Libraries Awarded a LSTA Grant to Digitize Cincinnati Birth and Death Records

The Libraries were awarded a $140,437 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the State Library of Ohio to digitize the birth and death records of the City of Cincinnati from 1865 through 1908.

The 340,000 records will be scanned and made available online. The scanning began in October 2009 with access to the records slated for August 2010.

The birth and death records, which are part of the collections of the Archives and Rare Books Library, are of great historical and genealogical importance. Each birth record contains the name of the individual along with birth date, race, gender, name and birthplace of father and mother, occupation of father, doctor or midwife, and hospital. For each death record the following information is available: name, age, date and cause of death, address, occupation, race, gender, attending physician, funeral home, and place of burial.

The birth and death records are among the most heavily used materials in the Archives and Rare Books Library. In the last year, the library received 3,000 requests for information from them, representing 75% of genealogy reference service provided to the general public. “This scanning project will make an already valuable, much-used resource widely accessible to genealogists and the general public, as well as to social historians, epidemiologists, and public health historians,” said Victoria A. Montavon, Dean and University Librarian.

In addition to providing wider access to researchers in Ohio and around the world, digitizing the Cincinnati birth and death records will also preserve the 340,000 index cards created several decades ago by the Cincinnati Health Department after the original ledger volumes, also preserved in the Archives and Rare Books Library, became too fragile to handle.

The LSTA program is funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered through the State Library of Ohio.

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