Franklin County, Ohio Genealogical Records Information

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Franklin County History and Information

Franklin County Facts

Franklin County was created on March 30, 1803 and was formed from Ross County and Unorganized Land. The County was named for Benjamin Franklin. The County Seat is Columbus . 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 Franklin County are Delaware County (north), Licking County (northeast), Fairfield County (southeast), Pickaway County (south), Madison County (west), Union County (northwest).

Franklin County Municipalities Include Bexley, Columbus, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Grove City, Hilliard, Pickerington, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Westerville, Whitehall, Worthington, Brice, Canal Winchester, Groveport, Harrisburg, Lockbourne, Marble Cliff, Minerva Park, New Albany, Obetz, Riverlea, Urbancrest, Valleyview. Townships Include Blendon, Brown, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Mifflin, Norwich, Perry, Plain, Pleasant, Prairie, Sharon, Truro, Washington. Other localities Include Amlin, Blacklick, Galloway, New Rome

The Franklin County Official Government Website
Search the Ohio USGenWeb Archives
Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin County Courthouse 373 S. High St., Columbus 43215, (614) 462-3322, unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/ . NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Franklin County Clerk of Probate Court has Marriage Records from 1803, Birth / Death Records from 1851 and Probate Records from 1805 and is located on the 22nd Floor. Phone Number: 614-462-3895
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.).

Franklin County Recorder has Land Records from 1800. Phone Number: (614) 462-3930
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.

Franklin County Clerk of Court of Common Pleas has Court Records from 1803 and is on the 23rd Floor. Phone Number: (614) 462-3624.
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 Franklin County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Franklin 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.
Franklin 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.

Franklin 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 Franklin County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Franklin County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Franklin County, Ohio Tax Books at Amazon.com

Franklin 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 Franklin County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Franklin County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Franklin County Chapter, OGS, PO Box 44309, Columbus, OH 43204-0309; meets quarterly at various locations in Columbus. Contact society for dates and times.
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

Franklin 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 Franklin County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Franklin 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 Franklin County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Franklin County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Ohio Cemetery Records: Extracted from the Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly
Franklin County: Columbus News Index Obituary Search 1932-1997 from the Columbus Dispatch
Columbus Dispatch Obituaries Archive, 5/28/2005-Current (you can obtain individual obituaries online for a fee)
Franklin County Veterans Grave Search
Worthington Cemeteries Database - Walnut Grove & Flint Union Cemeteries includes some obituaries
Green Lawn Cemetery Burials 1848-1981 - Columbus, Ohio
Franklin County, Ohio Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Franklin 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 Franklin County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Franklin County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Franklin County ] [ Ohio ] [ Main Page ]
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Ohio Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Franklin County, Ohio Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

On March 30, 1803, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Franklin County. The county originally was part of Ross County. Residents named the county in honor of Benjamin Franklin. In 1816, Franklin County’s Columbus became Ohio’s state capital. Surveyors laid out the city in 1812, and officials incorporated it in 1816. Columbus was not Ohio’s original capital, but the state legislature chose to move the state government there after its location for a short time at Chillicothe and at Zanesville. Columbus was chosen as the site for the new capital because of its central location within the state and access by way of major transportation routes (primarily rivers) at that time. The legislature chose it as Ohio’s capital over a number of other competitors, including Franklinton, Dublin, Worthington, and Delaware.

Prior to the state legislature’s decision in 1812, Columbus did not exist. The city was designed from the first as the state’s capital, preparing itself for its role in Ohio’s political, economic, and social life. In the years between first ground-breaking and the actual movement of the capital in 1816, Columbus and Franklin County grew significantly. By 1813, workers had built a penitentiary, and by the following year, residents had established the first church, school, and newspaper in Columbus. Workers completed the statehouse in 1814. Columbus and Franklin County grew quickly in population, with the city having seven hundred people by 1815. Columbus officially became the county seat in 1824. By 1834, the population of Columbus was four thousand people, officially elevating it to “city” status.

Columbus is currently the largest city in population in Ohio, but Franklin County is not the most heavily populated county. Columbus’s population was 711,470 people in 2000, while Franklin County totaled 1,068,978 residents. The county’s population had increased by more than eleven percent between 1990 and 2000. This was fairly typical of Ohio’s other heavily populated counties, as people living in more rural areas sought more opportunities in the larger cities. This growth also accompanied an out-migration from Franklin County and Columbus, as thousands of former residents moved to neighboring counties, like Licking, Fairfield, Delaware, Pickaway, Madison, and Union, to escape the busyness and crowdedness of city life. Franklin County’s 540 square miles averaged 1,980 people per square mile in 2000. Despite this dense population, Franklin County still boasted six hundred farms, averaging 170 acres apiece, in 2000.

The largest employers in Franklin County are service industries, such as health care, communications, and tourism, with sales establishments finishing a relatively close second. Government and manufacturing positions finish a very distant third and fourth respectively. Originally an important industrial center, Franklin County has changed through the 1900s as the United States’ economy changed. Nationwide Insurance, Bank One, The Limited, and numerous other prominent businesses now employ the county’s residents. These businesses are sales, service, or banking oriented, as manufacturing positions have disappeared.

Franklin County also has a booming cultural life. The Columbus Museum of Art, the Ohio Historical Society, and the Center for Ohio Science and Industry are three of the county’s important museums. Franklin County was also home of the 2002 NCAA football national champions, The Ohio State Buckeyes. The Columbus Blue Jackets, a member of the National Hockey League, and the Columbus Crew, a professional soccer team, provide residents with additional entertainment opportunities.

Columbus, which is both the capital of Ohio and the county seat of Franklin County, was first laid out in 1812 and incorporated in 1816. Columbus was not the original capital, but the state legislature chose to move the state government there after its location for a short time at both Chillicothe and Zanesville. Columbus was chosen as the site for the new capital because of its central location within the state and access by way of major transportation routes (primarily rivers) at that time. The legislature chose it as Ohio's capital over a number of other competitors, including Franklinton, Dublin, Worthington, and Delaware. Prior to the state legislature's decision in 1812, Columbus did not exist. The city was designed from the first as the state's capital, preparing itself for its role in Ohio's political, economic, and social life. In the years between first groundbreaking and the actual movement of the capital in 1816, Columbus grew significantly. The town was surveyed, and various city lots were put up for sale. By 1813, a penitentiary had been built, and by the following year the first church, school, and newspaper had been established. The statehouse was built in 1814 as well. Columbus grew quickly in its first few years, having a population of seven hundred people by 1815. It officially became the county seat in 1824. By 1834, the population of Columbus was four thousand people, officially elevating it to "city" status. In that year, Columbus residents elected John Brooks as its first mayor.

Although Columbus suffered as a result of the Panic of 1819, in the following decades the capital continued to grow both economically and in terms of population. Much of Columbus's growth can be attributed to its proximity to major transportation routes. Columbus was connected to the Ohio and Erie Canal by way of an eleven-mile feeder canal in September 1831. By 1836, the National Road extended from Cumberland, Maryland, to Columbus, and within the next several years eventually extended all the way to Illinois. In the 1840s and 1850s, railroads and telegraph lines connected the capital to other parts of the state as well.

As might be expected of a capital city, Columbus became a center of learning and social activities in the nineteenth century. A significant number of both private and public schools existed within the city. In addition, there were two colleges located in Columbus by the late nineteenth century -- The Ohio State University and Capital University. Ohio State was a state-supported school, while the Lutheran Church founded Capital University. Two medical schools also functioned at this time, Starling Medical College and the Columbus Medical College. Supplementing this emphasis on education were a number of libraries containing thousands of volumes, an Art School, and numerous musical societies and concerts. According to city records in the 1880s, Columbus boasted more than fifty churches but also had approximately six hundred saloons. The city supported numerous newspapers and magazines as well.

As capital, Columbus also hosted a number of legal and medical institutions. In addition to hospitals associated with the medical colleges, Columbus reputedly had the largest insane asylum in the world, with approximately 1,300 patients. It also supported an "Asylum for Feeble-Minded Youth," a "Blind Asylum," and a "Deaf and Dumb Asylum." The Ohio Penitentiary was also located in the capital and housed about 1,400 people by the late 1800s.

By the mid-nineteenth century, industries began to emerge in the Columbus area, and they really began to grow in the years following the Civil War. Columbus's industrial development benefited from the nearby transportation systems as well as the city's position as the state capital. By the 1880s, there were almost two hundred factories in operation, with fifty-eight of them employing at least forty people apiece. These industries included factories manufacturing shoes, cigars, farm tools and machinery, furniture, carriages, and brooms; iron manufacturers and foundries; and brewing companies established by German migrants. The most important breweries in the city included the Schlee Brewery and the Hoster Brewery. Another major employer was the Columbus Buggy Company. Originally known as the Iron Buggy Company, by the late 1800s, this business could produce one buggy every eight minutes. It claimed to be the largest producer of buggies in the world.

Despite this industrial growth, Columbus was not the state's largest city. The community's population soared during the Civil War due to Camp Chase being located in the city. Camp Chase served as a training encampment for Northern soldiers before they embarked for the South. A prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers also operated at Camp Chase. This population increase lasted for only the duration of the conflict. In the 1880 census, the city's population was 51,647.

During the twentieth century, Columbus continued to grow and prosper. Due to lighted arches that spanned over the city's major north-south thoroughfare, High Street, Columbus earned the reputation of being the most "brilliantly illuminated city in the country." Most of these arches disappeared by mid century, but in 2002, the city began to construct new ones to celebrate Columbus's past. The Ohio State University, which had approximately one thousand students in 1900, was the second largest institution of higher education in the United States and boasted an enrollment of 47,000 students in 2000. Originally an important industrial center, Columbus has changed through the 1900s as the United States economy changed. Nationwide Insurance, Bank One, The Limited, and numerous other prominent businesses employ the city's residents. The city has the largest population in Ohio, numbering 711,470 people in 2000, an increase of 7.5 percent since 1990. Symbolizing Columbus's growth, in 1990, one in every thirty people earned their living in construction industries. The city also experienced tremendous territorial growth as it annexed surrounding land and communities beginning in the 1950s. In 1950, Columbus consisted of just less than forty square miles of land. In 2000, the city's borders encompassed more than two hundred square miles of land. Columbus also has a booming cultural life. The Columbus Museum of Art, the Ohio Historical Society, and the Center for Ohio Science and Industry are three of the city's important museums. Columbus was also home of the 2003 NCAA football national champions, The Ohio State Buckeyes. The Columbus Blue Jackets, a member of the National Hockey League, and the Columbus Crew, the city's professional soccer team, provide residents with additional entertainment opportunities.

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