Hamilton County Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 15865
Cincinnati, Ohio 45215-0865
Telephone:  (513) 956-7078

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A chapter of the
Ohio Genealogical Society

Death Records

 
Introduction
 
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 church death/burial records
 
The HCGS book Hamilton County, Ohio, Church Death Records, 1811 - 1849, the five HCGS books Hamilton County, Ohio, Church Burial Records, 1850 – 1899, and our members-only online searchable database Church Deaths 1890 – 1899 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 some cemetery burials indexed in Church Deaths 1890-1899 (see below). To obtain information from these books:
 
To obtain information from the six books (1811 – 1899):
  • 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.
Church deaths 1890 - 1899:
 
Available online at this website is the latest and last installment of 19th Century church deaths, indexed by Jeffrey G. Herbert, covering the years 1890 through 1899.  Included are 25,914 church deaths from 81 Hamilton County churches, including Roman Catholic.  Also included are 8,443 burials in three Catholic cemeteries during the 1890s.  This index is available in two different forms for HCGS members and non-members:
  • Members-Only Online Full Index: Search the complete index of entries from Church Deaths 1890 - 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 a searchable PDF file (1.6 MB). Each entry contains Last Name, Given Name, Year of death, Place of birth (POB) indicator.  Until this index is published in printed book form, the full index entry is only available at this time to HCGS members.
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.
1865 - 1908 Civil death records
  • 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.
  • 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:
 
 
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: 2023-06-01  RTB