When my mother paid off her mortgage, she received the Abstract of Title, which showed possession of the land from the early 1800's. I recently purchased an older historic home, and paid cash, so there is no mortgage. Who has possession of the absract of title, and how do I obtain it? I live in Ohio.

You have to contact a title insurance company and order a title search. You should have done this before you bought the property, because that's how you find out if there are any liens on the property and if the title is clear.

Order a title search immediately and purchase the title insurance policy after the search is done.

I did purchase the property through a realtor, and the transaction was handled through a title agency. A title search was done.

I did purchase the property through a realtor, and the transaction was handled through a title agency. A title search was done.

Okay, good. :) The title search is the abstract of title. Call the title agency and ask for a copy of it.

The one that my mother has is the original, with all the yellowed dogeared pages. Would the title company have the original for mine, or is it kept in the county couthouse?

The original of all ownership papers is filed and stored at the court house. You had no reason to pay for a new abstract ( complete title search) since one was just done by a close family member, So a search of just the last years of her ownship would have been all you needed, but you could hire a title company or real estate attorney to do a new search for you and provide you a copy.

The deed, quit claim, warranty and so on is what transfers ownership, you should have received that and the original filed at the court house

The one that my mother has is the original, with all the yellowed dogeared pages. Would the title company have the original for mine, or is it kept in the county couthouse?
The abstract of title is basically a copy of the deeds of all prior owners of the property. When an owner receives a deed, the original is sent to the county clerk or county register's office where it gets recorded. The county clerk stamps it with the recording information, makes a copy for their office and returns the original stamped deed to the property owner.

When you obtain an abstract of title you are getting copies of the recorded deeds that the county clerk has on file for that property. The reason that your mother's copy was yellowed and dog-eared is because the pages have been sitting around for a long time. :)

The abstract of title is a report that a specific company generates. For mortgage or purchase purposes the title company usually only goes back 30-50 years. You have to pay much more to trace back the title to the 1800's and this would be for novelty purposes only.