Knowing what I know about the history of Washington County has helped me connect the dots with my own ancestors. When I see a death certificate of an ancestor that states they were born in Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio, I know it's the same ancestor who was really born in Waterford Township, Washington County, Ohio. When she was born, it was Waterford Twp. About a decade after her birth that same spot was Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio.

The records, if the events happened when they required records to be kept, could be found in either county, or in neither.

The point is, if you don't know that chunk of land changed counties, there's a chance you won't ever find the proof you need.