Following
are descriptions of the several record books and other materials that have been
photographed and made into CDs. For a full
listing of the availability and price of these CDs, click
here. For a printable CD order form,
click here.
Index to major categories of CDs
Multiple Treasures of Monroe County
Courthouse
Design and Engineering Prints
There are 4 Birth Record Books in the
From these Birth Record Books, you can usually discover the following:
Birth name of the individual
Exact date of birth
Place of birth including state, county and township
Sex of the individual
Names of the individual’s parents
Maiden name of the mother
Residence of the parents
Person reporting the birth
During
the period between 1867 and 1908 every birth in the County was recorded in a
Birth Record book. A record of every
birth was made by an assessor for the township in which the birth
occurred. Periodically the assessor
brought the names of births that he had collected to the
Most
clerks had reasonably good handwriting so that it is possible to easily read
entries. In some cases where the
handwriting becomes difficult to read, it is frequently possible to figure it
out by enlarging the view and/or by looking elsewhere among other entries made
by the same clerk for a similar character that was used in a word where its
interpretation is more obvious.
As
a result of the procedure of an assessor collecting the names of births in his
township, the names appear in the County record books in batches as presented
by a single assessor. They are not
necessarily in chronological or alphabetical order. Since a single record book was used for
several years, however, the names progress roughly in chronological order. That is, the earlier years are in the front
of the book and progress in time to the latest years being recorded toward the
back of the book. Throughout the book
there are many switch-backs in time.
That is, a successive entry may carry an earlier date. Such occurrences may represent the start of a
collection from a different assessor. It
may also mark an attempt by a clerk to alphabetically order names on a list
they are working with at the time.
Overall, a researcher should not assume that the name of their subject
is not recorded without carefully looking through all the names in an
alphabetical section or for the full period of the birth year.
Each
birth entry contains a considerable amount of information. It almost always contains the full name of
the individual who was born. There are a
few exceptions to this, however. In some
few cases, the child may not have been named at birth. Usually, however, the date of birth is
recorded by year, month, and day. The
place of birth is almost always given. The record almost always includes the
name of the parents. Most frequently the
mother’s maiden name will be given. The
location of the parent’s residents is given.
Finally, the name of the reporter, usually the assessor, is given.
In 1908 the responsibility
for maintaining birth and death records was shifted from the
Even though the Health
Department assumed the responsibility of maintaining birth and death records,
it appears that the Probate Court continued to maintain both birth and death
record books. Two of these Birth Record
Books have been found in the library of the
Birth
Record Book # 4 covering the dates 1921 – 1940 and the Birth Record Book # 5
covering the dates 1940 – 1970 are located in the library of the
From these Birth Record Books/CDs, you can usually discover the following:
Birth name of the individual
Exact date of birth
Place of birth including state, county and township
Sex of the individual
Names of the individual’s parents
Maiden name of the mother
Residence of the parents
Person reporting the birth
In
the years 2004 - 2005 the Health Department conducted a project to better
organize birth and death records. In
addition, they undertook the monumental task of transcribing some of the data
from the birth records into a computerized index. This task is now complete. The computerized index has been further
organized into a database that is now available on a CD from the
Specific data available on
the CD are:
Full birth name of the individual
Exact date of birth
Township of birth
Volume Number (Number of volume in Health Department
containing birth record)
An
example of a portion of a page from this book/CD can be seen if you Click Here.
There are 2 Death Record Books in the
From the Death Record Book, you can usually discover the
following:
Name of the individual
Sex of the individual
Exact date of death
Condition – meaning Married, Single, or Widowed
Age at death
Place of death
Place of birth
Occupation
Names of the individual’s parents
Color (meaning race)
Cause of death
Place of residence
Person reporting the death
Most of the comments made above under “Birth Record
Books” also apply to death records. In
addition to lists of names supplied by assessors, some lists were supplied by
doctors. The results were the same,
however. Lists of names were recorded
into the
Comments made in the section above on “Birth Record Books” regarding the quality of record entries by the court clerks apply equally to the “Death Record Books.”
The “Index to Deaths, Book
# 1” is a unique book that was found in the library of the
Specific data available on
the CD are:
Name of the individual
Age at death
Place of death
Exact date of death
An
example of a page from this book/CD can be seen if you Click Here.
Death Roster Index
1908 - 2005
In
the years 2004 - 2005 the Health Department conducted a project to better
organize death records. In addition,
they undertook the monumental task of transcribing some of the data from the
death records into a computerized index.
This task is now complete. The
computerized index has been further organized, by the
The “Death Roster Index
1908-2005” is available on a CD.
Specific data available on
the CD are:
Full name of the individual
Exact date of death
Place of death
Volume reference number of
death certificate
An
example of a page from this book/CD can be seen if you Click Here.
One of the most informative sources of information for historical and
genealogical research is the collection of legal records maintained in the
office of the Clerk of Courts. Many
citizens required the services of the court system sometime in their lifetime. Each interaction was duly recorded by the
system and provides insight into some aspect of the life of that person. The challenge for the researcher becomes one
of finding the needed material within the volumes in the archives.
These are CDs of the Federal Census
for the
Reverse Index to Judgments – Court of Common Pleas (1815 -
1877)
This Reverse Index to Judgments covers the period 1815 through
1877. Many 1878 cases are also
included. This index is the product of
work by several oil companies who did legal research in
An important document in the quest for historical and genealogical
information in the office of the Clerk of Courts is the “Reverse Index to
Judgments – Court of Common Pleas.” The Reverse Index to Judgments provides an
approximate date of the legal case, names the parties involved, and other
records within the office where additional information may be found.
Appearance Docket 1862 – 1868 (Book # 12)
On
this CD can be found photographs of each page of the “Appearance Docket” for
the years 1862 through 1868. This
Appearance Docket is further identified as Book # 12. There are 492 pages of cases with each page
usually containing two cases.
This
Appearance Docket contains all of the cases that were brought to the Court of
Common Pleas between 1862 and 1868. Each
case was recorded and a case number assigned.
The nature of the case was noted.
The Plaintiff(s) and Defendant(s) names were recorded. The Docket’s subsequent entries are a log of
all filings in the case. Entries usually
provide additional details about the case and frequently will indicate the
outcome.
Further
details about the case can usually be found in other court documents. However, the Appearance Docket is sufficient
to let researchers discover whether an ancestor was involved in a suit, with
whom, in what role, and frequently the outcome of the contest.
Appearance Docket 1881 – 1883 (Book # 17)
On
this CD can be found photographs of each page of the “Appearance Docket” for
the years 1881 through 1883. This
Appearance Docket is further identified as Book # 17. There are 400 pages of cases with each case
usually requiring one page.
This
Appearance Docket contains all of the cases that were brought to the Court of
Common Pleas between 1881 and 1883. Each
case was recorded and a case number assigned.
The nature of the case was noted.
The Plaintiff(s) and Defendant(s) names were recorded. The Docket’s subsequent entries are a log of
all filings in the case. Entries usually
provide additional details about the case and frequently will indicate the
outcome.
Further
details about the case can usually be found in other court documents. However, the Appearance Docket is sufficient
to let researchers discover whether an ancestor was involved in a suit, with whom,
in what role, and frequently the outcome of the contest.
Court of Common Pleas,
The
Record Books of the Court of Common Pleas,
In addition to the 24 marriage record books, there are two Marriage Consent Record Books that cover the period of about 1924 – 1940. Prior to 1924 and subsequent to 1940, marriage consent forms were stapled to the marriage applications found in the Marriage Record Books.
When
A limited
number of marriage record books from
A surprisingly large amount of information is available from the Marriage Consent Record Book. These are records of parental or guardian consent to the marriage of their under-aged (under 21 years old) child. From these books you can usually discover the following:
The name of the presiding judge
Name of the individual requiring marriage consent
Age of the individual requiring marriage consent at the
time consent is granted
Name of the consent-giver (usually the parents)
Name of the person with whom the individual
requiring marriage consent will marry
Relationship of the consent-giver to the person
being married
Sex of the individual requiring marriage consent
Date of consent
Signature of consent-giver
Signature of two witnesses (frequently these are
relatives of the future bride or groom)
Notes or letters of consent supplementing the
Marriage Consent Record *
These
are most interesting records. The two
Marriage Consent Record books found in the office of the
* Many of the records of consent were executed
in open court. In many cases a letter or
written declaration of consent was provided by the consent-giver. Many of these are attached to the pages of
the Marriage Consent Record Books. For
the purposes of preparing these CDs these letters and written declarations of
consent were also photographed. They
appear as replicate numbers in the Electronic Index.
It
is surprising whom you might find among the pages of these two Marriage Consent
Record Books!
The 24 Marriage Record Books found in the Probate Court record room cover the period between 1867 through 2002. The early Marriage Record Books required a minimum amount if information from the applicants. But as the years went by, the amount of information greatly increased. From these books you can usually discover the following:
Marriage certificate number
Name of the bride and groom
Signatures of the bride and groom
Date the application for a marriage license was made
Name of person making the application (sometimes not
the bride or groom)
Date the marriage was performed
Name of the presiding judge
Affidavit of the qualification of couple to marry
(age and marital status)
Applicant’s statement regarding previous marriages
The stated age of each member of the wedding couple
(relative to the legal age for marriage)
Name of person performing the marriage (minister,
justice of peace, judge, etc.)
Residence of the applicants
Date of birth and age of applicants
Parents of each applicant
Occupation of each applicant
As
with all of the pages in this CD series, every detail of the application,
affidavit, and the “Return” (the information from the person performing the
marriage) is capture in the picture.
This includes a handwriting specimen of the bride and groom or their “X”
if they could not read or write.
“Nothing
is certain except death and taxes,” according to the old adage. And, wouldn’t you know it, of all the records
in
Landowners name (farm or lot)
Land transfers
Description of property
Number of acres
Value of property
Number and sex of dogs
Road Tax
Delinquent taxes
December tax
June tax
Penalty
Remarks
Several of these tax books are available. You can check which tax-years are now available on CDs by clicking here.
These records can establish the whereabouts of an ancestor within the County if they were landowners. They can also establish the size of the landowner’s holdings and serve as a basis for estimating their net worth.
The annual tax records have been generated since the
early 1830s so about 175 years of records exist. Fortunately, these books escaped the two
disastrous fires of the
The Newspaper is the diary of the County. One of the most difficult things to capture as we do historical and genealogical research is the detail and flavor that characterized the lives of our ancestors. Generally, little has been written about the details of the lives of the people who populated the land back then. The nearest things to written records of the period are the newspapers that were published at the time. These papers frequently provide great detail about not only the important events of the day but also information about what was then trivia. Examples might be such information as who visited whom on a certain date. Today, such detail can be of great importance to the researcher. While the historical and genealogical content of these newspapers cannot be understated, they also provide hours of interesting and entertaining reading.
The
Several different newspapers were published in
The early
These articles provide a unique and sometimes detailed
look into the history of the County, the individual communities, and indeed
into the lives of many of the County residents.
Through these articles it is frequently possible to get a glimpse into
history that are only equaled by individual letters or the writings of local
historians. These articles are truly
treasures of information.
Anne Strickling was one of the community
authors. Her articles cover a period of
about 27 years. (1949 through 1977) Annie was affiliated with the Buchanan Presbyterian Church located
about 6 miles west of Woodsfield, Ohio on Ohio Route # 78 and much of her
writing centered around the social life of members of the church. She wrote about the comings and goings in the
community near
Anne Strickling wrote under
the name of “Mrs. T.B. Strickling,” her husband’s
name. Anne was born Anne L. Lucas. She married
Three electronic tables are included on the CD for
accessing the contents of Anne’s scrapbooks.
Table 1 contains the links to consecutive pages in the scrapbooks. Scrapbooks are arranged by year. The numbers in red in Table 1 are links to
the year of the scrapbook. The pages of
the scrapbooks are not numbered.
Clicking through the links in Table 1 below is much like selecting a
scrapbook of the indicated year and paging through the book from the first page
through the last.
Tables 2 and 3 are designed to be used together. Together these two tables provide a
chronological ordering of all the entries in the scrapbooks. By clicking on a year in Table 2, you are
taken to that year in Table 3.
Entries in Table 3 are by date (month, day and year). By clicking on a date you are taken to a scrapbook page that has an article bearing that date. On average, each page of the scrapbook has 3 articles.
First United Methodist
The
The
By special arrangement, several of the
The
These Will Books
are being systematically photographed and burned onto CDs. A list of the available
books and the years that each covers can be found by clicking
here.
Several of the
Will Books have been photographed and burned onto CDs and are now available to
the public for research. Since wills are
frequently made years in advance of the demise of the will-maker, it is
sometimes difficult to know which will book may be needed without having access
to the will book or the CD. To
facilitate locating the correct will book for a specific will, a compilation of
the indices of all of the will books that have been put on CDs has been
prepared. This CD provides that
compilation of the indices of all of the will books currently available on CD.
This index is
also useful as a resource to discover if any members in the various branches of
your family prepared a will. Wills are
also a good resource for identifying members of family.
Obituaries –
Obituaries are
excellent sources of information for genealogy research. The generally provide information such as the
date of birth, date of death, family members, place of burial, and much
more. An Obituary Project has been
ongoing for several with the objective of collecting as many obituaries of
Multiple-Treasures of
A collection of 6-essays, 12-pen-and-ink
sketches, and 26-paintings as follows:
by Samuel E. Pfalzgraf
Samuel E. Pfalzgraf
was born October 23, 1875 and died July 26, 1972. He was a school teacher. He published “Let’s Explore Sunfish” in
1939. His subject, Sunfish Creek, is one
of the main streams draining the surface water and springs of
by Harold P. Haley for the Woodsfield Chamber
of Commerce
This 43-page booklet prepared in 1969 by the
Woodsfield Chamber of Commerce is a useful summary of the first 160-year
history of
This
unusual booklet prepared in 1906 provides an excellent picture of the
businesses that made up Woodsfield at that time. One of its most laudable assets is the large
number of pictures it contains of business establishes, business proprietors
and leading citizens of the time.
Notably missing
are any references to County or City government
offices and personnel. It provides a
unique snapshot of life at the turn of the 20th century in
Woodsfield and
1912 Senorian
graduating class of 1912
This
is a beautifully done year book of
Sketches of
by Joanna Diehl
These are photos of a dozen pen-and-ink
sketches created by Joanna Diehl of some of the important Monroe County sites,
most of which can still be seen today.
The sketches appear to have been made from both first-hand observations
and from photographs. Mountable
reproductions of these sketches on a beige background are available from the
Oil Paintings of
by Wilma McCurdy McIntyre
Wilma
McCurdy McIntyre was a woman to be envied.
Her highly active life was characterized by her positive attitude and
inquiring mind. She was witty and sharp
minded before such attributes were considered appropriate in women. She always saw the positive side of any
situation.
Wilma was born on March 21, 1914
to Charles M. and Cora L. Walters McCurdy and lived nearly two decades in
Monroe County,
Wilma died October 3, 2006 at the
age of 92-years and 6-months. While she
chose not to sell her work, she was very generous by giving them away. Several of her prize paintings now hang in
the
Lena
Louise Kahrig Pettit’s curiosity about just how
extensive her family tree might be in Monroe County,
Cut
short by her untimely death,
Lena Kahrig Pettit’s
Obituary Book – edited by
Lena Kahrig Pettit’s
Anniversaries, Births, Engagements, Marriages, etc. Book – edited by
Lena also authored seven family tree books
and an autobiography that are available through the
George
Pfalzgraf & Sophia Kilburn
Philip Christman &
Rosina Pfalzgraf
John Pfalzgraf
& Catherine Christman
Jacob Rubel,
Greenberry Crawford & Barbara Ellen Pfalzgraf
Henry Claus & Elizabeth Ackerman
Christian Kahrig & Elisabetha Neuhart
Oak Lawn Cemetery -
Cemeteries frequently have unique histories. Some
begin as the collective burial site of a family – the family cemeteries. Monroe
County, Ohio has many such cemeteries. Others begin as community burial sites.
Many of these community cemeteries are associated with a church such as the St.
Sylvester cemetery in Woodsfield or the Buchanan Church Cemetery located about
5-miles west of Woodsfield on Ohio State Route 78. Pioneer Cemetery in
Woodsfield was likely a Presbyterian Church cemetery originally. Still other
cemeteries such as the Steed Cemetery located about 2-miles south of Woodsfield
near the intersection of Ohio State Routes 800 and 26 do not appear to have
been affiliated with a church. Steed was a contemporary of the Pioneer Cemetery.
It is a much easier
task to identify or speculate about the beginnings of a cemetery based on
records, newspaper accounts and/or the dates on tombstones found there. It is
difficult to identify a date when a cemetery ceased to be used for new burials,
however, unless the date of the most recent internment is used. Even that date
is uncertain because of the possibility of unmarked graves.
Oak Lawn
Cemetery appears to be a community cemetery with no specific church connection.
In the late 1800s, the Steed and Pioneer cemeteries were becoming full and a
new cemetery for Woodsfield was needed. Oak Lawn Cemetery has since grown to
48-acres and is still an active community cemetery for Woodsfield and
surrounding areas. It employs a full-time caretaker plus several part-time caretakers
to maintain the cemetery in its usual pristine condition. At the time this CD
was generated, the full-time caretaker is Randy Jones. Randy commissioned this
series of 4-CDs of the Oak Lawn and Pioneer Cemeteries as backups to the
current one-of-a-kind record books and as a resource for the planned future
computerization of these cemetery records. [For the clarity of the reader, the
designation of the records included in this CD has been given the number, Book
#1, by the author to distinguish it from the other two companion Oak Lawn
Cemetery books.] The records were photographed and the CDs were constructed and
donated by R.E. Harrington.
Pioneer Cemetery - Pioneer
Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Monroe County. A few private or family
cemeteries predate it but only by about a decade. The only known records of
this cemetery are the fairly recent tombstone inscriptions made in 1985 by
Norris F. Whittaker and Louise Decker Gadea with the
assistance of Sheila Stollar and her son, Corey.
Design & Engineering Prints
Monroe County Courthouse in Woodsfield
Ohio – There have been four Monroe County courthouses.
Three were destroyed by fire. The current courthouse was built in 1906-1908. This
CD is a collection of 26 prints used in its design and construction. The actual
prints are located in the courthouse.
All of the above books are
listed at the following website: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~harringtonfamilies/CD-Status.htm
Index to major categories of CDs
Multiple Treasures of Monroe County
Courthouse
Design and Engineering Prints
Click here for the Short-Cut Table of Contents