Since December 20, 1908, Ohio state law has required the recording of all deaths on standard death certificate forms. Prior to that date Ohio counties and some cities began keeping death records. Death records at Hamilton County Probate Court run from 1881 to 1908. The City of Cincinnati also created death records from 1865 to 1912. Many deaths were not recorded, but registration improved by the turn of the 20th century. For deaths prior to the above civil records, and in general for most of the 19th Century and earlier, we are reliant on church death/burial records. Death dates and/or parentage can sometimes also be determined from Death Notices and Obituaries, Cemeteries, and Wills and Estates.

19th Century (1811-1899) Church Death/Burial Records

The HCGS book Hamilton County, Ohio, Church Death Records, 1811 - 1849 and the five HCGS books Hamilton County, Ohio, Church Burial Records, 1850 – 1899 compiled by Jeffrey G. Herbert contain indexes of church deaths/burials in Hamilton County, mostly in Cincinnati. Many Roman Catholic church deaths/burials are also indexed and included.

A typical index entry consists of Name (Last name, Given name), Church burial/funeral date, Death Date if given, Maiden name if given, and Age at Death if given, and Parents name if given (sometimes for children). Some entries also include an indicator (asterisk or Y) that the Place of Birth (POB) is given and some include the newspaper page. Each index record includes a reference to the source microfilm or church source.

NOTE: These are records of church services for deaths (funerals) and are typically NOT cemetery burial records, except for 8,443 burials in three Catholic cemeteries in the 1890s. Over 146,000 records are indexed in all six volumes.

To obtain information from the six books (1811 – 1899):

See our Shop & Support page for information on purchasing them.

Request research from Research Services.

Search the books in a local library: several branches of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) including the downtown Main Library, the Cincinnati History Library & Archives (CHLA), and the Cincinnati Family History Center of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS).

Check WorldCat to find the books in other libraries. Click on the specific volume title, scroll down, enter your zip code and click on Find Libraries.

Alternatively ...

Online Indexes: Members Only and Public Abbreviated

Now available online on this website (June 2024) for members only is a searchable database of all 146,000+ complete index records from the six published volumes as described above. For non-members we have the indexes in an abbreviated form in four searchable PDF files.

Members-Only Online Full Index: Search the complete index of entries from Church Deaths 1811 - 1899 database at this website. The full index entry (see “typical index entry” above) will be given in the search results for HCGS members who have logged into this website.

If you are not a member you can Join HCGS (for as little as $20/year) and have access to this database.

Public Online Abbreviated Index: Available in four searchable PDF files (Aprx. 2.5MB each). Each entry in these files contains Last Name, Given Name, Year of death, Place of birth (POB) indicator. Once you have opened a file in your web browser or in Adobe Acrobat press Ctrl+F to open the text search box. Last name begins with:

To obtain a copy of the original record:

The source microfilms for these church burials are available at the CHPL, CHLA, and LDS except for those of Roman Catholic church burials.

Copies of Roman Catholic burials can be obtained from the Historical Archives of the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Alternatively you may be able to obtain a copy of the record from the church if it survives or from its successor church. See Hamilton County Churches and Synagogues by Lee Ann McNabb which has information on churches indexed in the Restored Marriages series as well as those not indexed.

1865 - 1908 Civil Death Records

The City of Cincinnati’s records of deaths from 1865 to 1912 are in a searchable database, Cincinnati Birth and Death Records, 1865-1912, created by the University of Cincinnati Archives & Rare Books Library.

Cincinnati death records for the years 1878–1896 and 1900–1908 have also been indexed by the HCGS into nine books titled Index to Cincinnati, Ohio, Death Records which are available at the CHPL and can also be found at other libraries via WorldCat. Click on the specific book title, scroll down, enter your zip code and click on Find Libraries.

Hamilton County Probate Court recorded deaths from 1881 to 1908. The best source for these records is Ohio, Deaths and Burials, 1854-1997, a searchable FamilySearch database. The Probate Court volume and page number is provided but not the record image. The record image can be obtained at the Probate Court’s Death Records (1881-1908). Each record spans a single line across two pages, so scroll down to see the second page. This collection also has its own typed index rather than a search engine. General information is available in our Records Repositories section about Hamilton County Probate Court.

Post-1908 Death Certificates

A searchable index of Ohio death certificates, with images of the certificates, is available in the Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953 database at FamilySearch. Please note you must be a registered FamilySearch user to see and save the certificate images. Registration is free.

Copies of the Ohio death certificates 1908 - 1953 are also available on microfilm at the CHPL main branch downtown.

An index of deaths entitled Ohio, Death Index, 1908-1932, 1938-1944, and 1958-2007 is also available at FamilySearch.

Ohio, Deaths and Burials, 1854-1997 is also a searchable index at FamilySearch.

An index of Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2018 is available at Ancestry.com.

The Ohio Department of Health holds death certificates from December 20, 1908 to the present. Vital Records has instructions and forms for ordering a death certificate from the state office. Post-1908 certificates for deaths in Hamilton County can also be ordered from:

Hamilton County Public Health Dept.

City of Cincinnati Health Dept.

City of Norwood Health Dept.

1887-1930 Hamilton County Morgue Records

The University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library (ARB) has digitized the 1887-1930 Hamilton County morgue records and placed them online. The entire series can be searched at once for a particular name. To get to the abstracts for a particular date range, choose the volume for that period and click See all records, then Morgue Records, Volume (number). The abstracts are in chronological order; click Control-F to search each set. The abstracts include name, race, gender, date found, age, history (usually cause of death), and image number. For more details, be sure to see the record image.

Deaths in the Annual Reports of City Infirmary, July 1852-1891

The work herein indexes the annual reports of the City Infirmary of Cincinnati OH. The range of years covered in the collection of the Cincinnati Historical Society Library are from the 1st year beginning July 1852 to the 40th year ending 31 December 1891. There is no report for the year 1882. Each annual report lists everyone who died in the infirmary in the previous year along with date of death, age, nativity, and cause of death. As few official death records were recorded in Cincinnati before 1865 and not required by the state until 1908, this data will fill a much-neglected gap for genealogical research. The index does not contain all of the data recorded in the reports. The researcher will need to view the collection in order to take advantage of all the information available. Ask the CHLA librarian for call number 362.11 C581 (years 1852-82, 1884-1891.) For the report of deaths in 1883, ask for call number 352.07714 C574 1884.

For a more complete description of this index see the article "Two New Indexes of Criminal and Death Records on the HCGS Website" which was published on page 43 of the June 2023 HCGS Tracer.

Chris Bell-Puckett

2001

page modified: 2024-06-20 RTB