EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is the fourth of our special religion articles that appeared in the March/April 2001 issue of Ancestry Magazine: "Religious Records: A Closer Look".
While they share a common heritage, the differences among the Protestant churches have become marked over time. Theses churches, resulting from a schism with the Catholic Church (and many schisms among themselves) offer the researcher a wide variety of records summarized here. The practices and beliefs of these churches vary greatly, as do their records.
Genealogists researching Protestant ancestors should remember that, like any organization, churches kept records to further the work of the church, not to assist genealogists of the future. For instance, as a rule, frontier churches were less concerned with keeping voluminous and detailed records than were churches in more established and urban areas. So researchers of Protestant ancestors may not find many records if those ancestors lived on the frontier. From a genealogical standpoint, the best records to utilize are generally those of an ethnic congregation that practiced infant baptism in a non-frontier area. There are exceptions to this generalization. There are times when even a simple listing of members’ names is helpful to the researcher.
Among the many Protestant churches, the practice of infant baptism plays the most significant role in terms of record creation. Churches that practice infant baptism generally have more records and usually mention individuals in church records shortly after their births. Records may also be different between congregations of the same church. Culture, minister preference, and local custom also play a role in the quantity and content of records.
Keeping these potential variations in mind will help us as we begin our discussion of Protestant church records.
Baptism
Records of baptism are extremely useful to the genealogist. At a minimum, they prove the existence of a child and his or her parents and are thus an excellent tool, even if civil vital records exist. The names of godparents (or sponsors) are also almost universally listed, and these individuals are normally well acquainted with the parents (frequently relatives). An individual who appears as the sponsor of several of a couple’s children should be fully researched for a possible family connection. In some cases, baptism records may also provide the maiden name of the mother, the date and place of the child’s birth, and the place of the baptism (occasionally not the church).
Children who were born into churches that practiced infant baptism were not always baptized within a month of their birth. Baptisms may have been postponed until a new minister arrived at the church. This is sometimes apparent when viewing original records (not transcriptions) in which several children in one family were baptized at the same time; most likely, not all of the children were infants.
Communicant Lists
While communicant lists generally don’t contain significant detail, they do document the existence of an individual at a given point in time. A person’s appearance on a list usually indicates that he or she was a young adult, but the age at which someone could take communion may vary. Determine what age individuals within a specific denomination were able to take communion to approximate an age or date of birth for the individual in question.
Confirmation
In churches that practice infant baptism, a confirmation typically introduces the confirmand into adult membership in the church. Again, the age at confirmation can vary, but many churches that confirm do so between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. These lists are frequently only lists of names, but they may be helpful as indicators that children survived childhood. Names of parents are not usually listed. In some churches, the record of confirmation may also contain dates and places of birth or baptism.
Marriage
Virtually all Protestant churches keep marriage records in some format. (Historically, in frontier churches that did not practice infant baptism, the minister might have retained physical custody of these records.) Even if civil records are available, church records may provide additional information. Early records frequently provide only the names of the bride and groom and the marriage date. In some ethnic congregations, one may find marriage records that provide dates and places of birth for the couple, in addition to other information.
Funeral/Burial
The church may have a record of funerals the minister conducted or of burials in the church graveyard. The records may or may not provide the date of death (the church was concerned only with the ministerial act). A frontier Baptist church, for instance, may simply indicate in its August 1840 minutes that John Smith died "this past month" and may not have a separate section for burials or deaths. Other church records may provide the deceased’s date and place of death and birth.
Membership Lists
Some churches compiled lists of members at given times. These lists may include the date each person joined the church and the date (if any) of his or her dismissal. In some cases, specific, blunt reasons for dismissal are given. In other cases, a date may be the only thing listed.
While these lists are generally only lists of names, the records can help researchers establish that a person with a specific name attended a specific church at a given point in time. Membership lists may indicate the church a member previously attended or the location where membership was subsequently transferred. These seemingly minor clues may be especially helpful in tracking a family’s movement. In some congregations, these membership lists may list date and place of baptism for all family members. For example, one early-twentieth-century record from a Swedish Lutheran church gave this information plus the year of immigration for the Swedish-born parents.
Church Minutes
In many churches, most extant records may be in the form of minutes of monthly or quarterly church meetings. These records are usually unindexed and require a manual search. (Frontier churches were particularly fond of this type of record.) A typical record might reveal that some members were brought up on various moral crimes or may mention that your ancestor was a little too friendly with a neighbor or fond of the bottle.
Newspapers
Denominational newspapers may provide additional information. An obituary in a church-related newspaper may contain different information than the obit in the individual’s local newspaper. Genealogical information from some of these newspapers has been extracted and published. Tracing the history of your ancestors’ church or denomination will help you determine if denominational newspapers exist.
Forms versus "Loose-leaf" Pages
Some church records are kept on either lined or unlined paper, with each entry written separately. Some records are kept in books that contain preprinted columns; headings indicate what information is to be included in each column. The second type of record is easier to use, especially when the records are not in English. Do not be discouraged by the lack of a form; many records can be analyzed with a dictionary or with the aid of a professional familiar with the language and the writing.
Analyze other entries to determine the unwritten "form" the minister was likely using. In extreme situations, I have found it helpful to analyze unrelated families, using information from other records to help me interpret the entry for my own family.
Changing Denominations
Keep in mind that your ancestor might have changed denomination at some point in life. My mother’s ancestors were all Lutheran, and I was aghast when I learned that my great-great-grandparents went to a Presbyterian Church. The reason was simple. The small town where they retired had no Lutheran Church, and the Presbyterian Church was the closest church available. Frontier Methodists might have attended a Baptist church if that was the only congregation available in the area. Geography should be considered when searching for church records.
Locating the Records
Locating church records is one of the greatest difficulties in using them. For churches that still exist, a personal visit, if possible, is the best idea. Some churches will respond to a letter, but your request should be specific and should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a donation for copies and time. Some churches’ records may have been microfilmed by the LDS Church, so one should conduct a search of the Family History Library Catalog to determine if the original records have been microfilmed. Some church records have also been published in book form.
Locating churches that no longer exist is more difficult. If the church was absorbed or merged into another church, the resulting church may have the records. The records may also have been turned over to a regional or national denominational office or archives. (For churches that disbanded before 1900, the chance that the records were disposed of in this manner decreases.) In some cases, the records might have passed to the last minister, church secretary, or church council member (or his or her descendants). They may be sitting in an attic somewhere.
Some churches keep congregational records, and some do not. Some church archives may have records of ministers that have been affiliated with the denomination. In some cases, you may even find information on churches of different sects in one church’s archive. And even if you write to the "wrong" Lutheran archive, the staff may be able to point you in the direction of the "right" one; they may have directories of ministers who served in churches of their denomination. In a few cases, old records may be found at a state historical or archival agency.
A search of the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) will locate church information that has been published in genealogical periodicals. Even if the records themselves were not published, PERSI might have information to assist you in locating the records. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) may also contain references to unpublished church records "hidden" away in an archives, perhaps hundreds of miles from the church’s original location.
Denominations Are All the Same, Right?
Even within one denomination, you may find several branches with differing beliefs and practices. There is not just one type of Lutheran, Baptist, or Presbyterian church. Some denominations have had mergers and schisms of branches. In some cases, a congregation might even have changed denominations over time. One of my ancestral congregations went from Lutheran to Reformed to United Church of Christ over a hundred-year time period.
Researching your family through the records of their church may shed more light on your family tree. Learning about your ancestors’ faith and beliefs may provide you with insight not obtained in a death certificate or birth record.
Details of Protestant Religions
Baptist
Since 1644 the name Baptist has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be administered to none but believers, and that immersion is the only mode of administering baptism indicated in the New Testament.
Episcopal
With roots originating from the Anglican church, the first church services were held in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. At the conclusion of the American Revolution, the American Anglicans’ first objective was to organize a native episcopacy and a national church. The new ecclesiastical body was called the Protestant Episcopal Church until 1967, when the name formally became the Episcopal Church.
Lutheran
Lutheranism arose as a result of the Reformation, whose religious faith is based on the principles of Martin Luther. When Luther realized that the reforms he desired could not be carried out within the Roman Catholic Church, he devoted himself to questions of faith rather than form in the new Evangelical churches that developed.
Methodist
John Wesley, his brother Charles, and George Whitefield, belonged to a group at Oxford that in 1729 began meeting for religious exercises. From their resolution to conduct their lives and religious study by "rule and method," they were given the name Methodists.
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism is a world-wide, twentieth-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues (glossolalia).
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is based on administration by a hierarchy of courts composed of clerical and lay presbyters. Holding a position between episcopacy (government by bishops) and Congregationalism (government by local congregation), Presbyterianism sought a return to the early practice of appointed elders as described in the New Testament.
Web Sites
Baptist Roots
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives
Eden Theological Seminary (Evangelical) Archives
The Evangelical & Reformed Historical Society
Concordia Historical Institute (Lutheran)
Presbyterian Historical Society
Methodist History and Research from UMC.org
Michael John Neill is on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois and the Genealogical Institute of Mid America. He is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical topics and is a contributor to several genealogical publications.
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