Thank you Sharon this was informative .... from Maria Melbourne, Victoria, Australia On 3/12/07, SHAWN DEMPSEY <shawnpdempsey@msn.com> wrote: > > Yesterday I attended my monthly meeting of the Parker Genealogical Society > of Colorado (PGS). I am also their webmaster. > > The guest speak, Valerie Eichler, spoke about Church Records, what can be > found and what types of records may be available. I jotted down some notes > and thought I would share it with you all. > > The following is not a complete list but something to think about when > looking for church records. Not all churches will have all of these > records. > But you may want to make inquiries of the churches you are researching to > see just what they do have. > > 1. Looking for Birth, marriage, death records check the following sources > for church references: > Certificates are filed at various levels of government. And if missing in > one location may be available in another. > a. State Certificates > b. County Certificates > c. Church Certificates > > 2. Removal & Arrival Records > Churches kept records of people leaving and arriving to and from their > church. Some records may only record names. Other records may record where > they came from, or went to, various events in a person's life, who they > were > related to, etc. > a. Removal Records - record people leaving a church community > b. Arrval Records - record people coming into a church community > > 3. Communion Records > > 4. Confirmation Records > > 5. List of Communicants - a listing of members who received communion (can > be recorded weekly, monthly, annually). This is considered a good > substitute > for census records especially the missing 1890 Census. > > 6. Membership Lists - lists of members of a church. Could contain just a > list of names. Or more information like dates of events, addresses, > relatives, etc. > > 7. Minutes - notes on meetings, events, records all information about a > group and what is happening in the community. > a. Protestant churches - usually call their minutes "Vestry" > b. Lutheran churches - usually call their minutes "Sessions" > c. Baptist churches - usually call their minutes "Meeting Records" > > 8. Church Denomination Archive > Each church denomination has it's own archive - the keeper(s) of church > records. If a church doesn't exist any more try to locate the Archive that > might contain it's records. Some churches will regularly submit their > records to its archive to ensure they survive. > > Hope this gives you all some new directions for looking at church records. > > > Shawn Dempsey > Essex County Email List Moderator, > NJGenWeb County Coordinator, Essex County NJ > http://www.rootsweb.com/~njessex > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NJESSEX-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >