Saturday, June 29, 2019

New book -- resources for major Christian denominations before 1900

Sunny Jane Morton and I have just published How To Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist's Guide, with specific resources for major Christian denominations before 1900 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2019). It includes five chapters on family history research in these records in general, and twelve more on specific denominations or groups of denominations:

Anglican/Episcopal,
Baptist,
Congregational,
Dutch Reformed/Reformed Church in America,
German Churches: Reformed and Sectarian,
Latter-Day Saint (Mormon),
Lutheran,
Mennonite and Amish,
Methodist,
Quaker (Religious Society of Friends),
Presbyterian, and
Roman Catholic.

Obviously this is not a complete book on records of all US religions from the beginning until now. In the introduction we wrote,

"To include all faiths and carry them through the 20th century would have doubled the size of the book and postponed its completion indefinitely. Recognizing that perfection is the enemy of completion, we encourage others to extend and improve upon this work. Many important faiths that have grown up in the U.S. or been brought here by immigrants are not represented in this book; their stories and records deserve to be respected, described, explained, and cataloged as well." We hope it will help genealogists at all levels.

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