New Indexes Posted on the ARB Website

declaration The Archives & Rare Books Library has posted on its website indexes to two major Hamilton County Ohio resources, wills and citizenship papers.

The will index covers wills filed in Hamilton County Ohio probate court from 1791-1901. The original wills are housed in the Archives & Rare Books Library and can be requested by mail or viewed in the Library. The will index is available in a series of PDF files organized by surname that can be searched and downloaded. Also available on the index page are scanned wills of some prominent Cincinnatians, such as Charles McMicken, Levi Coffin, and John Cleves Symmes.

The citizenship index covers the years 1837-1916 and includes the complete information from the documents on the detail page, which can be accessed by clicking on the name of the filer. The citizenship records cannot be copied. However, researchers are welcomed to visit the library to view them and take non-flash photographs. Most of the documents in this collection are Declarations of Intent, the first paper that was required by immigrants when they started their quest to become citizens. Fires in the courthouse destroyed many of the original citizenship papers held by Hamilton County in the nineteenth century. However the Declarations have survived.