Got this off the Emanuel list and thought it might help someone. Sandra > >A listing of Baptist Church records at Mercer University can be found at ><http://mainlib.mercer.edu/mainlib/special_collections/Holdings/church_reco rds.htm> > >Also from another site I found the following commentary: > >"One subscriber mentioned Mercer University at Macon as a depository of >Baptist >Church records. Others depositories having such records: Furman University >in SC, and at Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, NC. > >Georgia Dept. of Archives & History, Atlanta, has microfilm copies of the >records of most of the Baptist Churches in Georgia. One must remember that >allBaptists were the same denomination until about 1835, when the split >createdthe dominant Missionary Baptists, leaving the rest to be called >Primitive >Baptists. The card catalog for these records is divided into Baptist >[Missionary] and Primitive Baptist. These records typically have minutes of >meetings at which members were tried for various infractions of the rules, >including associating with the Methodists, public swearing, drinking on >Sundays, etc., for which they were often excommunicated. At least one >churchwould not allow members to participate in one of the Land Lotteries. >Most >churches would not allow Masons to be members, causing the number of Female >members to far outnumber the Males in areas where the Masons were active. > >For genealogical purposes, the most valuable records are the list of >members,and the acceptance of new members by either "Received by Experience >[Baptism]"or by or "Received by Letters" from some other church. The >departures >were >usually recorded by a member requesting "Letters of Dismission" to present >toa new church on the migration trail westward. Unfortunately, only a few >records name the church to which the member wanted to move his membership. > >Examples of excellent records from the Minutes of Powelton Baptist >Church, >Hancock County, GA, organized in 1786 while still in Greene County: > "5 March 1791 Aaron Parker and Charity his wife received by letter >from >Fishing Creek Church, North Carolina". > "30 Jun 1792 Letters of dismission for Brother Daniel Bankston and >SisterBankston, and for Aaron Parker and Charity his wife were granted". >And from Minutes of The Church of Horeb, formerly Fulsom Creek Church, >HancockCounty, constituted 28 Jun 1792: > "__ Aug 1792 Brother Daniel Bankston received by letter and chosen >Elder. >Brother Aaron Parker and Sister Parker received by letter into fellowship >ofchurch. Brother Aaron Parker apointed to receive all monies." >"__ Dec 1801 Brother and Sister Parker granted letter of Dismission." >And from Minutes of Mars Hill Baptist Church, Jackson County, later Clarke >County, and now Oconee County: > "12 Jun 1802 Aaron Parker and Charity his wife received by letter." > >Comment: The records of this Aaron Parker could never have been separated >fromthe records of three other Aaron Parkers in this area at the same time >without>these church records. >To my knowledge, none of these records are online, but many have been >published in book form." > > >Hope this will help all who are looking for other avenues of research in >areas where the public record is minimal. Delores Thompson >