I would guess that a good number of people who have U.S. ancestors that migrated around the country also have ancestors that lived in Ohio at some point in time. My ancestors traveled through the state, staying only a few years on their journey westward, but those few years are enough to raise my interest in this six-CD set. I was pleased to see this CD because it features county histories — most genealogists like to flesh out their ancestor by including information about their location, and local historical events that might have influenced their lives. The title of the CD is a little misleading, however — there are no family history "books" on the CD, instead the family history information comes from within the county history books.

According to the introduction, the CD set is made up of thirty-five books, most of which were published in small numbers for a limited distribution, and detail about 700,000 Ohio residents. As a person who has a limited genealogy budget, I am always delighted to see reasonably priced CDs that contain works that are hard to locate, or too expensive to own (such as large sets of volumes). This CD certainly falls into the latter category, since most of the books listed are not available to the majority of researchers.

The following books are included in the CD:

August 12, 1998

Related Family Archives • Family History • Genealogical Records • Local and County Histories • Ohio More Articles • Local Histories: Finding and Evaluating • Your Family in Print Helpful Web Sites • Ohio On the Message Boards • GenForum: Ohio

• 1880 History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties, Ohio with Illustrations an Biographical Sketches, of Some of the Prominent Men and Pioneers
• 1881 History of Fayette County, Ohio, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest and the State of Ohio by R.S. Dills
• 1883 History of Perry County, Ohio by E.H. Colburn
• 20th Century History of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio and Representative Citizens edited and compiled by Honorable William M. Rockel
• Centennial History of Coshocton County, Ohio 1909, Volumes I and II by William J. Bahmner
• Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio; Its Past and Present (this book is a partial entry only; evidently the entire book was not provided to Broderbund)
• A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers
• History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and Incidentally Historical Collections Pertaining to Border Warfare and the Early Settlement of the Adjacent Portion of the Ohio Valley
• History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Volumes I and II edited by Judge H.J. Eckley and Judge Wm. T. Perry
• History of Clinton County, Ohio
• History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers
• History of Erie County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich
• The History of Fulton County, Ohio edited by Thomas Mikesell
• History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and most Prominent Men
• History of Greene County, Ohio by George F. Robinson
• History of Greene County, Ohio by R.S. Dills
• History of Hamilton County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches compiled by Henry Am Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford
• The History of Hardin County, Ohio
• Memoirs of the Lower Ohio Valley: Personal and Genealogical With Portraits
• History of Marion County, Ohio and Representative Citizens edited and compiled by J. Wilbur Jacoby, A.M.
• History of Medina County and Ohio
• History of Montgomery County, Ohio
• History of Preble County, Ohio
• History of Sandusky County, Ohio, With Portraits and Biographies of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers
• History of Seneca County, Ohio
• History of Summit County, With an Outline Sketch of Ohio
• History of Stark County, With an Outline Sketch of Ohio
• History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Volumes I and II
• History of Warren County, Ohio
• History of Wayne County, Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time by Ben Douglass
• History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Public Men
• Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, Volumes I and II edited by Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham, 1896
• Ohio, Her Counties, Her Townships, and Her Towns
• Pioneer and General History of Geauga County, with Sketches of Some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men
• A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio, Containing Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States, and Biographies of the Governors of Ohio

There is a good deal of biographical information to be found on the CD, the amount varying per book (I saw biographies as small as a paragraph, and as large as several pages, some of which also had photos) and lots of background information about the locations in which the individuals lived. As with other Family Archive CDs, you can search the entire CD for an individual; unfortunately you cannot search for a keyword or phrase (the search Expert fields let you search for a name, disk, section, or page number). Although such a search might be useless in a traditional genealogical CD, it would be extremely beneficial for this particular one. However, the contents are organized by county, so you can browse through the book relevant to that county with ease (you can also use the GoTo command to go to a specific page number).

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