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.
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
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 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 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.).
Jefferson County Recorder has Land Records from 1816 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: Phone: 740-283-8566, Fax: 740-283-4007 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.
Jefferson County Clerk of Court of Common Pleas has Court Records from 1816 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (740) 283-8554 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.
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:
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.
Click Here to Search Ohio Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
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:
Birth & Death Certificates: The state of Ohio began issuing certificates for births on December 20, 1908. The Ohio Department of Health holds birth certificates for the state of Ohio from December 20, 1908 to the present. The Vital Statistics Office maintains statewide Death Certificates from 1954 to the present. Individual health departments in the county or city where the death took place keep certificates for their local area (not statewide).
Cost: $16.50 per certificate, payment is payable to the Treasurer State of Ohio. The cost for each authentication is $5.00 payable to the Secretary of State of Ohio. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $16.50 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 3-6 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates:
The State of Ohio Vital Statistics Office maintains the abstracts of marriages and divorces that occurred in Ohio from January 1, 1954, to present. Abstracts are brief forms that list limited information extracted from the original marriage licenses or divorce decrees. This limited information is used for index purposes and the filing of the marriage or divorce within the State of Ohio. We do not have marriage licenses or divorce decrees on file, only abstracts. An abstract is not a marriage license or divorce decree. Please contact the following agencies: Marriage License - County Probate Court; Divorce – County Clerk of Court
To request a certified copy of a marriage license contact the Recorder of Deeds in the county where the license was obtained.To request a certified copy of a divorce decree contact the Circuit Clerk in the county where the decree was granted.
Cost: Include a fee of $3.00 per 10 year search per last name with request. Allow 4 to 6 months for the search. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: Allow 4 to 6 months for the search
by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY. Mail your search request to: Ohio Department of Health,
Vital Statistics,
246 N. High Street, 1st Floor,
P.O. Box 15098,
Columbus, Ohio 43215-0098
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
Phone: (614) 466-2531. You can also obtain the birth/death record from the city or county health department office where the event occurred, provided there is no court or legal action. You may download the application and submit it in person or by mail to the nearest local health department. Order By Mail: Turn around is estimated at 3 to 6 weeks from the day the request is received. However, people are urged to allow sufficient time for delivery for all birth/death records. Mail a check or money order of $16.50 for each certified certificate. Do not send cash. Mail to the following address: Ohio Department of Health,
Vital Statistics, P.O. Box 15098,
Columbus, Ohio 43215-0098. Please include return address on envelope and application form. Order On-Line: To obtain a certified copy of a vital record by on-line purchase with a credit card, please link to VitalChek
The Ohio Historical Society Archives/Library has most birth records before 1908 and copies of original death certificates on microfilm for the period December 20, 1908 through 1953.
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:
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Ohio Obituaries Index 1830s-present - mostly Northwest counties (over 800,000 names) includes obituaries from these Ohio counties: Allen, Auglaize, Belmont, Defiance, Erie, Gallia, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Logan, Lorain, Miami, Ottawa, Paulding, Ross, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Washington, Wayne, Wood & Wyandot - coverage varies by county - also see the links below (copies of the obituaries can be ordered for a fee)
MOLO Obituary Index includes obituaries from newspapers in Ashland County (Loudonville), Coshocton County, Holmes County and Stark County (Massillon)
Click Here to Search Ohio Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
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:
Ohio Census, 1790-1890: This collection contains the following indexes: 1790 (Northwest Territory) Federal Census Index; 1800 Federal Census Index (Washington County); 1810 Washington County Census Index; 1820 Federal Census Index; 1830 Federal Census Index; 1840 Federal Census Index; 1840 Pensioners List; 1850 Federal Census Index; 1860 Federal Census Index; 1870 Federal Census Index; Early Census Index; 1890 Veterans Schedule.
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
You can view rotating animated maps for Ohio showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries.
Below is a list of online resources for Jefferson County Maps. Email us with websites containing Jefferson County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Ohio Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
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:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Ohio (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
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:
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:
Jefferson County Chapter, OGS, PO Box 2367, Wintersville, OH 43953; Jefferson County Chapter, OGS meetings are quarterly, on the second Tuesday of each quarter, held at the Schiappa Branch Public Library, Mall Drive, Steubenville, OH., E-mail: fverstraten@dishmail.net . As of January 2008 the chapter will list cemetery tombstone inscriptions online, church records, veterans grave registration card indexes, post offices and post masters and much more!
Jefferson County Historical Society Association Library,
426 Franklin Ave., P.O. Box 4268, Steubenville, OH 43952;
740-283-1133
Jefferson County Board-Health,
814 Adams St,
Steubenville, OH 43952;
740-283-8530
Steubenville City Health Dept, 312 Market St., P.O. Box 1427 Steubenville, OH 43952;
740-283-6050
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.
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.
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.
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:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Ohio obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Ohio newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Ohio.
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 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:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
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.
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.
