Ohio Revised Code Title LIII. Real Property § 5301.15

When a deed executed for land purchase from the state is lost or destroyed, or when a person who has an interest in such land, by the use of diligence cannot find it, and no record exists from which a certified copy can be made to supply the evidence of such deed, or when a certificate of the purchase of land sold at a land office of this state, or any other contract, bond, or memorandum evidencing a purchase of land has been lost or destroyed, or when from any cause the owner of such land, by the use of diligence, cannot find such certificate, contract, bond, or memorandum, the governor, when satisfied that the original purchase money for such land has been fully paid, shall execute a deed therefor in the name of the original purchaser which must recite the facts authorizing its making. Such deed shall be recorded in the office of the director of administrative services who shall transmit it to the present claimant.

Such deed has the same effect as the original deed, had it been preserved and recorded, or as a deed would have had, made to the original purchaser upon the date of the full payment of the purchase money.