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Jefferson 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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Jefferson County was created on July 29, 1797 and was formed from Washington County . The County was named for Vice President of the United States(and later President) Thomas Jefferson. The County Seat is Steubenville . 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 Jefferson County are Columbiana County (north), Hancock County, West Virginia (northeast), Brooke County, West Virginia (east), Ohio County, West Virginia (southeast), Belmont County (south), Harrison County (southwest), Carroll County (northwest). Jefferson County Municipalities Include Steubenville, Toronto, Amsterdam, Bergholz, Bloomingdale, Dillonvale, Empire, Irondale, Mingo Junction, Mount Pleasant, New Alexandria, Rayland, Richmond, Smithfield, Stratton, Tiltonsville, Wintersville. Townships Include Brush Creek, Cross Creek, Island Creek, Knox, Mount Pleasant, Ross, Salem, Saline, Smithfield, Springfield, Steubenville, Warren, Wayne, Wells. Other localities Include Brilliant, East Springfield, Hammondsville, Hopewell, New Somerset, Piney Fork, Wolf Run, Weems
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All Departments below are in the Jefferson County Courthouse 301 Market Street, Steubenville, OH 43952; Phone: +1-614-283-8566, unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.jeffersoncountyoh.com/. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. Jefferson County Clerk of Probate Court has Marriage Records from 1816, Birth / Death Records from 1867-1908 and Probate Records from 1819 and is located at the courthouse;
Phone: 740-283-8555 Jefferson County Recorder has Land Records from 1816 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: Phone: 740-283-8566, Fax: 740-283-4007 Jefferson County Clerk of Court of Common Pleas has Court Records from 1816 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (740) 283-8554
Below is a list of online resources for Jefferson County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
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Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Jefferson County, Ohio are 1800, 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Maps. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Jefferson County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
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There are many churches and cemeteries in Jefferson County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Jefferson County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
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The Northwest Territory government authorized the creation of Jefferson County on July 29, 1797. Residents named the county in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the first United States Secretary of State. Fort Steuben, now the site of Steubenville, contained the first federal land office in Ohio, which sold federal land to settlers as they migrated westward, spurring Ohio’s development. Jefferson County is located in the eastern portion of Ohio, and it is in the heart of Appalachia. Its eastern border touches the Ohio River and helps form Ohio’s boundary with West Virginia. With only 1.5 percent of the county’s 410 square miles deemed to be urban, most residents live in rural areas. The county averages just over 180 people per square mile. The county’s largest community and county seat is Steubenville, which had just over nineteen thousand residents in 2000. Like many of Ohio’s predominantly rural counties, Jefferson County experienced a loss in population between 1990 and 2000. In 2000, 73,894 people resided in the county, a decrease of eight percent since 1990. Service industries, such as health care, communications, and tourism, and retail positions are the two largest employers in Jefferson County. Farming is a distant fifth behind manufacturing and government positions. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining, especially strip mining, were major employers in the county. Now, much of the strip-mined land has been reforested. In 1999, the per capita income for Jefferson County residents was approximately twenty-one thousand dollars. More than fifteen percent of the county’s residents lived in poverty. In 1786, the United States government built Fort Steuben within the area known as the Seven Ranges. The federal government had arranged for a survey of modern-day southeastern Ohio in order to prepare for the settlement of the Northwest Territory. Fort Steuben served two purposes: troops stationed at the fort were supposed to keep illegal settlers from moving into Ohio, and the surveyors used the fort as a base of operations. The fort was destroyed in a fire in 1790. Ironically, the fort did not deter illegal settlers from moving into the Seven Ranges, and after the fort was abandoned, these settlers took over the area and established a town that became known as Steubenville. The increase in illegal settlers also contributed to increasing tensions with natives in the region. Steubenville eventually became the county seat of Jefferson County. Bezaleel Wells founded Steubenville on the ruins of Fort Steuben in 1797. Most early settlers were squatters from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wells selected Steubenville's location because it was centered in a valley with relatively fertile soils. Much of the Seven Ranges was too hilly and had too poor soil for productive farms. During the 1810s, Wells began to diversify his business interests beyond real estate speculation. In 1815, he helped establish a woolen mill at Steubenville. The building was three stories high and approximately one hundred feet long. It employed more than one hundred workers, including approximately fifty men, thirty women, and forty children. The factory produced broadcloth, a dense woolen fabric with a lustrous finish. Unfortunately for Wells, only wealthy people could afford broadcloth, and the factory closed during the Panic of 1819. Wells also opened the first bank in Steubenville. By the late 1840s, Steubenville was a flourishing community. Approximately seven thousand people called the town home, including a sizable number of African Americans. It had eleven churches to meet the town's spiritual needs. There also existed five woolen mills, two glass factories, a paper mill, as well as an iron foundry. Coal mined from the surrounding area powered most of these manufacturing establishments. There were also two private schools in Steubenville by 1846 -- one for boys and one for girls. Beer brewing also was a major industry in Steubenville for much of its history. A local resident established the first brewery in 1815. The Ohio River provided easy access to Wheeling and Pittsburgh, the brewers' major markets. By the 1870s, one brewery in Steubenville produced more than two thousand barrels of beer yearly. The brewers stored the beer while it aged inside of cellars dug more than one hundred feet into the sides of hills surrounding Steubenville. During the first decades of the 1900s, the brewers faced opposition from temperance organizations. In 1908, Jefferson County became a dry county. The county government prohibited the sale of alcohol within the county's borders, including in Steubenville. Local brewers continued to manufacture beer to sell in nearby counties that still permitted alcohol's consumption, but many of these businesses suffered financially as Steubenville's eighty bars were forced to close. With the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1919, making the consumption of alcohol illegal nationwide, Steubenville's breweries closed for good. Today, coal mining and steel production remain as two of Steubenville's most important businesses. Many of the community's 5,500 residents find employment with the Weirton Steel Company and the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company, as well as in the various coalmines operating in eastern Ohio and in nearby West Virginia. In recent years, Steubenville has experienced a declining population. As has occurred in many smaller Ohio cities, people have moved away from more rural communities, like Steubenville, to larger metropolitan areas like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. |
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