Crawford County, Ohio Genealogy

United States Genealogy

Ohio

Crawford County

Guide to Crawford County, Ohio ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Ohio Online Genealogy Records

Crawford County, Ohio
Map
Location of Ohio in the U.S.
Courthouse
Address	Crawford County Courthouse 112 E. Mansfield St. Bucyrus, Ohio 44820 Crawford County Website

Crawford County, Ohio Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1908	1831	1908	1834	1816	1831	1820
Statewide registration for births and deaths started in 1908. General compliance year is unknown.

• Parent Counties: Formed from Delaware County 12 February 1820.
• County Seat: Bucyrus

Description

The county was named for Colonel William Crawford, a soldier during the American Revolution. It's county seat is Bucyrus and was founded Founded April 1, 1820. It is located in the Mid-Central area of the state.

Places

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit Hometown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Bucyrus (county seat) Galion
Villages
Chatfield Crestline	New Washington North Robinson	Tiro
Unincorporated communities
Auburn Center Benton Brandywine Brokensword DeKalb Gardner Jackson	Leesville Lemert Lykens Mechanicsburg Middletown Monnett New Winchester	Olentangy Plankton Ridgeton Spore Waynesburg West Liberty
Census-designated places
Oceola Sulphur Springs
Townships
Auburn Bucyrus Chatfield Cranberry Dallas Holmes	Jackson Jefferson Liberty Lykens Polk	Sandusky Texas Tod Vernon Whetstone

Neighboring Counties

Seneca County  • Huron County  • Richland County  • Morrow County  • Marion County  • Wyandot County

Boundary Changes

• 1835: Six miles on the western side was added from the Wyndot Indian Reservation.

• 1842: The last of the Wyandot Reservation was purchased and added to the county.

• 1845: Wyandot County was formed from an 18-mile strip from western Crawford County. A 4-by-20-mile strip was added on the eastern side from Richland County.
  A 2-by-16-mile strip was added on the south from Marion County.

• 1848: A 1-by-7-mile strip on the county's southeast was given to Morrow County at that county's formation.
  This finalized the boundaries of Crawford County. 

For animated maps illustrating Ohio county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Ohio County Boundary Maps" (1788-1888) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss

1831 A courthouse fire may have damaged or destroyed some records. For suggestions about research in places that suffered historic record losses, see:

• Burned Counties. By Michael John Neill at 24-7 Family History Circle.
• When the Records are Gone. By Arlene Eakle at Arlene Eakle's Tennessee Blog.
• Burned Counties Research in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

Resources

Bible Records

For an extensive list of resources for Bible Records see Ohio Bible Records.

Cemeteries

Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

Online Grave Transcripts	Published Grave Transcripts	County Cemetery Directories
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
Interment.net	WorldCat	Names in Stone
USGW Tombstones		Billion Graves
Billion Graves
Ohio Gravestones
See Ohio Cemeteries for more information.

List and Location of Cemeteries by Townships

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1830	4,791	—
1840	13,152	174.5%
1850	18,177	38.2%
1860	23,881	31.4%
1870	25,556	7.0%
1880	30,583	19.7%
1890	31,927	4.4%
1900	33,915	6.2%
1910	34,036	0.4%
1920	36,054	5.9%
1930	35,345	−2.0%
1940	35,571	0.6%
1950	38,738	8.9%
1960	46,775	20.7%
1970	50,364	7.7%
1980	50,075	−0.6%
1990	47,870	−4.4%
2000	46,966	−1.9%
2010	43,784	−6.8%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Church Records

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Ohio denominations, see Ohio Church Records.

Catholic

• 1796–2004 Ohio, Diocese of Toledo, Catholic Parish Records, 1796-2004 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free. This collection includes images of parish registers recording the events of baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage, and death in the Diocese of Toledo (Ohio), Roman Catholic Church. These records are accessed by browsing the images by county. In addition to traditional parish registers, this collection includes miscellaneous cemetery records, Books of the Elect, Professions of Faith, Sick Call registers, etc.
  

History

Local histories are available for Crawford County, Ohio Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Ohio Local Histories.

Local History

• Perrin, William Henry, History of Crawford County and Ohio: containing a history of the state of Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time (Chicago : Baskin ; Battey, 1881) Digital version at Google Books; Internet Archives; on microfilm at FHL film 962586.
• Hopley, John E. History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens (Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1912) Digital version at Internet Archives; book available at FHL book 977.127 H2h v.1 & v.2.
• A centennial biographical history of Crawford County, Ohio (Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Company, 1902) Digital version at Internet Archives.

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See Ohio Land and Property for additional information about early Ohio land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

• 1790-1907 - Bureau of Land Management database Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives
• various years - community contributed deeds Courtesy OhioGenWeb

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Maps of Ohio (1788-1940)

Military

• 1888-1919 - Ohio Soldier Home Records, 1888-1919 at FamilySearch — index and images

Civil War

Civil War servicemen from Crawford County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Crawford County.

- 1st Independent Battery, Ohio Light Artillery (a battery is like a company in an artillery regiment)

- 57th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Company I

World War I

• 1914-1919 - Ohio, World War I Statement of Service Cards, 1914-1919 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1914-1918 - Ohio, World War I, Enrollment Cards, 1914-1918 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1916-1920 - Ohio, WWI Index and Return Cards, 1916-1920 at FamilySearch — index

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1800-1977 - Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977 at FamilySearch — index and images

Newspapers

Finding More Ohio Newspapers
Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Crawford County Ohio newspapers in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Do a Crawford County, Ohio Place-name search for these and other records in the FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Places Search). Online Newspapers
  Online Newspaper Abstracts
  Newspaper Extracts and Abstracts in Book Form
  

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Ohio, Crawford County Obituaries - FamilySearch Historical Records

Obituaries

• 1860 - 2004 - Ohio, Crawford County Obituaries, 1860-2004 at FamilySearch — index and images

Probate

Online Probate Records

• 1786-1998 - Ohio Wills and Probate Records 1786-1998 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1789-1996 - Ohio Probate Records 1789-1996 at FamilySearch.org — images
• 1790-1967 - Ohio, Probate Records, 1790-1967 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free. This collection consists of probate records and estate files from county courthouses in Ohio. The content and time period varies by county, with more records being added as they become available. This Collection will include records from 1789 to 1996. Currently, (September 2012) the collection is only searchable by browsing the images. A list of Fires that have destroyed records in the courthouses of several counties are listed on the Record Description page.
  
• various years - community contributed wills Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives

Finding More Probate Records

Additional probate records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Crawford County, Ohio Genealogy Probate Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Places Search).

Repositories

Courthouse

Crawford County Courthouse
112 E Mansfield Street
Bucyrus, OH 44820
Phone: 419.562.2766 

City and County Health Department has birth and
death records from 1908; Probate Judge has birth
and death records 1867-1908, marriage and probate
records from 1831; County recorder has land records;
Clerk Court has divorce and court records from 1834

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Affiliate Libraries

• Clear Fork Ohio Family History Center (Galion)

Societies

Crawford county Chapter OGS
P.O. Box 1033 Bucyrus, Ohio 4482

Online Genealogy Research Groups

• 
  
• U.S. Midwest Genealogy Research Community - FamilySearch Facebook Research Group
• Ohio Ancestors - FamilySearch Community group, must have a free FamilySearch account to join
• U.S. and Canada Genealogy Research - FamilySearch Community group, must have a free FamilySearch account to join

Taxation

Ohio tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses before 1820 or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties.

• 1800-1950 - Ohio Tax Records, 1800-1850 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1800-1850 Ohio Tax Records, 1800-1850 at MyHeritage ($) — index
• 1825-1836 - Township tax lists Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives

Finding More Tax Records

Additional tax records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Crawford County, Ohio Genealogy Tax Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Places Search).

Vital Records

Vital records consist of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. Marriages were usually recorded from the formation of the county and are held at the office of the County Probate Court. Divorce records are located with the county Clerk of Courts.

Any existing birth and death records from 1867 through December 19, 1908 are located at the County Probate Court. The Ohio Department of Health has birth records filed after December 20, 1908 and death records filed after January 1, 1954, while the Ohio History Connection houses death records from December 20, 1908 through December 31, 1953.

Birth

Online Birth Indexes and Records

• various years - community contributed births Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives
• 1841-2003 - Ohio, County Births, 1841-2003 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1908-1998 Ohio, Birth Index, 1908-1998 at Ancestry.com ($) — index

Original Birth Records on Microfilm

Marriage

Online Marriage Indexes and Records

• 1789-2013 - Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1800-1958 - Ohio, Marriages, 1800-1958 at FamilySearch Historical Records – free; Index. Name index to marriage records from the state of Ohio. Microfilm copies of these records are available at the Family History Library and some FamilySearch Centers. Due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records. A few records may be earlier or later.
• 1800-1942 Ohio, Marriages, 1800-1942 at FamilySearch — index
• 1970-2003 Ohio, Marriages, 1970 - 2003 at MyHeritage ($) — index
• various years - community contributed marriages Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives

Original Marriage Records on Microfilm

Death

Online Death Indexes and Records

• 1840-2001 - Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1860-2004 - Obituaries from the Crawford County Genealogical Society Courtesy OhioGenWeb
• 1908-1953 - Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as birthdate of deceased; city, county, and state of death; name of spouse if married; names of parents; maiden name of mother; name of informant; if deceased was single, married, windowed or divorced; and occupation of deceased.
• 1908-1932, 1938-2018 Ohio, Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2018 at Ancestry.com ($) — index and images
• 1913-1944, 1954-1963 Ohio Death Index, 1913-1944, 1954-1963 at MyHeritage ($) — index
• various years - community contributed death records Courtesy OhioGenWeb Archives

Original Death Records on Microfilm

Divorce

Finding More Vital Records

Additional vital records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Crawford County, Ohio Genealogy Vital Records in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Places Search).

Websites

• FamilySearch Catalog
• Crawford County OHGenWeb
• Crawford County, OH History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
• Crawford County OH Genealogy
  
• Ohio Genealogy Network Group on Facebook

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.

Family History Library