How to Use Church Records for Ancestry Research

Use church records for ancestry research.

What are church records?

Church registers are often the only way to determine birth, marriage, and death dates in the years before states started to keep vital records. Church records can be a very good substitute when vital records do not exist. Most churches keep their records, but libraries usually have several books, copies of church records, a few manuscript volumes of original records, and microfilmed church records.

Each denomination will have different types of records that they keep. The types of church records you will find include records they kept following their theology. Some types of church records found include christenings or baptisms, marriages, burials, confirmations, communion, admissions and removals, financial records, Sunday school lists, church censuses, and church-related newsletters. The essential information found in each type of record varies also. For example, when I have researched christenings or baptisms records, I have often found the child’s birth information, parents of the child, and witnesses or godparents, who were often relatives.

Insights for Church Records

What are some research insights for church records?

When you search church records, look for records of the entire family and individuals. As a general rule, the more individuals a church serves, the more information you’ll get about the individuals. In order of priority, search the following church records:

Burial. From these records, you can learn the individual’s death date and place, find the individual’s last residence, find the date or at least year of birth, find names of surviving relatives, learn the maiden name of a woman, learn the cemetery of burial for further research or visit, and determine death date for obituary or death notice search.

Wedding. If you can find a public record of an individual’s marriage, you will note who performed the marriage. If you see the title of officiator as Pastor, Reverend, Father, or listed as minister of the gospel, the individual probably had a church wedding. You can determine the individual’s church and search for records there. From these records, you can find the individuals’ marriage date and place, find individuals’ place(s) of residence, determine a year of birth for the bride and groom, learn of previous marriages, learn groom’s occupation, find clues to Family relationships (usually through names of witnesses), discover the names of the preceding generation, correctly ascribe children to appropriate marriage if a parent has married more than once, learn of other possible religious affiliations, see the handwriting of an individual, narrow the period for the death of the first spouse in the case of the widow(er) remarrying, and learn of other family connections through dispensation remarks.

Baptism. From these records, you can find an individual’s birth date, discover the names of the preceding generation, find a family’s place of residence, find clues to family relationships (through names of sponsors), learn about previously unknown children who died young, learn the parental association in the case of multiple marriages by one of the parents (to determine which one a particular child came from), and learn about changes in church affiliation.

Confirmation. Most church records list those confirmed on a specific day, and you might find information such as their birth dates, parents’ names, and place of birth on rare occasions. The available information will be different for each religion.

Minutes or communicant lists. These records can help reconstruct an individual’s and family history, what they were like and how they worshiped in the church community. If you don’t see a person’s information, there is a good chance they have left the community or have passed away. Make sure you check death records.

Finding Church Records

Where will you find church records?

If you know the church an individual attended, contact the current minister to ask about record availability. When a church closes, or sometimes by practice, the records may be transferred to denominations archive. The following are locations for finding the archives for major United States religious denominations:

Adventists: Washington, DC
Adventists: Washington, DC
American Baptists: Rochester, NY
Southern Baptists: Nashville, TN
Brethren in Christ Church: Grantham, PA
Church of Christ, Scientist: Boston, MA
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons): Salt Lake City, UT
Churches of Christ: Memphis, TN
Congregational: Boston, MA
Disciples of Christ: Nashville, TN
Greek Orthodox: New York, NY
Jewish: Cincinnati, OH; Waltham, MA
Evangelical Lutherans: Chicago, IL
Missouri Synod Lutherans: St. Louis, MO
United Methodists: Madison, NJ
Pentecostal: Tulsa, okay
Presbyterians: Philadelphia, PA; Montreat, NC
Episcopalian: check local parishes
Reformed Church: New Brunswick, NJ
Roman Catholic: Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN; Catholic University, Washington, DC
Quakers (Society of Friends): Swarthmore, PA, for Hicksite records; Haverford, PA, for Orthodox records
United Church of Christ: Boston, MA; Lancaster, PA
Unitarian and Universalist: Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA

Make sure you check FamilySearch.org to see what has been microfilmed and accessed through their online or library system. These include records of many denominations, notably the Society of Friends (Quaker), Presbyterian, Congregational, Lutheran, Reformed, and Roman Catholic churches. Some churches have donated their records to local genealogical and historical societies. Many local universities and public libraries have copies of church records, and most libraries and societies have websites and list their holdings online.

Other Records to Help in Ancestry Research

Where can I learn more about how to trace ancestry?

The following are important articles for learning about ancestry and historical research.

Where can I learn more about records to trace ancestry?

The following is an overview of 15 types of vital, government and historical records I have found constantly valuable in my individual, family, and narrative research. These records provide vital and biographical information on individuals and families. When I mastered researching these resources, I could quickly expand my research to other records to help me connect the pieces for writing narratives and other historical research.

For each record type, I have included what you will find, how to use the resource, and research insights for each record type. I would encourage you to use this article as a starting point from which you can search out and find other record tutorials guides and help to provide deeper insights.