Ohio
88 county guides, a county map, university collections and a real township-records discovery. Find local holdings and practical access notes.
Explore Ohio guides →FREE RESEARCH GUIDESFind your next
Find your next
research destination.
Follow a place, a community or a question toward records worth opening. Each guide explains what to look for, who holds it and how to begin.
TURN A QUESTION INTO A PLAN
Where should I look next?
Choose a place, period and question. Get three practical research routes, with links to local collections and a printable plan.
Build a free research plan →Start with parents, a marriage or a move. Covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan.
FOLLOW A LOCATION
COUNTY COLLECTION GUIDES
COUNTY COLLECTION GUIDES
COUNTY COLLECTION GUIDES
TOWNSHIP, MUNICIPAL & SCHOOL RECORDS
83 COUNTY GUIDES
COUNTRY STARTING GUIDE
Browse by place
485 county guides: every county in Ohio (88), Indiana (92), Kentucky (120), Illinois (102) and Michigan (83). Each guide highlights selected collections and access routes, not every surviving record.
Indiana
92 county guides covering local archives, libraries and community collections. Use the county map to choose your next research stop.
Explore Indiana guides →Kentucky
Explore all 120 Kentucky county guides to family files, school histories, local manuscripts and early-settlement research routes.
Explore Kentucky guides →Illinois
Explore all 102 counties for school registers, road papers, local government records and community collections. Find catalog references and practical repository access instructions.
Explore Illinois guides →Michigan
Explore all 83 counties across both Michigan peninsulas: township assessments, school collections, occupational records and practical access routes.
Explore Michigan guides →Philippines
Begin with a town, parish and event. Explore civil registration, church records, community resources and Filipino American research routes.
Start Philippine research →FOLLOW COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
HERITAGE STARTING GUIDE
COMMUNITY STARTING GUIDE
Browse by heritage or community
These starting guides cross modern borders. Use them alongside the places and periods in your family’s story.
Jewish genealogy
Identify ancestral places, choose a geographic research route and explore community collections. Separate indexes, testimony and original records.
Start Jewish genealogy research →Volga Germans
Identify the colony, compare revision-list references and follow migration routes. Prepare a focused question for a specialist repository or society.
Start Volga German research →FOLLOW THE WORKBUSINESS RECORDS EMPLOYER STARTING GUIDE
Occupations, Employers & Businesses
A workplace can lead to personnel records, union collections, publications and community sources. Begin with the employer, location and years.
Research an ancestor’s business
Follow names and addresses through state filings, older incorporation records, directories and archival collections.
Follow a business trail →Ford Motor Company
Check the limited personnel-record coverage, prepare a request and explore union archives and workplace collections.
Research a Ford employee →FOLLOW PUBLIC SERVICE
Was your ancestor a local official?
Search Ohio’s local-officer rosters, explore women’s service before 1920 and follow a Toledo library trustee through conflicting initials into annual reports.
Follow an officeholder into the records →ONE USEFUL NEXT STEP
Where should I start?
I know a surname, but not the town.
Start with a documented person and work backward through records naming places, relatives and migration. A surname alone does not establish an origin.
Plan your first research step →I know where they lived.
Choose a place guide above. Note the date and jurisdiction, then look for a collection that could answer your specific question.
Choose a place →I have a document I cannot interpret.
Keep the full page and citation. Compare handwriting and headings, preserve uncertainty and check any AI reading against the original.
See a document-reading example →HELP KEEP THIS GUIDE USEFUL
Know a collection we should include?
Suggest a correction, an overlooked collection or an updated access detail. An official link or source helps us check it before making a change. Please leave out private family documents and sensitive personal information.
Suggest a correction or collection