Warren County Genealogical Society

Get organized! Create a 3-ring binder with family group records for each family and a related pedigree chart. Interview relatives. Attend the WCGS Summer Workshop Classes or buy the booklet. Visit the WCGS Resource Library. Attend State and National conferences: Family History Jamboree (Feb) Federation of Genealogical Societies (Aug) National Genealogical Society (Apr) Ohio Genealogical Society (Apr)

There are two possible ways to find your ancestors, even if they are not listed on one of our pages: Check alternate spellings. Names often times get mistyped, spelled incorrectly, or changed. For example, there are some great stories behind the changing of the surname DEATH to DEARTH and also IORNS to IRONS. Contact our Research Department. WCGS has many other records not yet indexed or put online.

You have two ways to get the full information from our indexes online: Contact our Research Department. Visit our Resource Library to look up the records yourself. Our staff can answer any questions you may have and orient you to the many resources in the library. We will also assist you in locating other research avenues to save you time and help you be more successful. In both cases, you should have the following details to aid us in helping you find your ancestors / relatives. First- Write down exactly what information you would like to find and include as much detail about the individual(s) as you can. You can include pedigrees and family group records. Be specific and focus your search; you'll be more successful that way. Second- make a list of all the web pages where you saw your ancestor listed and please include the reference page or index number. This will speed up the process. Third- make a list of the documents you have already copied, so we don't duplicate your research. Lastly- please include your full name and mailing address. Unfortunately we will not be able to respond to queries that don't include a full name and mailing address.

No, we have extensive resources in our library, too numerous to list on our web site. Researchers are welcome to browse the stacks in our library. We are also centrally located to other major Warren County repositories and can make copies of most original documents that we might not already have on our shelves. Please contact our Research Department for further help.

Yes, as more records become available they will be indexed and eventually included on our website. Indexing is a timely process, and since WCGS is staffed by volunteers, the indexing of records is dependent upon volunteer efforts. Please check back often for updates to our website. We have many exciting projects we are working on that need lots of data entry and help. If you would like to help and are local please call 513-695-1144 or email us.

In Warren County, Ohio, birth and death records began to be recorded in 1867. We have Birth Records indexed from 1867 to 1925 and Death Records from 1867 to 1930. These are searchable by surname in our computer databases or online on our website. We also have indexes for the township assessor records from 1886-1919 for births & deaths and late births from 1868-1938. Adoptions are indexed from 1856-1917. (We do have a few later adoptions but they are not published yet). We have indexed Marriage Records from 1803 (their start date) to 1907 searchable by bride or groom surnames. Divorces are indexed from 1803-1900.

Yes! Our master obituary index covers Obituaries from the start date (about 1810) to the current year. The index in our library is searchable by surname and provides the reference needed to find a copy of the actual obituary in the binders located on the shelves of our library. We have photocopied obituaries from many of the major newspapers in the area, and have microfilms for many of these in our library. If you have an obituary on a Warren County ancestor we are missing, please send us a copy to WCGS, 406 Justice Drive, Lebanon, OH 45036. We would love to add it to our file.

Funeral Home records are a great source of information on our ancestors. Many times information about the deceased such as birth date and place as well as parents names are listed. Death date and place, cause of death, burial date and cemetery interred are many times also included. Surviving relatives such as spouse, parents, children, siblings, etc. may also be included. WCGS is in the process of obtaining copies of all funeral home records in our county. As we gain permission from these funeral homes, they are copied, organized and indexed and indexes are placed online. To date we have copied the following funeral home records: Franklin Area Funeral Homes (Eaton, Anderson, Unglesby and Croll); Johnson Funeral Home (Loveland and Lebanon); Oswald-Hoskins Funeral Home (Lebanon); Tufts-Schildmeyer Funeral Home; and Waynesville Area Funeral Home Records (Stubbs, Conner and McClure). We are currently in the process of copying Vale-Hoskins Funeral Home records. See our Funeral Home Records page for more details.

Probate Records start in 1803 and continue to the present date. The originals are available either at the Probate Court or Archives. We have published abstract books for Will and Estate Records to date through box 350. Information from boxes 351 (~1888) to box 712 (~1914) has already been abstracted and is in the process of being verified and put into publication format. Check our Wills and Estate Records Books page for updates. The index for just the will and estate records has been completed and will soon be listed online. We are also working on a master probate index. The old index was arranged by first letter of the surname and then by the first letter of the given name. We have revised this so it is now searchable by surname from 1803-1936 (up to DE book 18). We are in the process of finishing the later years (~1936-1996) by indexing the remaining probate books from DE book 19 to DE book 57. Adoptions have been indexed from 1856-1917. Lunacy Records have been indexed from 1904-1913. Guardian Bonds have been indexed from 1865-1868 and Guardianships cover 1803-1916.

Yes, we have copies of all Warren County, Ohio, Census Records. One of our projects is to arrange these into a searchable database by surname for all the census years. In our library we also have access online to the Ancestry.com census indexes and images.

Land records begin in 1795 when Warren County was still considered part of Hamilton County, Ohio. We have Deeds from 1799-1832 searchable by Grantee to Grantor or Grantor to Grantee. Other years are available but we have not finished abstracting or indexing these yet.

Transcribing cemetery tombstones was one of the first projects WCGS embarked on back in 1981. We have a series of Cemetery Books available for purchase from the headstone readings. We are in the process of updating these records and obtaining digital images for all existing tombstones in our county. The Cemetery Indexes have been loaded to our old website while the digital images have been loaded to the Warren County OH GenWeb site. Unfortunately, many GenWeb sites were taken down a number of years ago. Some have come back online, but the site with our cemetery images was not one of them. We DO have images available on our computers in the Resource Library and hope to have them added to our new website in the future. If you would like to help digitize tombstones from our cemeteries, please contact us. We are also trying to obtain copies of cemetery ledger books, and funeral home records to have a more complete listing at each cemetery regardless of whether or not a tombstone exists.

We have extensive Military Records in our library and have published quite a few books with information on servicemen for specific wars. Check our Military Books page for a complete listing of our military books available for purchase.

Yes. We have histories and various records for many other counties in Ohio. In addition, we have holdings on many states. Click here for a History of Warren County, Ohio.

Please see our Lineage Societies page for more information about these.

Send copies of your Bible Records, charts, files, book(s), or family information to our Resource Library at Warren County Genealogical Society, 406 Justice Drive, Lebanon, OH 45036. Please include your name and address as the submitter. Family books are catalogued and placed with similar books. Charts, family papers, Bible records, etc., are placed in similar record books or in our Family Vertical Files. All are accessible to researchers via our card catalog.