When searching for birth records in the Midwest you are limited on the time period in which the records were recorded. Putnam Co. OH is no exception. The birth records are located with the Clerk of Courts at the county seat of Ottawa. These records are only available if you attempting to purchase certified copies. As in all cases the service varies and is heavily restricted by privacy laws.
The good news is there are two other areas that you can get birth records in the county. The first one is at the Putnam County Library which is located at the main library in Ottawa. As of this printing the collection has been moved to Ft Jennings Library due to the flood that occurred in the spring of 2007 that effected downtown Ottawa. The second location for records related to birth are at Bowling Green Center for Archival Collections in Bowling Green, OH.
The early birth records for the county are available on microfilm at the Ft Jennings Library. The first records are from the court house records and date from 1867-1920 and the birth registration that dates from 1876-1925. The next series of records were kept by the Health Department and they run from 1908-1996. When at the library you are able to make copies off of the microfilm for your records. These should be acceptable for most documentation purposes.
Located at the BG archives is several different records concerning births. They are
Birth Records- 1857- 1920
Index to Birth records- 1854-1925
Index to Birth Registrations and Corrections- 1941-1964
All of these records are available on microfilm and can be copied.
Another source for birth related records also located at the library in Ft Jennings is the Catholic Church records for the county which include baptisms. Also available are records from various other religions in Putnam County. These records also include baptisms.
For those settlers of Mennonite faith another excellent source is the collection at Bluffton University. The Musselman Collection was covered in a posting from a couple of weeks ago.
This is a must see for people of this faith.
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