Church Records for Your Immigrant Ancestor

Hopefully, this lesson has strongly encouraged you to learn more about your immigrant ancestor's church and how to locate those records. As with any other genealogical record, you don't know what you will find until you look at the record, but the possible pay off is so great, you shouldn't waste time in the process and will probably learn other things in the process.

Look at these examples of records found by family historians like yourself:

This is a note found among personal papers later donated to a local society that indicated the couple had moved from one congregation to another. This happens in foreign countries as well and is typical among the Presbyterians and many Lutherans.

This Church Register gave not only the vital information but the parishes in Germany where each couple was born. BINGO!

This is an example of what a death register from a church would look like. This was from a German Reformed Church in Frederick, Maryland.

Internet Method for Finding Church Records
Use the following Internet sites to accomplish the following steps:

Ancestry.com

  • Use census records here to pinpoint a place(s) where family might have lived.
  • Possibly use information on One World Tree(SM) to locate possible places of residence.

USGenWeb.org

  • Look on the state page and find county listings.
  • Search for listings of the churches in the county.
  • Copy and paste pertinent information into your notes.
  • See if transcriptions have been made.

FamilySearch.org

  • Use the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, or IGI to find resident areas.
  • Use the Family History Library Catalog to see if microfilm or fiche exist listing the churches of those towns or counties. NOTE: Many are published in county histories.
  • Order the films/fiche to your local Family History Center.

ProQuest (Heritage Quest)

Use to search published county histories and church histories by the name of the church to see if original members were listed.

Google.com

Search for the name of the church in that area.

Doing this off line is easier if you can find the proper reference books. For example this is an image of the Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the United States.

Notice on page 205 of this directory a listing for the town of Winfield where the United Methodist Church has an archives. This is the value of such a directory.

Check the MPC Library Catalog online and see if a similar online resource might be available. If not, try www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ for the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections. Another great way to find original church records.


next page