Church records are among the most valuable historical documents for family historians. Historically, houses of worship are among the first institutions established in a new community; aside from the religious roles of churches, they were important because of their legal and social implications.

But beyond using the typical baptism, marriage, and burial records of churches and synagogues, financial records, vestry minutes, and other official business records of your ancestors' places of worship will provide information that may be of use in your research.

For instance, vestry minutes note new members and reference their former residences and previous churches. Pew rental records may not only establish that a person was a member of a particular congregation—and hence living in a particular geographic area during a specific time period—they may also indicate some relationship to the person they are seated next to, and in some instances, a relationship to the person who used to pay the rental for the same pew. Building fund reports, lists of charter members, aid society reports, and committee documents of various types are all church records to be explored.

For researching more contemporary branches of the family in the mid-to-late twentieth century, church yearbooks and published membership directories can be quite informative. While they may not provide much specific genealogical data, the establishment of membership in a church opens the door to other records and record groups. Many of these types of publications can be found in local public libraries or other repositories of local history materials, as well as in the churches themselves.

Association Records
Beyond these records are the lesser known historical papers and documents of religious and denominational organizations and associations. These records can truly be extraordinary finds, particularly when you are up against a brick wall in your research. The quantities of these records are amazing, as is the detail you can find among their many pages.

Some church or denominational associations are local while others are more regional or multi-state in nature. Some associations have authority within the overall denomination and have a fairly consistent method of keeping minutes and other records. Other associations mirror the self-determining nature of their particular churches and have far less consistent recording and recordkeeping practices. Regardless of the geographic area, all religious associations typically produce some type of records.

For example, the Inventory of Church Archives of Georgia, prepared by the Works Progress Administration, has a detailed volume devoted to the Fairburn Missionary Baptist Association. More than thirty pages are devoted to the history of this association with an additional twenty-six pages listing all the churches that are members of the association. It lists the founding date of each church, the distance from each church to the nearest town, the type of church building, and a description of the building. It also lists where baptisms are generally performed, if there is a cemetery affiliated with the church, and the present pastor.

Especially of interest to genealogists is the listing of what records were still extant when the inventory was taken in the early 1940s, and where those records were housed. There are even several pages of photographs of the churches. The work is complete with a bibliography, a church name index, and a timeline of the association and its churches.

If you are looking to compile the most comprehensive history possible for your Georgia Baptist ancestor, this work could be a treasure. It evidences the existence of Baptist churches in a defined area, and then provides details about the particular churches themselves.

The dual challenge in using church records rests in locating the church or potential group of churches, and then in locating the records. Histories and inventories of religious associations can answer many of these questions.

Association directories are another publication to search for churches of a particular denomination. The Baptist Missionary Association of America Directory and Handbook lists Baptist churches by association affiliation as well as by geographic location. The association listing provides the name and address of the moderator of the association and the pastors and church clerks of all member churches.

Such a work can help identify all the churches that might be of research importance in a specific genealogical endeavor.

In addition to numerous religious associations that are denominationally based (as opposed to single-church based), some are also ethnically based. These can provide an even finer level of detail regarding individuals involved in particular churches and the locations of those churches.

The documents of the African American Baptist Annual Reports, 1865–1990s, have a number of records relating to associations such as the Colored Bethlehem Baptist Association in Alabama, the Mississippi Colored Baptist Association, and the Indiana Negro Missionary Baptist Ministerial Convention. While these annual reports do not contain the type of church records most genealogists initially seek, the records nonetheless can provide a lot of useful data.

Among the more useful documents in these reports are the minutes of the annual meetings. Significant efforts were made by most of the churches in an association or convention to send the minister or a representative delegation to the annual meetings.

Some Examples
In the 1891 minutes of the East Perry Missionary Baptist Association, some churches list a couple of ministers and upwards of six additional representatives including the Sunday School delegate. The roll of attendees for most of these meetings is quite extensive. The composition of standing committees and special committees is given, including such committees as finance, education, “time and place” (planning the site and location of the next meeting), temperance, preaching, new bodies, and annual sermons.

Another example of a religious organization, and one that had a great impact on countless people, is the American Home Missionary Society.

Formed in 1826 by representatives of the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and Associated Reformed Churches from thirteen different areas of the country, this society was to coordinate missionary activities and expand the missionary influence throughout the country, particularly in less-developed areas. Though the Reformed churches withdrew their support shortly after the society's founding and the Presbyterian churches had internal conflicts regarding who should have direct control of their missionaries, this organization still had a significant impact in many communities and on many lives.

The American Home Missionary Society gave special emphasis to providing funding for new and recently established churches as well as impoverished churches to support the employment of ministers. The society quickly established officers and an administration, and from there its own bureaucracy. Before the end of the nineteenth century, the society had missionaries in every state in the continental United States.

With its outreach and missionary activities, as well as its financial transactions, the American Home Missionary Society bureaucracy began generating records that continue to provide researchers with valuable historical data. Bureaucracies are often golden for genealogists because they generate records and typically establish mechanisms for preserving records of the organization itself as well as records of key individuals in the organization.

The papers of the American Home Missionary Society from 1826 to 1894 are filled with names and events of churches and congregations. The papers that comprise the incoming correspondence to the society are among the largest collection of records, the most interesting to read, and arguably some of the most genealogically significant.

Even in documents of contemporary religious alumni associations that produce very limited distribution publications you can find worthwhile details that may be in evidence in few other places. The Franciscan Alumni Association Newsletter, though only published semiannually for less than two decades for the St. John the Baptist and Our Lady of Guadalupe Franciscan provinces, can be a treasure trove of information. It is at least a partial answer to some researchers who express frustration when they have a Catholic clergy in one of their family lines because information detailing those individuals' lives can be so difficult to locate; and it is encouraging to those who are tempted to ignore those religious individuals since they have no known descendants.

In the pages of the Franciscan Alumni Association Newsletter you will find biographical sketches for individuals who were in the seminary system for some period of time before deciding that particular calling in life was not for them. Photographs, early educational activities, residences during the seminary years, and career activities after seminary life can provide very useful personal data. In addition, the newsletter pages are frequently filled with telling details of the friars' lives including, birth, early life, and senior life activities.

Tributes and in memoriam sections frequently list family members such as married siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews, and nieces. Indeed, a well-written tribute by a caring community of alumni may provide some enlightening data about other family members. Researchers have often found that exploring the lives of the brothers and sisters of a target ancestor can provide very worthwhile details and contexts about a person heretofore difficult to trace.

Locating the Documents
Locating the papers and documents of religious organizations and associations simply requires a consistent methodology. Begin by identifying the churches and religious groups in the area and then determine the potential for the person of interest to be affiliated with any of the churches or organizations.

As you locate denominations and churches, identify those that are still operating to determine what records might be available and if their ministers can provide some insight on the existence and location of other papers and proceedings.

The local public library and the local historical society are two excellent places to check for collections of religious papers and documents. Once those organizations have been fully explored, expand the search to include the appropriate state library and state historical society. Their collections of transcribed and original church records as well as religious association and convention papers and collections are quite rich.

With so many record repositories having online catalogs and finding aids, locating various religious association documents has never been easier. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) and the American Memory Project, both on the Library of Congress website, also contain many church and religious documents.

Digging deeper with church records means moving beyond traditional documents to the less frequently used letters and papers of religious associations. The rewards truly are great—and you don't have to wait until the hereafter to enjoy them!

Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, is the Historical Genealogy Department Manager at the Allen County Public Library, and a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Society and the National Genealogical Society.

Return to May/June 2004 issue of Ancestry Magazine.