With a few exceptions, the official death records for the City of Cincinnati begin in 1865 and those for birth in 1874. As a result of a government records program of the Ohio Network of American History Research Centers, in 2003 over 500,000 card files from the Cincinnati Health Department were transferred to the UC Libraries' Archives and Rare Books Library. The cards contain the official records of births and deaths for Cincinnati citizens from the beginning dates as noted through 1908, with additional records through 1912. These cards are sometimes typed and many times handwritten, and were created by the Cincinnati Health Department several decades ago to preserve the data originally entered in ledger books. The ledger books are also preserved in the UC Libraries, but are of such fragility that any turning of the pages results in flaking and tears. The informational cards are considered the official and legal records of births and deaths for this time period.

While the bulk of these records begin in 1865, a small number of records show earlier dates. It is believed that these early records reflect the "restoration" of vital documents by citizens after the 1884 Hamilton County Courthouse fire, and were eventually sent to the City of Cincinnati Health Department for recording.

For birth and death records created after 1912, consult the State of Ohio Vital Records Office or the Cincinnati Health Department. For birth or death records created between 1909 and 1912, even if found in this collection, you may be able to request a more complete record from these offices. Certificate numbers (typically found in the top right corner) may be present in records in this collection from 1909-1912, and can be used to request the additional record. (Records in this collection before 1909 typically do not have certificate numbers.)

Birth records typically contain the name of the individual, birth date, race (often abbreviated as a single letter), gender (often abbreviated as 'M' or 'F'), name of father, name of mother, occupation of father, address (sometimes a home address, sometimes a hospital address), and often but not always: the birthplace or nationality of the father and mother, the doctor or midwife, and the hospital. For death records: name, age, date of death, cause of death, address, occupation, race, gender, attending physician, funeral home, and place of burial. Death records typically have an orange background, and birth records a white (often aged to off-white or yellow) background.

The names of individuals born or deceased, and the names of parents, are entered as Subjects. The date of birth or death is entered as the Issue Date. Occupation and Cause of Death are entered as Subjects, preceded respectively by the phrase 'Occupation' or 'Cause of Death'. Address is entered in a Description field, preceded by the term 'Address:'. Age at death is entered in a Description field, preceded by the phrase 'Age at death:'. All other information that appears on the record has been entered into a Description field, with individual elements separated by a forward slash ('⁄').

Typical birth record


Typical death record

Yes, by selecting browse options under "This Community", or by doing a full text search or an Advanced Search while you are on the Community page. (See red arrows on illustration below.) The main page of the Cincinnati Births and Deaths collection is called a "Community" whereas the collections for individual date ranges are called "Collections".

Alternatively, you can select a collection to narrow your search to a range of years, and then browse or search.

The names of those born or deceased are subjects and also appear at the beginning of titles. The names of parents of those born, if present on the record, are also subjects. The examples below show browsing and searching for the name of "Moses Adams".

You can do a full text search across all collections from the main community page, or within individual collections for year ranges. Enter the name in last name, first name format.

You can also browse the subject and title indexes by name, again in last name, first name format. Choose subject browse from the main community page or within individual collections for a year range, and then enter the name where it says "Or enter first few letters" (see illustrations below).

Additionally, from the main community page or from any individual collection by year range, you can go to the Advanced Search, and specify title or keyword or All fields, and enter the name in question.

Dates of births and deaths are entered in the Issue Date field. First narrow your search by selecting the collection for the appropriate date range, and then select "By Issue Date" from the Browse panel on the left under "This Collection". Next enter the date where it says "Or type in a year" and click "Go". Important: enter dates in the format of YYYY-MM-DD. The example below advances the browse index to the date of January 23, 1900, or "1900-01-23".

When the cause of death is present on a record, it is entered into the Subject field. The phrase "Cause of death" appears before whatever cause of death is noted on the record. Any abbreviations or misspellings on the original record are not changed. First choose subject browse from the main community page or within individual collections for a year range, and then enter "cause" where it says "Or enter first few letters" (see illustration below).

It may be helpful to consult this glossary of 19th Century Medical Terminology compiled by the staff of the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Occupations may be present on records either as the occupation of a deceased individual, or the occupation of a parent on a birth record. Occupations are entered in the Subject field. The term "Occupation" appears before whatever occupation is noted on the record. Any abbreviations or misspellings on the original record are not changed. First choose subject browse from the main community page or within individual collections for a year range, and then enter "occupation" where it says "Or enter first few letters" (see illustration below).

You can also use Advanced Search to combine occupation with cause of death, although variations in terminology and spellings complicate this task. From the main community page or from any individual collection by year range, select Advanced Search. In the example below, the term "fireman" is entered with search type "Full Text." Next click on the plus sign (see red arrow), to get a second field, and in that field enter "death" with search type "Title". Adding "death" should limit the results to records that are death records, excluding birth records where a parent was a fireman. The results of this search should yield a selection of records where the deceased individual may have been a fireman, allowing the searcher to peruse the causes of death for this set of records.

Street Addresses if present on records are entered in the Description field. Any abbreviations or misspellings on the original record are not changed. Addresses are sometimes recorded as the name of a hospital or group residence, such as "Childrens Home". The description field is included in the general keyword search. To search with precision for a street address, first go to Advanced Search from the main community page or within individual collections for a year range, and then select 'Description' as the 'Search Type'. You can combine an address search with a name search as is shown in the example below, which demonstrates searching for the surname 'Althoff' on the street named 'Sycamore'.