I have heard that there were some births recorded earlier than 1867, but I have not found one yet in my research. All counties were required to start recording births in 1867 and it was the counties responsibility until Dec.19, 1908. These birth records were not recorded when the event occured, as they are today, but were reported once a year, usually around March/April/May. Therefore you will probably not find birth records for people born in 1908 between the last report done by the county and Dec. 20, 1908 when the state took over (the same thing happened with Death records). I have seen some counties that have records to 1909 which helps to cover this gap. Not all births were recorded. There are several people I have looked for, knowing they were born in that time period, that I could not find (even tried neighboring counties). I have seen early records where only the child's last name was given or no name was entered at all. This improved as the years progressed and probably the number of births recorded as well. Each entry is on one long line covering two pages in a ledger style book, so it is not like a certificate. There are fields for the name of the child, full date of birth, place born (state, county, and city, town or township), sex of the child, race, name of father, maiden name of mother, residence of the parents, and who reported the birth. Sometimes not all of the fields have information. Sometimes you do not get the maiden name of the mother. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has many of the Ohio counties birth records 1867-1908 on microfilm. These are the film numbers for Franklin Co.: Birth index, v. A-Z 1867-1908 FHL US/CAN Film 285134 Birth records, v. 1-3 1867-1886 FHL US/CAN Film 285135 Birth records, v. 4-6 1885-1897 FHL US/CAN Film 285136 Birth records, v. 7-10 1897-1907 FHL US/CAN Film 285137 If there is a Family History Center near you, you can get a roll of microfilm from the Family History Library for about six weeks for a charge of about $3.50. The FHC near me has a photocopy machine for microfilm and microfiche and they charge $0.25 per page for copies, but I have been told that not all Family History Centers have the same equipment. Film # 285134, Volumes 1-3 (1867-1886) of the Franklin Co., Ohio Births, has been extracted (volunteers went through the roll copying the information) and can be searched at: http://www.familysearch.org/ On the home page you will see 4 tabs labeled "Home", "Search", "Share" and "Library" If you click on "Library" you can find out where Family History Centers are located. You can also look at the Family History Library Catalog to see what other materials they have (tip - when you put in a county name, do not include the word 'County' or 'Co.' and do not abbreviate the state name). To search for the Franklin Co., Ohio extracted births - Click on "Search" On the left is a list of the things that can be searched. To look only at what has been exracted, click on "International Genealogical Index" You can enter a first and last name, or if you are looking for several births with the same last name, just put in a last name. In the box labeled "Region" select North America. In the "Batch Number" box put one of the following: C513354 for years 1867-1873 C513355 for years 1874-1878 C513356 for years 1878-1882 C513357 for years 1883-1886 Do not select "Use exact spelling" Click on "Search" In the results you can click on an underlined name to get the parents names. Unfortunately it does not give you the Volume and page number information, but you will know a record was made. If you are curious about other records that have been extracted, see this website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm#Page I have the four above mentioned microfilm rolls for Franklin Co., Ohio Births on indefinite loan at the FHC near me. I am willing to do lookups. I do not consider a surname extraction a lookup. Volume 1 is a pain to go through because you can't read most of the page numbers. In addition they refilmed several of the pages, trying to get a better picture I guess, so you can't even crank the handle slowly and count the pages. Linda CA Dorothy West writes: > Hi, > Can some one point me in the right direction.I would like to write to get birth records from the 1800's and the 1900's of people born in Columbus. Does any one know where to write? > Thanks, > Dottie > > > ==== OHFRANKL Mailing List ==== > This list will also be my way to contact you directly with any updates, changes, and other news about this page. > To search this list go to http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl and enter OHFRANKL for the list name. >