The 1810 census does not show any McNitts or McNutts living in Ohio, but by 1820 a number of McNutts appear. Among the arrivals in the years after the War of 1812 were several members of the family of David McNutt who settled in what is now Erie, Ottawa, Sandusky, Huron, and Seneca counties, just east and southeast of Toledo.
Although vital records, with the exception of some marriage records, do not exist for those early years in Ohio and census records from before 1850 show ony the names of heads of families, a family history has survived that connects together these families and gives us the names of many of their children. Although the history lists no author or date, internal evidence shows that it was written by David McNitt (1837-1929), a grandson of David McNutt, probably in the early 1900s. In addition to David McNutt's family, it discusses a number of closely-related McNitts who lived in the same area, but eventually moved on to Michigan or Illinois.