Cincinnati (Ohio), Department of Health, Birth and Death records

With a few exceptions, the official death records for the City of Cincinnati begin in 1865 and those for birth in 1874. Until 1908, birth and death records were filed and maintained locally in Ohio and no statewide index of records was maintained. After 1908, the Ohio Department of Health began to maintain a database.

The Cincinnati Health Department maintained local records filed prior to 1908 until 2003, when over 500,000 card files were transferred to the University of Cincinnati Libraries' Archives and Rare Books Library as a result of a government records program of the Ohio Network of American History Research Centers . 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. In 2011, digitized copies of these birth and death records were made freely available through the University of Cincinnati libraries website.