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Guernsey County History and Information |
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County History |
Court Records |
Vital Records |
CENSUS Records |
TAX Records |
Military Records |
Church & Cemetery | Maps & Atlases | Genealogy Addresses | Genealogy Related Sites | |
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Guernsey County was created on January 31, 1810 and was formed from Belmont and Muskingum Counties. The County was named for the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Cambridge is the county seat of Guernsey County, Ohio. Residents named the town after Cambridge, Maryland. In 1806, residents established the town, which was located along Zane’s Trace. 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 Guernsey County are Tuscarawas County (north), Harrison County (northeast), Belmont County (east), Noble County (south), Muskingum County (west), Coshocton County (northwest). Guernsey County Municipalities Include Cambridge, Byesville, Cumberland, Fairview, Kimbolton, Lore City, Old Washington, Pleasant City, Quaker City, Salesville, Senecaville. Townships Include Adams, Cambridge, Center, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Liberty, Londonderry, Madison, Millwood, Monroe, Oxford, Richland, Spencer, Valley, Washington, Westland, Wheeling, Wills. Other localities Include Buffalo, Derwent, Kipling
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All Departments below are in the Guernsey County Courthouse PO Box 766, 801 Wheeling Avenue, Cambridge, OH 43725; Phone: +1-614-432-9275, unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.guernseycounty.org/ . NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. Guernsey County Clerk of Probate Court has Marriage Records from 1810, Birth / Death Records from 1867-1908 and Probate Records from 1812. Phone Number: 740.432.9262 Guernsey County Recorder has Land Records from 1802. Phone Number: 740.432.9275 Guernsey County Clerk of Court of Common Pleas has Court Records from 1802. Phone Number: 740.432.9252
Below is a list of online resources for Guernsey County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Court Records by clicking the link below:
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Ohio did not make it a law to keep birth records until 1867. Ohio made it a law to record births in 1867. County probate courts kept birth records between 1867 and December 19, 1908. There is no statewide index to birth records from 1867 through December 19, 1908. Go to the list of county probate court birth records held at the Ohio Historical Society. If the Ohio Historical Society does not hold a county's birth records, please contact the county's probate court. Ohio Department of Health, Vital Statistics, 225 Neilston Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215; (614) 466-2531. Same-day service available to walk-in customers (for Ohio birth and death records only)., P.O. Box 570, Jefferson City, MO 65102, Please allow up to approximately 3 weeks to 6 months for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Order In Person: Same day service is available to walk-in customers. This is the fastest way to obtain a birth certificate. When you arrive, you will complete an application and pay the $16.50 required fee. Walk-in address is Ohio Department of Health,
Vital Statistics,
225 Neilston Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215
Below is a list of online resources for Guernsey County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
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Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Guernsey County, Ohio are 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850 ,1860 ,1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your Family Tree in Guernsey County, Ohio are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms. See Also Statewide Records that exist for Ohio Below is a list of online resources for Guernsey County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Census Records by clicking the link below:
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Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Ohio and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Ohio showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps Below is a list of online resources for Guernsey County Maps. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Maps by clicking the link below: |
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The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. Below is a list of online resources for Guernsey County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Military Records by clicking the link below:
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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 Guernsey County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Tax Records by clicking the link below: |
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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 Guernsey County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
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There are many churches and cemeteries in Guernsey County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Guernsey 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 Guernsey County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
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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 Guernsey County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Guernsey County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
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On January 31, 1810, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Guernsey County. Residents named the county after the “Isle of Guernsey.” The earliest known inhabitants of Guernsey County were some Delaware Indians, 20 warriors and about 30 women and children, living in a dozen houses on the south side of Will's Creek in the vicinity of the viaduct in Cambridge. The year was 1763. The Mingo Trail crossed the creek at that point. Thirty-three years later the Indians were gone but a group of white men from Wheeling, led by Ebenezer Zane, crossed Will's Creek at the same ford where the Indian town had been located. They were laying out a post road, later called Zane's Trace. By 1798, a ferry and a tavern had been established where the road crossed the creek, and in 1802, another road was built from the Steubenville area, largely following the Mingo Trail, to the ferry crossing of Will's Creek. In 1806, Zaccheus Beatty and Jacob Gomber platted the town of Cambridge, just east of the crossing. It is at this point in our history that the people who would give our county its name came on the scene. They were several families from the island of Guernsey, just off the coast of France. Arriving at about the same time as the lots in Cambridge were being sold, they decided to stay here. The next year more people came from the same place, in all amounting to 15 or 20 families. With so many Guernseyites in the area, when the county was formed in 1810, it was decided to give it the name of their island home and we became Guernsey County. Since Cambridge was at the intersection of the two major roads coming from the east, it became the county seat. In 1828 the National Road was constructed through Guernsey County. It was, by far, the finest road in the country, and many thousands of people, and animals, used it every day. Several of the stone bridges of the National Road are still in use. Then, in 1854 the railroad came to Guernsey County. It would later be called the Baltimore & Ohio line. In 1873 another railroad, eventually called the Pennsylvania line, was established, thus giving the county excellent rail service in all directions. This happened just as coal was being successfully mined in the southern part of the county, and mining soon became our principle industry (outside of farming, of course). Many hundreds of immigrants from central Europe moved here to work in the coal mines. Our most exciting days would have been in July of 1863, when the Civil War came to Guernsey County. About 600 Confederate cavalrymen under the command of General John H. Morgan entered the county at Cumberland, and were here for the next 30 hours, passing through Pleasant City, Buffalo, Senecaville, Lore City, Old Washington, Winterset, Antrim, Londonderry, and Smyrna. At Old Washington, there was a skirmish with pursuing Union cavalrymen, and three Confederates were killed. There is an appropriate monument at their gravesite in the Old Washington cemetery. In the early and middle 1900s, pottery and glass-making flourished in the county. Later the plastics and electronics industries came to the area, but with the construction of two interstate highways through the county, transportation still plays an important part in out story, just as it did over 200 years ago in the days of the Mingo Trail and Zane's Trace. Cambridge is the county seat of Guernsey County, Ohio. Residents named the town after Cambridge, Maryland. In 1806, residents established the town, which was located along Zane’s Trace. Eventually, the National Road also passed through the community, making Cambridge a center of trade. Cambridge grew relatively quickly. Nearly one thousand people resided in the community by 1840. The town consisted of four churches, nine stores, one flour and two fulling mills, and one newspaper office. By the American Civil War, two railroads intersected in the town, causing further growth. By 1880, 2,833 residents lived in Cambridge, and the town now included five newspaper offices, seven churches, and three banks. Numerous manufacturing businesses operated in the town. In 1886, the largest employer was the Cambridge Chair Factory, with seventy-five employees. Other businesses manufactured doors, iron roofs, and buggies, among other items. During the late 1880s and the early 1890s, residents discovered deposits of natural gas and oil. These two items led to the creation of a glass-making industry. While the city’s glass production declined during the twentieth century, a tourist industry, consisting largely of glass collectors, arose in its place. During the twentieth century, Cambridge continued to grow in population. In 2000, the community had 11,520 people. This amounted to over twenty-five percent of Guernsey County’s total population. Many residents currently find employment in travel-related businesses, with both Interstate 70 and Interstate 77 passing through Cambridge. |
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