Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Birth/Death Certificate Requests

Subject: Birth-Death certificate requests

This is an informational email for ordering Death info from before 1945 and birth prior to 1908:

Thank you for contacting the Ohio Historical Society. We do not have a process for identifying the death certificate without looking it up and copying it for you. Because we receive so many requests for death certificates, it is our policy that we do not do look ups until we have received payment. I realize that you probably do not want the certificates if they are not your relatives', but our policies do not allow for us to review a certificate without treating the process as a standard death certificate copy request. The process of looking up the death certificate is part of the cost included in the fee for the request. We are unable to make exceptions to the policies so that our procedures will remain standard for each person who makes a request.

If you can provide us with the name of the deceased, the year of death, and one or all of the following three pieces of data concerning the death, the fee for the death certificate is $6.00.

1. The month and day of death
2. The county or city of death
3. The death certificate number

Please make checks or money orders payable to the Ohio Historical Society. All fees are nonrefundable. It takes 30 days to process a death certificate request.

If you have any other questions, please let us know.

Sincerely,
Lisa

Research Services
Department Archives
Library Division
The Ohio Historical Society
1982 Velma Avenue
Columbus, OH 43211-2497
614-297-2510
ohsref2@ohiohistory.org

Open only on these days: Wed 9-5, Thur 1-9, and Sat 9-5

Deaths 1945 and after and births 1908 and after, write to:

Ohio Department of Health
Division of Vital Statistics
PO Box 15098
Columbus, OH 43215-0098
614-466-2531

Ohio Death Records

About Death Records in Ohio
source: http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/archlib/death1.html

Before 1867 Ohio did not make it a law to keep death records until
1867.

1867 through December 19, 1908

Ohio made it a law to record deaths in 1867. County probate courts kept
death
records between 1867 and December 19, 1908. There is no statewide index
to
death records from 1867 through December 19, 1908. Go to the list
of county
probate court death records held at the Ohio Historical Society. If
the Ohio
Historical Society does not hold a county's death records, please
contact the
county's probate court. A list of county courthouse contacts is
available at
Ohio County Courthouse Addresses.

December 20, 1908 through December 31, 1944

The state of Ohio began issuing certificates for deaths on December 20,
1908.
The Ohio Historical Society holds death certificates for the entire
state of
Ohio from December 20, 1908 through December 31, 1944. You may wish to
visit
our online Ohio Death
Certificate Index for 1913-1937.

January 1, 1945 to the present

Death certificates from 1945 to the present are held by the Ohio
Department
of Health. You should contact the Ohio Department of Health at the
address
below for information concerning their request procedures.

> Ohio Department of Health
> Division of Vital Statistics
> PO Box 15098
> Columbus, OH 43215-0098
> (614) 466-2531

Guidelines for requesting death certificates

When making a request for an Ohio death certificate between December
20,
1908 through December 31, 1944, please see the instructions for death
certificate requests.

Guidelines for requesting death records

Before making a request for a death record that occurred between 1867
through
December 19, 1908, please confirm that we hold records for the county
and
time period by reviewing County Death
Records Held at the Ohio Historical
Society. Death record requests that are submitted with a county,
name of
deceased, and exact year of death are processed by our staff as COPY
REQUESTS
. The county where the death was registered and the name of the
deceased must
be provided, but our staff will search a 10 year time frame if the
exact year
of death is unknown. Death record requests that are submitted with a
county,
name of deceased, and a time frame within the 10 year span are
processed by
our staff as RESEARCH
REQUESTS. A complete description of all request
policies can be reviewed at Guidelines
for Offsite Copy and Research Requests