Source Information

Ancestry.com. Summit County, Ohio, U.S., Death Records, 1866-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
Original data: Summit County, Ohio, Death Records, 1870-1908. Akron, OH: Summit County Court of Common Pleas - Probate Division. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

About Summit County, Ohio, U.S., Death Records, 1866-1908

Historical Background:

In 1867 a law requiring county registration of births and deaths was enacted in Ohio. Later, in 1908, another law went into effect shifting the responsibility of birth and death registration over from the county to the state. This is when certificates began being issued.

Pre-1908 records are held by county probate courts, while post-1908 records are held by the Office of Vital Statistics.

About This Database:

This database contains death records for Summit County, Ohio from 1866-1908. The originals are located in the Summit County Probate courthouse in Akron, Ohio.

Because these are earlier records, this database consists of record books (as opposed to certificates for later years), and index books. The record books and index books contain basically the same information. However, the forms in the index books include a column for “gender”, whereas the forms used in the record books do not.

Other information recorded in these books includes:

  • Date of entry

  • Record entry number

  • Name of deceased

  • Date of death

  • Marital status

  • Age

  • Place of death

  • Place of birth

  • Occupation

  • Name of parents if an infant with no name

  • Color

  • Disease, direct or indirect cause of death

  • Place of residence

  • Remarks