BlockOhio local-history research starter guide
Start local and work outward: address or place, township or city, county, then statewide repositories. Keep a research log with the repository, collection, call number or identifier, date accessed, and the exact record you viewed.
A careful starting sequence
- Identify the correct county, municipality, and township for the period you are researching. Boundaries and names can change.
- Ask the county recorder, probate court, auditor, public library, and local historical society which original series they hold and how access works.
- Use Ohio History Connection resources to identify relevant historic places and records. Its Online Mapping System has qualified and paid access conditions, and its site notes that forms are not provided there.
- Use digitized maps, city directories, newspapers, and county histories as leads, then cite the underlying image or catalogue record rather than an unsourced transcription.
Work with your copies
If you download a public-domain scan, make a working copy for notes while retaining its repository citation.
Open a scanned document in PDFb2