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Hamilton County Genealogical Society Record Index - Data Base |
Restored Hamilton County, Ohio Marriages 1808-1849
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Title: Restored Hamilton County, Ohio Marriages 1808-1849 Indexed
by Jeffrey G. Herbert, Hamilton County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society,
Cincinnati, Ohio 1998. Introduction from published book: Important
Note to Researchers On
24, March 1884 a great tragedy struck Cincinnati. A riot started that evening
in the downtown area and resulted in the burning of the Hamilton County
Courthouse. This fire destroyed many of the records that had been kept
previously in the courthouse, one of which was marriage license applications
and returns. Apparently many of the 'older' records (before 1860) were stored
in another part of the courthouse and did not sustain as extensive damage as
those from the period 1860 until March 1884, however, the license returns before
1860 have entire month gaps where there are no records surviving, and some
records are missing first or last names. Since
this index is concerned with the time period before 1850, it is important to
note that there were several previous fires that completely or partially
destroyed the courthouse. In 1812 the first brick courthouse on 5th Street
between Walnut and Main was accidentally burnt by soldiers. In 1819 a new
building was constructed on 10th Street, now known as Court Street. This
building was completely destroyed in July 1849 when a neighboring slaughter
house caught on fire and the flames spread to the roof of the courthouse. For
several years county business was conducted on the upper floors of a nearby
slaughter house nicknamed the 'Pork House Court House'. Construction on a new
building was started in 1851, which served the county until the March 1884
fire completely destroyed that building. The
reconstructed licenses at the courthouse today for the period before 1850
comprise approximately 50% of the total licenses applied for during this time
period. This index is an attempt to reconstruct and supplement as much of
that data as possible for the time period before December 1849. This index
contains almost 23,000 marriages which occurred in Hamilton County before
1850. The
primary base of information for this index is the restored marriage license
applications and returns that are still available at the Hamilton County
Courthouse. To try to compensate for some gaps in the restored marriage licenses
available, and also to help the researcher locate additional sources of
information, church records were checked, when available and permitted, and
these are so indicated in the code column. In the cases where the code
indicates a church, this is the actual date when the marriage occurred. During
these early days, however, many churches did not keep records of marriages.
These were recorded by the individual minister who performed the marriage,
and kept as his private records, all of which have been subsequently lost.
During the 1820's and 1830's time period, there are entire months and years
where gaps exist in the surviving marriage records at the courthouse. Also,
to date no publication of marriage licenses in newspapers have been found to
supplement the gaps in the courthouse records as was the case in the 1870's
and 1880's. Unfortunately this information about early inhabitants of
Hamilton County may be lost to us forever. There
may be a great deal of spelling variations in the way a first or last name
may be spelled. This might be due to the 'Americanization' of a name after
the immigrant lived here for a few years. Also most of the church names where
not written in English during this time. All of the German protestant
churches kept their records in German and used the old German script style of
handwriting, which makes interpretation very difficult. Almost all of the
Catholic churches kept their records in Latin, which can make translation to
an equivalent English name difficult. For example, the name 'Jacob' in Latin
can be translated into English as either 'James' or 'Jacob', also the name
'Joanna' in Latin can be translated into English as "Johanna', 'Joanne',
'Joan' or 'Jane'. In addition, some common spelling variations to watch for,
are the frequent interchangeability of the letters 'C' and 'K' (e.g.
Carl/Karl) The
unique German letters and their usual English equivalents are listed below as
an aid to the reader. Any unique German letter that was recorded, would be
translated as found below. '
ä ' translated into English as 'ae' '
ö ' translated into English as 'oe' '
ü ' translated into English as 'ue' '
ß ' translated into English as 'sz' or 'ss' Some
examples are as follows: (Schäfer = Schaefer), (Schröder = Schroeder) ,
(Müller = Mueller) , (Bußmann = Bussmann). |