History & Genealogy

Genealogy & Local History

The Anderson Allyn Room Collection

The Anderson Allyn Room, located on the lower level of the Chardon Branch, maintains an extensive collection of Geauga County genealogy and local history resources. It is open during library hours by appointment. Please call the Chardon Branch reference desk to schedule an appointment.

 

Reference desk

GCPL Chardon Branch
440-285-7601
Contact the genealogy department at history@geaugalibrary.net

 

The Genealogy department at Geauga County Public Library provides a wide array of resources and information to help people find records to help them piece together their genealogical profiles. Here’s what you’ll find:

  • Ohio RB Hayes Obituary Index
  • Vital Records
    • Currently being revised
  • Birth and Death Records:
    • (1867-1908) book index, records on microfilm. No official birth or death records exist before 1867.
    • For Geauga County births or deaths after Dec. 20, 1908, contact the Geauga County Board of Health, Vital Statistics:
      Geauga County Health District
      Attn: Vital Statistics
      470 Center St. Bldg. #8, Chardon, Ohio 44024
      (440) 279-1902
    • People born in any county in Ohio can obtain a certified copy of their own birth records at the Geauga County Health Department.
  • Marriage Records
  • Cemetery Records
  • Monumental Work
    • (Geauga County cemetery inscriptions book by Jeannette Grosvenor and Violet Warren) (Currently under revision)
  • Census Records
    • Federal census: (1820 – 1930), Geauga County only. Early years include a few other counties. Indexes are in books. Records are on microfilm (also available online through Ancestry Library version or through Family Search).
    • 1890 Soldiers and Sailors Pensions, Geauga County: print version of a special federal census enumeration with index.
    • City directories
      (1912, 1937, 1960—1999) covering Chardon and Geauga County; not all years
  • Court Records
    • Estates (Probate packets): (1805-1917) book index, records on 147 rolls of microfilm (Being revised)
      Probates (Probate ledger books*): (1806-1955) book index, records on microfilm
  • Family Group Sheets
    • Fifty-seven binders of approximately 30,000 Geauga County families; alphabetical by surname. This is our most important collection. Please consider contributing copies of your Geauga County family group sheets to the Anderson Allyn Room.
  • Family Files
    • File drawers of folders containing donated genealogical information on Geauga County families, arranged alphabetically by surname.
  • History Pertaining to Geauga County – Books
    • Pioneer History of Geauga County, Ohio, 1880. Google Books has this book with no index.
    • Geauga County History, 1953
    • History of Lake and Geauga Counties, Ohio, 1878
    • Geauga County: Ohio, A Pictorial History, 1989 by James J. Anderson and Jeannette Grosvenor
    • Raccoon Brigade: Soldiers of the Revolutionary War Buried in Geauga County, Ohio, 1990 by Jeannette Grosvenor
    • Women in the Western Reserve Before 1840/1850 (on microfilm with book index)
    • Women in Geauga County Before 1840/1850 (print-out of Geauga County townships from original WWRB,1840, above, with re-creation of the three missing townships and addition of index)
    • Histories of several Geauga County townships (see GCPL catalog under township name)
    • Family histories (see GCPL catalog under family surname)
  • History pertaining to Geauga County – Archival boxes with newspaper clippings and other historical materials
    • Geauga County townships, files arranged by topic
    • Geauga County schools by township
    • Oral history transcripts; Kent State University (interviews of Geauga County senior citizens 1976 – 1989)
    • Examples of other topics include: history of Chardon Library; interurban railroads; Maple Festival; Underground Railroad
  • Maps/Atlases
    • Geauga County was formed from Trumbull County March 1, 1806. Lake County was formed from Geauga County on April 6, 1840. For a link to U.S. county maps and boundary changes, go to Atlas of Historical County Boundaries at Chicago’s Newberry Library.
      • 1857 wall map (hanging on a wall in Chardon Library, reference)
      • 1874 atlas is in “History of Geauga/Lake Counties, Ohio” 1878
      • “1900 Atlas of Geauga County”
      • Indexes to atlases and maps (1820 and 1830; 1857; 1874; 1900)
    • For copies of plat maps go to Geauga County Recorder’s Office:
      Courthouse Annex 231 Main Street, Suite 1-C Chardon, Ohio 44024
      (440) 279-2020
      (440) 285-2222
      (440) 564-7131
      (440) 834-1856
  • Newspapers
    • 300 microfilms of Geauga County newspapers (1833 – 1992): some years missing
    • The News-Herald (on microfilm or CD from Nov. 9, 1992 – Sept. 2019)
    • The Maple Leaf (hard copies for 1993– current)
  • Chardon High School Yearbooks
    • Geauga County Public Library also houses a collection of local High School yearbooks.

*GCPL is in the process of converting cemetery and other genealogical records from Excel spreadsheets to web pages. These links will be updated as the content is made available. Thanks for your patience as we work on this extensive project. Update: The cemetery databases have been published and are now available above.

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Preserve Your Family History

use our guide

Join Lynn Vandevort, Family and Local History Specialist at GCPL, as she guides you through How to Preserve Your Family History. Included on the page is a PDF with the presentation that you can download.
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Databases

history & genealogy

  • African American: A groundbreaking digital resource exclusively devoted to African American family history research.
  • Ancestry Library (In Library Only): In addition to a vast resource of collections, we offer a comprehensive research experience combining our advanced search technology and image viewing of original documents on Ancestry.com.
  • Cleveland Necrology Files: was produced from a microfilmed copy of an alphabetical card file containing local cemetery records and newspaper death notices gathered by the staff of the Cleveland Public Library.
  • Family Search.org