Formed February 1, 1815 from Ross, Scioto, and Adams counties · county seat Waverly. Repository addresses, migration history, early settler surnames, the Ohio & Erie Canal story, and a free printable record checklist.
Short episodes that walk through Pike County's records, one record type at a time.
Formation · Settlers & Migration · Probate · Land · Tax · Churches · Newspapers · Where to Look
Watch on YouTube230 Waverly Plaza, Suite 600, Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-2560
pikeprobate@yahoo.com · pikecountypjcourt.com
Wills, estate/administration files, guardianships, marriage records (1852 forward), adoptions, and some historic birth/death registers. Death records 1867–Dec 1908 are here, not at the Health District.
230 Waverly Plaza, Suite 500, Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-2622
Online deed search via countyfusion14.govos.com
Land and deed records, mortgages, and plats searchable back to the county's formation in 1815.
100 E. Second Street, Suite 2, Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-2715
Divorces, civil suits (including partition suits that divide land among heirs), and Common Pleas journals. Before 1852, this court also handled wills and estates.
230 Waverly Plaza, Suite 200, Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-4125
Current tax lists and property transfer records. Early tax duplicates are on FamilySearch and at the Ohio History Connection.
207 North Market Street, Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-4921
pikecountylibrary.org — see Genealogy & Local History
A dedicated Pike County Room: local newspapers on microfilm, census materials, Ancestry Library Edition, a digital newspaper collection, and a yearbook archive.
PO Box 224, Waverly, OH 45690
Meets 3rd Saturday monthly, 1:30 p.m., at the Garnet A. Wilson Library · Facebook: "Pike County Ohio Genealogy and Historical Society"
Compiles and publishes cemetery transcriptions and early county record abstracts. Functions as both the county's genealogical and historical society.
Phone number for this group came from a single secondary source — confirm before publishing if you plan to call.
116 S. Market St., Waverly, OH 45690 · (740) 947-7721
Certified copies of births (1908–present) and deaths (1919–present), Pike County occurrences only.
800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211 · (614) 297-2510
ohiohistory.org/research/archives-library
Statewide vital records indexes, naturalization records, and military service records. Reading room currently open Thursdays and Fridays only — use the online contact form for faster response than phone.
Not sure which office has what? See Which County Office Holds What.
Many Pike County record books are filmed and free to view at FamilySearch (free account required).
In Full-Text Search, add Pike County, Ohio as the place to find names inside handwritten deeds, wills, and court books. How to use it.
Pike County was formed in 1815 from Ross, Adams, and Scioto Counties. For records made before then, search the parent counties:
Part of Pike County lies in the Virginia Military District, land Virginia set aside for its Revolutionary War veterans. It was surveyed in irregular metes and bounds, and the first owners' records follow a warrant, entry, survey, and patent trail.
Other parts of the county were federal Congress Lands or smaller special tracts. Where land was sold by the federal government, the first purchase appears as a federal patent.
Titles that covered Pike County, historic and current, with where to search each one. Not every historic title has been digitized — several survive only on microfilm.
| Title | Years | Where to Search |
|---|---|---|
| Pike County Tocsin / Press / Weekly Scioto Valley Union | 1845-1862 | Chronicling America (Library of Congress) |
| The Piketon Journal | 1847-1860 | Chronicling America (Library of Congress) |
| Waverly Democrat | 1862-1867 | Chronicling America; Pike County Library digital archive |
| The Waverly Watchman | 1867-1896 | Pike County Library digital archive (Genealogy & Local History) |
| Pike County Republican | 1868-1893 | Chronicling America (Library of Congress) |
| Pike County News Watchman | 1991-present | Chronicling America (recent years); newswatchman.com archives |
The first permanent settlers arrived from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Three Chenoweth brothers from Virginia and John Noland of Pennsylvania settled the Pee Pee prairie near Piketon around 1796 — the same year Chillicothe was laid out. Robert Lucas, who later became Ohio's governor, arrived from Shepherdstown, Virginia in 1802 and settled near Portsmouth before moving to Piketon. Beginning around 1825, German immigrant families settled heavily in the eastern part of the county.
By the 1880 census, Pike County's population showed where those waves of settlement had come from:
Bars scaled to the Ohio-born count so the wave of second-generation settlement is visible against the smaller number of arrivals still living who were born elsewhere.
Source: 1880 U.S. Census nativity figures as reported in Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Pike County chapter.
Documented in and around Piketon by the county's earliest years (1796–1820s), drawn from Henry Howe's 19th-century county history. If your ancestor carried one of these names, the Probate Court and Recorder's Office records above are the place to start.
This is a starting list, not a complete one — the Pike County Ohio Genealogy and Historical Society's cemetery transcriptions and the library's local history room can extend it considerably.
When the canal was first surveyed, it was routed straight through Piketon — the county seat at the time. Then Robert Lucas, Speaker of the Ohio House and a Pike County landowner, used his influence to move the route to the opposite side of the Scioto River, through Waverly and his own land near Jasper instead. The canal opened in 1832, and the water-power it gave Waverly fueled the town's growth so much that it took the county seat from Piketon in 1861. For a genealogist, this matters: it's why so many county records shifted from Piketon to Waverly, and why land and business records for the same family can appear in both towns depending on the decade.
Fill in what you're looking for, print it, and take it with you to the courthouse or library.
Brick Walls & Buckeyes
brickwallsbuckeyes.com · Pike County, Ohio
Addresses and links last checked October 2026.
County guides, record walkthroughs, and brick wall breakthroughs. Subscribe on YouTube and tap the bell so new episodes find you.
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