Old Jefferson County courthouse records were stored in the basement and in the annex/jail cells for many years.  Some of the records date back to the formation of our county, in 1797 and later the formation of the state of Ohio in 1802.  They tell the story of the early pioneers in Ohio and some whom were lived in what is now Columbiana County, Belmont, Carroll and Columbiana Counties.
These records have been slowly deteriorating, some were placed in wet basements and others in dry hot storage spaces and yet others in outside storage sheds, exposed to all types of weather extremes.  Some sat on metal shelves, while others sat in cardboard boxes or on the floor.  The records were not easily accessible to genealogists and some records were never revealed for public access or researchers. Our archive and research center was created in the fall of 2009 due to a need to preserve county records. With the cooperation of the probate and common pleas judges, they have given the records to our chapter on a permanent loan bases. This project began in 2002 and has taken many years to come to this point.  
 
Our chapter members stepped up and a chapter member offered her office to our chapter to house and archive the valuable records in November of 2009. Now the work begins of sorting the records, indexing the records, digitizing the records and finally and opening our archives to the public for research purposes.
 
The Jefferson County Chapter, OGS archive and research center is a must for genealogical research.  Our archive will consist of many valuable genealogical materials in their original state. Various collections have been donated and we will continue to accept all donations of family histories, bible records, maps, journals, church records, cemetery records, local histories, yearbooks, directories, veterans/military records,  and much more - too many to list in this format. We gratefully accept material on Columbiana County.
While we  will be open to researchers with volunteers available to assist, we will offer a mail and email queries for researcher and for copies of documents. Our vast indexing program will allow us to provide information for historians and researchers. 
Our chapter and archive will depend upon memberships, donations, research requests and copying fees to operate the center.  Many office supplies will be needed and most importantly, money, through donations will be needed to purchase a copy machine, a high quality scanner and printer. We will continue to need donations for various archival materials to store and organize all the ledgers, probate packets, and various  loose papers that have been given to us from the various county courthouse records. 
Please check back here to see when we will be open for business to researchers. We are now operating out of boxes and organizing materials to prepare for digitizing these records.
 
JCC OGS's mailing address is PO Box 2367, Wintersville, OH 43953.  www.jeffcochapter.com

Please click on any of the following photos to view a larger version.

Before we organized the probate packets.	After we organized the probate packets.			The ledgers research room.
The early stage of organizing courthouse records in the Ledger Room.	The early stage of organizing courthouse records in the Ledger Room.			The early stage of organizing courthouse records in the Ledger Room.
The early stage of organizing courthouse records in the Ledger Room.	Inside of the ledgers.			Inside of the ledgers.
Inside of the ledgers.	Chapter member and records volunteer, Richard Russelo "ironing" the probate packets which is part of the process of preparing them to be digitized. April 9, 2010, permission to post his photo given. Photo was taken by chapter historian, Naomi Furbee.		Ledger
Moving day March 23, 2010 Records were collected from the county courthouse and the basement of the annex/jail.
Terry Hosenfeld bringing dolly full of books to the archives		Flora VerStraten and Gail Komar putting books on shelves at archive.
Below: Terry Hosenfeld and Cathy Dillon moving at the archives Terry Hosenfeld and Everett Dillon unloading the truck/trailer at the archives