Darke County, Ohio Genealogical Records Information

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Darke County History and Information

Darke County Facts

Darke County was created on January 3, 1809 (Organized in 1817) and was formed from Miami County. The County was named for General William Darke, an officer in the American Revolutionary War. The County Seat is Greenville . See also County History for more historical details.

The Health Department has Birth & Death Records from 1908-Present, see the Vital Records section for more details. For birth and death records prior to Dec. 20, 1908, contact the Probate Court of this county.

Counties adjacent to Darke County are Mercer County (north), Shelby County ( northeast), Miami County (east), Montgomery County (southeast), Preble County (south), Wayne County, Indiana (southwest), Randolph County, Indiana (west), Jay County, Indiana (northwest).

Darke County Municipalities Include Greenville, Ansonia, Arcanum, Bradford, Burkettsville, Castine, Gettysburg, Gordon, Hollansburg, Ithaca, New Madison, New Weston, North Star, Osgood, Palestine, Pitsburg, Rossburg, Union City, Versailles, Wayne Lakes, Yorkshire. Townships Include Adams, Allen, Brown, Butler, Franklin, Greenville, Harrison, Jackson, Liberty, Mississinawa, Monroe, Neave, Patterson, Richland, Twin, Van Buren, Wabash, Washington, Wayne, York. Other localities Include Beamsville, Dawn, Stelvideo

The Darke County Official Government Website
Search the Ohio USGenWeb Archives
Darke County, Virginia History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Darke County Courthouse

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

All Departments below are in the Darke County Courthouse 4th & Broadway, Greenville 45331, (937) 547-7300, unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.darke.oh.us/ . NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Darke County Clerk of Probate Court has Marriage Records from 1817, Birth / Death Records from 1851 and Probate Records from 1818 and is located at the Courthouse. Phone Number: (937) 547-7300
The Probate Court handles the following administrative functions: the probating of wills, estate administrations (full estates and releases from administration), trusts, guardianships of incompetent adults and minors, commitment hearings for the mentally ill and mentally challenged, adoptions, birth corrections, name changes, delayed birth registrations, custodial accounts, lost heir accounts, order disinterments, and issues marriage licenses. In addition, the Court tries litigation issues in all the above matters. A unique aspect of the Probate Court is that the Probate Judge is the ex-officio Clerk of Courts, thus, the Court performs all the duties as its own Clerk of Courts (indexing, filing, docketing, etc.).

Darke County Recorder has Land Records from 1822 and is located at 504 South Broadway, Greenville, OH 45331; Phone: 937-547-7390; Email: sonnerj@core.com
In Ohio, the Recorder, as an elected official, is charged by law with the exacting duty of keeping certain specific records which may include: deeds, mortgages, financing statements, easements, leases, federal tax liens, personal tax liens, military discharges, powers of attorney, mechanics liens, plats, recognizance liens, partnerships, living wills, zoning resolutions, etc.

Darke County Clerk of Court of Common Pleas has Court Records from 1817 and is located at 300 Garst Ave, Greenville, OH 45331; (937) 547-7345
The Clerk of Courts of Common Pleas is responsible for various administrative and ministerial duties in conjunction with the Court of Common Pleas. These duties include filing, docketing, indexing, and preserving all court pleadings for civil, felony criminal and domestic relations cases. The Clerk of Courts must also follow procedure required by law and issues writs to carry out Court orders. Some of these writs include summons, subpoenas, warrants to arrest and to convey to penal institutions, and signing the death warrant in capital cases. The Clerk is responsible for the receipt and disbursement of all money paid into the court system. Other services provided by the Clerk of Court of Common Pleas are accepting bonds, recording notary commissions, administering oaths, keeping naturalization records, and recording and retention of coroner records.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include:Ohio Land Records and Ohio Early Land Ownership Records.

Click Here to Search Ohio Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Darke County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Darke County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Ohio Marriages: Extracted from the Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly
Ohio Marriages, 1803-1900: This database contains records of marriages that took place in Ohio between 1803 and 1900.
Darke County, Ohio Court Books at Amazon.com
Ohio Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Darke County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Tax records for Ohio began as early as 1800. The archives section of the Ohio Historical Society has a collection of original Ohio tax lists from the state auditor's office. They include lists from the county's organization to 1838, usually arranged by county and township. They are not indexed. County courthouses hold various tax records that have not been inventoried. They are in the office of the county auditor or the county records manager. The FHL has microfilm copies of all known extant tax records 1800-38 for Ohio.

The National Archives-Great Lakes Region retains numerous federal tax records for Ohio. These include assessment books for 1867-73 and corporate and personal records for District 10, Toledo, and District 11, Columbus.

Below is a list of online resources for Darke County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Darke County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Darke County, Ohio Tax Books at Amazon.com

Darke County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Ohio Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Darke County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Darke County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Darke County Chapter, OGS, PO Box 908, Greenville, OH 45331-0908; Darke County Chapter, OGS meets at Garst Museum at 2:00pm. Call (937) 526-3953 for meeting dates., E-mail: ahuffman@wesnet.com
Local Ohio Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Ohio Historical Society, Archives-Library Division,1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211; Telephone: 614-297-2300
The Ohio Historical Society Archives/Library is, by law, the archives for the State of Ohio. As such, we collect, preserve, and make available to the public, documents pertaining to the operation of state and local governments.
Ohio Genealogical Society, 713 S. Main St, Mansfield, OH 44907-1644;(419) 756-7294, [EMAIL]
Columbus Metropolitan Library, Genealogy Division, 96 S. Grant Ave., Columbus, OH 43215. 614-645-2ASK (2275);The Genealogy Division holds microfilm; printed, typescript, and manuscript collections, including family and local histories; atlases; cemetery records; city directories; military records; censuses and census indexes; and transcribed records provided by the Ohio chapters of the DAR.
Ohio Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Ohio Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Darke County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Ohio Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Darke County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Darke County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Religion in Ohio was an early and important factor in settlement. The first Moravian mission was established in 1772. Presbyterians and Quakers were in the state at an early date, the latter having established forty-three monthly meetings and settlements between 1801 and 1883. The Presbyterians founded seventeen towns between 1784 and 1799. Baptists, Congregationalists, several reformed groups, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ, United Brethren, Methodists, and Catholics arrived prior to 1850. By 1890 the latter two denominations were the largest in the state. The Methodist circuit in Ohio was organized in 1798, with circuit riders traveling from log cabins to camp meetings across the territory. In 1831 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints migrated from New York to Kirtland in Lake County. No thorough survey exists of any of the holdings of individual churches in Ohio, although many are on microfilm through the FHL. The Ohio Genealogical Society is presently undertaking a church records survey.

According to the Ohio Genealogical Society, the majority of Ohio counties have published cemetery records in one form or another. They suggest contacting local societies or one of the major genealogical libraries in the state.

Below is a list of online resources for Darke County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Darke County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Ohio Cemetery Records: Extracted from the Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly
Darke County Burials 1928-1996 not complete, but has many entries
Darke County, Ohio Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Darke County, Ohio Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Ohio Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Darke County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Darke County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Darke County ] [ Ohio ] [ Main Page ]
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Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Darke County, Ohio Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

On January 3, 1809, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Darke County. Residents named the county in honor of General William Darke, a hero of the American Revolution. In 1795, General Anthony Wayne and the chiefs of thirteen Indian tribes signed the Treaty of Greeneville, forcing the natives to move to the northwestern corner of what would become Ohio. The sides signed the treaty at Fort Greene Ville, located in modern-day Darke County.

Darke County is located in the western part of Ohio. Its western border helps form the boundary between Ohio and Indiana. The county seat is Greenville, which is the largest city in the county with a population of 13,294 people in 2000. Approximately eighty-five percent of Darke County’s six hundred square miles are covered in farms. Only 1.3 percent of the county is deemed to be urban. The county averages almost eighty-nine people living in each square mile. Between 1995 and 2000, the county experienced a three-tenths of one percent drop in population, a trend that holds true for many of Ohio’s more rural counties, as residents seek better opportunities in the state’s larger cities. In 2000, the county’s residents numbered 53,309 people.

Most of Darke County’s residents find employment in agricultural positions. In the state, the county ranks first in corn and soybean production and second in hog raising. Manufacturing, retail, and service positions finish second, third, and fourth respectively. In 1999, the per capita income was 23,678 dollars, with just over seven percent of the county’s residents living below the poverty level.

Greenville is the county seat of Darke County, Ohio. It is located on the site of Fort Greene Ville. In late 1793, Anthony Wayne ordered the construction of Fort Greene Ville, named for his friend and comrade in the American Revolution, Nathanael Greene. Wayne’s army was marching against the Native Americans of the Ohio Country and was seeking to punish them for St. Clair’s Defeat in 1791. The fortification was located roughly five miles north of Fort Jefferson. It had walls that were ten feet high, and the stockade enclosed roughly fifty acres of land. Wayne used Fort Greene Ville as his winter encampment during the winter of 1793-1794 and as a staging area and supply depot for his campaign in 1794.

Following his victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, Wayne worked from the fort to encourage natives along the Maumee River to negotiate. With such a sizable American force nearby and the failure of their British allies to assist them, many tribal chiefs made their way to Fort Greene Ville seeking peace terms. The two sides formally signed the Treaty of Greeneville on August 3, 1795, bringing a brief peace to the Ohio Country. As more white Americans moved into Ohio, some would violate the treaty’s provisions and move onto land in northwestern Ohio reserved for the natives. Warfare quickly began again as a result.

The city of Greenville was officially founded in August 1808, although whites had lived in the vicinity for several years before this date. The town grew slowly, having only eight hundred inhabitants by 1840. In 1846, the town contained four churches, one newspaper office, one flour mill, and sixteen retail stores. Over the next three decades, Greenville grew rapidly. The city had 3,535 residents in 1880 and boasted five newspapers, three banks, and six churches. Many of the residents were of German ancestry. Several local businesses produced machinery, wagons, or lumber. Famous markswoman Annie Oakley once resided in Greenville.

During the twentieth century, Greenville served as the main metropolitan center of Darke County. Most of the county’s residents worked as farmers, with Greenville’s residents providing various services to their neighbors in the surrounding countryside. In 2000, Greenville was the largest city in the county with a population of 13,294 people. The site of Fort Greene Ville is now a public park in City of Greenville.

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