Ohio, County Death Records, 1840- 2001

In past posts on this blog we have discussed some of the records from the State of Ohio which were available at FamilySearch. Those records included the Death Certificates from 1908-1953, as well as various birth and marriage records from the county level.  Now, a new database has been added which helps complete the full picture of the people of Ohio. The Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001 collection includes almost 1 million images taken from the county courthouses. These images also include some records that exist from the time before statewide death certificates in 1908. More information on this database can be found in the FamilySearch wiki, at the following link, Ohio County Death Records.
When first studying any database I begin with the same surname, Cohen. I do this because I can get a good indication of how complete the collection is by how many records for the Cohen name are included. In the case of this collection a search of the collection shows that 3,118 results for the name are included.  I chose the very first entry which was the death of a 3 year old boy, Max Cohen, who died on 1 November 1881.

The record associated with young Max is the Coroner's verdict which was filed with the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas on 14 November 1881. This document came from a Coroner's Inquest which was held to examine the untimely death.
The death of the 3 year old boy is a very tragic story. From the account, given by his mother Bertha Cohen,  at the inquest we find that the family lived on the second story of a three story building in Cleveland. The third story was home to a saloon, from which every morning they threw the empty beer kegs out of the window. On this morning young Max went out to see what was causing the noise when he was hit by one of the empty kegs and killed. The first part of her statement is shown below.

While the record documents a tragic event, it is important because it comes almost 30 years before the State of Ohio began the keeping of death certificates. The records that would exist of this child are few and this is just a piece of a very small puzzle. Using the clues we have, the name and age of Max, his mothers name, Bertha, and their address we can find them in the 1880 Federal Census of Ohio. That record, shown below, further completes the puzzle.

The record tells us that at the time of the census, Max was the youngest of five children of E. and Bertha Cohen. It also shows us that at the same address lists John Lederer a saloon keeper, the same name given in the inquest.
With this information we are able to return to the Ohio, County Births, 1841 - 2003, database we mentioned earlier. There we are able to find the record of Marx Cohen the son of Elias and Bertha Cohen who was born in March of 1878 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio. That record is shown below.

We can now follow young Max from birth to death. Even though he died young and was not able to leave a long paper trail we have enough information that we can make sure he is never forgotten. We should be supportive of all groups that make the effort needed for these records to be available for researchers to use.

Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953

In previous posts on this blog, the births and marriages records of the State of Ohio have been discussed. Now, the death certificates from the state of Ohio for the years 1908-1953 have been added to the Published Collections section at www.familysearch.org.
As of today, the collection includes over 7.3 million images, which were are copies of the original death certificates.

The image above (which can also be found on FHL Film #2022731) is the death certificate of Max Cohen, who was born in 1873 in Latvia. He died on 24 Oct 1936 in Akron, Summit, Ohio. We also learn that he was a widow, his wife Bertha, having preceded him. We also learn the names of his parents, Leon Hyman Cohen and Rachael Mirvis. One very important piece of information which would help the researcher locate all the family members is that even though he died in Ohio, the burial took place in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

When combined with the other Ohio databases mentioned above, people with ancestry in the state of Ohio should be able to build a good picture of their families. This collection as with all the others at www.familysearch.org is available free of charge from the comfort of your own home.

Ohio, County Births, 1841-2003 at FamilySearch

The latest additions to the Historical Record Collections at www.familysearch.org, includes a great resource for those with Jewish families in Ohio. Almost one million images, which are indexed and search able for free were added to the Ohio, County Births, 1841-2003 collection. The collection is very easy to use, and can be done from the comfort of home.

 

When looking for a record of your ancestor, simple fill in the information on the search screen (as shown above). I was searching for the birth records of Rachel Cohen, who was born in 1903. I entered that information into the search box and received the following result (below).

 

Clicking on the view Image icon I was then able to access the original record (below). The original record added the age of the parents as well as their places of birth.

Since the histories of so many Jewish families included Ohio, this should be an incredible database to find the records of our ancestors.

Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994 at www.familysearch.org

It seems as if each week, FamilySearch brings out more and more wonderful databases for finding our Jewish ancestors.  This week, the first part of the "Ohio County Marriages, 1789-1994" have been added to the Historical Collections at www.familysearch.org. At this time the collection is about 74% complete and includes over 2.1 million images.

The search is very easy, simply start by putting the name in that you are looking for. I was interested in searching for the name Moses Abrams, as I know he was married in Ohio to Mamie Koliskey. In many different records both names are spelled different ways, so I started by searching for just the first name Moses. That search gave me over 300 results, one of which was the following;

By clicking on the view image button on the left side of the record, I was able to pull up the original record of the marriage on the 30th of July 1900 of Moses Abrams and Mamie Koliskey.

As we look at the information provided for Moses we see that he was born in Pennsylvania in 1878 and at the time of the license he was living at 38 Orange Street. If we look at another of the free databases at www.familysearch, the 1900 United States Census we find a Moses Abrams living on Orange Street. He is listed as being born in 1878 in Pennsylvania. At the time of the census, he is living in the household of his sister and her family. Using the various databases, all available for free, we are started in put together a very nice record of this family.