Cincinnati Birth and Death Records Available

Looking for birth information for a long-lost relative born in Cincinnati during the last half of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th? The City of Cincinnati birth and death records from 1865 to 1908, with surnames beginning with the letter “A” through the surname “Fill” are now available online via http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/Births_and_Deaths/index.asp. The remaining records are being loaded as quickly as possible. Check the Digital Projects website and Archives and Rare Books Library website for further updates.

In 2009, the University of Cincinnati Libraries were awarded a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the State Library of Ohio to digitize these records. 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, which are part of the collections of the Archives and Rare Books Library, are of great historical and genealogical importance and are among the most heavily used research materials in the library.

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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