VISITING CHURCHES

Finding the Correct Church

Patrons can find the correct church by learning the geography and the history of the area their ancestors lived in. Once this information is obtained, telephone books of the locality can give them phone numbers for the churches or church archive offices near their ancestor's home.

Learning How Churches Are Ogranized

Catholic and other liturgical churches are often grouped into dioceses which often keep local archives of old church records. Non-liturical Protestant churches are sometimes organized into associations and these groups may also contain historical documents. Even the small independent churches are required by law to record marriages they perform, so usually churches still in existance will have some records.

Not all churches still exist, of course, so it is a good idea to find out the history of the particular church you need. Most churches only keep records back to the date the church or parish was formed. To find previous records, one needs to research the parent church or congregation, as earlier church events in the family's life may have occured there.

Infomation about local churches and their histories is becoming available on the web as local historians begin to record church histories as part of an overall effort to preserve local history online. An excellent example of this is Joe Hayden's Buffalo's Faith Elevators site about churches in Buffalo, New York.

People all over the world exhange information about churches, their history and their architecture on a listserv entitled Church Crawling available from Yahoo Groups or Unfortunately, you do get ads withthis listserv however.

Using Church Records

Churches, like government entities, keep the records they need for their own purposes. Many church records parallel government vital records, but they are not the same. Churches keep baptismal records, not birth records. They keep funeral records, not death records. It is wise to get government records also, when available, but sometimes churches were keeping records prior to their local government. In that case, the church records are a good substitute.

Churches keep more than just birth, marriage, and death records. Some churches have a census of their congregation, records of ceremonies and sacraments, records of who served on a particular committee or taught Sunday school. But these records belong to the church, and you need permission of the pastor, minister, or sexton in charge to view their records.

Jewish synogogues, Mormon temples, and temples of Asian religions also may have records you can use. One needs to find out who is in charge, and what their policy is for record access. The genealogist also should try to find out the meanings of these records and why they were kept to get a better insight into the religious life of the ancestor being researched. Non-christian religions have some similiar and some different record keeping needs.

Mormon or LDS Records are excellent

The Mormons, in particular, keep extensive genealogical records of their members and all the members relatives. Because of a religious mandate, these "Latter Day Saints" research genealogy to help their ancestors get to heaven. To accomplish this, the LDS Church has set up a huge Family History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Members of the church travel worldwide microfilming old archives. LDS microfilms are available to users of the Family History Center in Utah, and at hundreds of branch libraries around the world. Check the local yellow pages of the phone book for the address and phone number of these local branches. Non-Mormons are welcomed to use the resources of these Family History Center branch libraries, order microfilms of old records, and use the LDS computers to access cdrom databases of genealogy without having to join their church..

Return to: Visiting Localities
Cemeteries| Churches| Courthouses| Old Homesteads | Family Reunions| Migration Trails of Family|

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This website written and designed by:
Sharon Marie Centanne,
Genealogy Research Instructor and Internet Trainer
Please direct any questions to:
Sharon.

This page updated May 3, 2008

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