Union County Youth Enumerations, 1834-1862
(6,957 records)
(Updated: April 22, 2015)

Enumerations of School Age Youth (1831-1967)

These records contain enumeration returns of school age youth between the ages of five and eighteen showing the township, and school district, year of enumeration, parents names, names of children in household, ages of children, gender of children, total number of boys and girls listed either as “white” or “colored”, grand total, and dates reported and filed.

In 1825, Ohio passed its first common school law.  It mandated a half-mill property tax be levied to finance public education throughout the state.  Townships and corporations were required to divide themselves into school districts “for the instruction of…youth of every class and grade, without distinction, in reading, writing and arithmetic, and other necessary branches of education.  On March 10, 1831, an act “to provide for the support and better regulation of common schools” was passed to revise the original legislation.

This act required the clerk of each school district to annually make in November a list of all youth in their district and return the enumeration to the county auditor.  The returns varied by year, township and sometimes by district, but in some cases showed the names of parents, children and the children’s ages.  In later years the clerk were only required to send an abstract of the enumeration to the auditor and were also only required to keep the original enumeration for five years.  The laws authorizing the enumeration of school age youth were repealed on November 14, 1967.

This index contains a record of the returns filed with the county auditor that lists the parents’ names.  It also includes those returns where the children were listed at well showing their age and gender.  The records are scattered and incomplete, but the ones listed are a complete record of the ones that have survived to the present and are in the possession the Union County Records Center & Archives.

Table Keys
Regular Type – Enumeration List just Includes Parents
Bold Type – Enumeration List May Also Include Parents and Children