The United States has long been a home to people from a variety of religious backgrounds, especially of the Christian faith. Many churches and houses of worship created records about their members that can help genealogists build their family trees.
Churches in the United States
Millions of immigrants to the United States brought their faith traditions with them.
- Spanish and French colonizers were commonly Roman Catholics, although some French were Huguenots. Many later immigrants from Mexico and points south were also Catholic.
- The English established Congregationalist churches in New England and Church of England or Anglican churches in the Southern colonies.
- Dutch settlers mostly had ties to the Dutch Reformed Church.
- The Scots-Irish often had Presbyterian roots.
- German immigrants had great religious diversity: they may have been Catholic, Jewish, Reformed, Mennonite, Amish, Lutheran, Society of Friends (Quakers), or other religions.
- Irish, Italian, and many Eastern European immigrants were often Catholic.
As generations passed, many families left behind their ancestors’ religious loyalties. Westward migration in the United States also affected people’s religious loyalties, as their church-going options may have been different in their new communities. Churches that became especially popular were more democratic in spirit, valuing the personal experience over the authority of clergy. Among these were the Methodists and Baptists.
Information found in church records
Family historians search for information that identifies their relatives by name, vital events, and family relationships. They also want to find details and stories about how they lived.
U.S. church records may contain the following:
- Names, including birth or married surnames of women
- Dates and places of birth, marriage, death, funeral and/or burial
- Names of a person’s parents, spouses, and/or children
- Migration clues: immigrant birthplaces, former and subsequent places of residence, and when they moved
- Clues about ethnicity and enslavement status
- Acts of religious devotion or duty, including baptism, confirmation, conversion or profession of faith, payment of tithes or donations, and other church participation
- Participation in leadership or ministry
- Acts of disaffiliation, personal behavior that aroused comment or criticism, and disputes within the church community
The example on the right, a marriage register from St. Ann’s Catholic church in northeast Denver in the late 1880s, contains much more genealogical detail than the corresponding civil marriage records. From the left, there are columns for the marriage date; the groom’s name, religious affiliation, age, # marriage (first, second, etc.), residence, father’s and mother’s first names, birthplace; and the same information for the bride.
Where did my family go to church?
![Obituary from The Johnson City Comet [Washington, TN], 13 July 1916, page 1.](/wiki/File:Picture3.png)
Not all families attended a church regularly. However, many families had a strong enough connection to a religious group for their names to appear in the records.
Ask living relatives if they know about the religious affiliations of past generations. They may recall a christening or baptism, marriage, funeral or burial. They may recall helpful clues, such as the denomination or location.
Genealogical documents can provide helpful clues. Marriage records usually identify the officiant, who may have been a member of the clergy and whose affiliation you could research. Obituaries may mention where someone attended church or where a funeral or burial took place, such as this obituary for Margaret E. Bellamy, found using the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1791-1963 collection at MyHeritage.
If you can’t find clues, you may have to guess. Consider these:
- Before separation of church and state became a reality in the United States, options may have been limited to the churches supported by local governments.
- People couldn’t travel far to attend church before the automobile era. They often chose a place of worship near them.
- Many churches had ties to specific language, national or ethnic groups, as the above list of immigrant-affiliated faiths shows.
Where to find church records
Some churches never created good records, and the records of some other churches don’t survive. But many do. If the church is still open, check with its office first. But most of the time, you’ll be looking for church records in archives.
Many denominations have their own archives and libraries where congregational records have been collected. Look for Roman Catholic archives on the diocesan or archdiocesan level, and for United Methodist Church records in regional conference archives. Other denominations have centralized repositories, such as the Presbyterian Historical Society, American Baptist Historical Society, Congregational Library & Archives, and the Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Congregational records may also have been collected by university, private or other archives. Some have been put online; search your favorite genealogy websites and the FamilySearch Catalog. A variety of other manuscript record catalogs may lead you to them.
Finding original church records can be challenging. Many denominations (and congregations, too) have splintered over time. Some congregations sent their old records to whatever local archives existed before their own denominational archives were organized. Each denomination may have unique record types, which you may only discover by digging in more than one place. Strategies covered in How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records will help you search for (and interpret discoveries in) records of all kinds, with specific chapters covering resources for Anglican/Episcopalian, Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed and Sectarian Churches, Latter-day Saint, Lutheran, Mennonite and Amish, Methodist, Presbyterian and Society of Friends (Quaker).
Explore more about US church records
- Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians--Oh My! by Sunny Jane Morton at Family Tree Webinars
- Finding Your Roots in Catholic Records by Lisa Toth Salinas at Family Tree Webinars
- How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, C.G.
- Introduction to Church and Synagogue Records for Genealogy at the Library of Congress
- Swedish-American Church Books: Great Genealogical Source! by Kathy Meade at Family Tree Webinars
- Using Church Records to Identify Ancestors by Mary Hill at Family Tree Webinars
- Where Did Your Ancestors Go to Church? 5 Ways to Find Out by Sunny Morton at Family Tree Webinars