I went through this book on a recent visit to Vermont. It is a compilation of all known documents from Vermont from the late 1700's and early 1800's in which a person let the local town know what their church affiliation was. This was for the purpose of establishing whether or not an individual would be taxed to support the local town church. For example, if the main denomination in a town was Congregationalist (which was most often the case) persons of that church's membership would be expected to pay to help support that church. If you stated that you had membership in some other church, you avoided the tax for the primary denomination in your town. So, these records are lists of persons indicating their church affiliation. It is known that in some instances people registered as members of a particular denomination in order to avoid taxation. The main value in these records is to establish a given name in a particular location at a given time; they MAY also extablish church affiliation. They only cover the time period from the late 1700's to early 1800's.

How does one go about checking this book ? Dorothy ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Leidy" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 1:38 PM Subject: [VTADDISO] Vermont Religious Certificates > I went through this book on a recent visit to Vermont. It is a compilation > of all known documents from Vermont from the late 1700's and early 1800's in > which a person let the local town know what their church affiliation was. > This was for the purpose of establishing whether or not an individual would > be taxed to support the local town church. For example, if the main > denomination in a town was Congregationalist (which was most often the case) > persons of that church's membership would be expected to pay to help > support that church. If you stated that you had membership in some other > church, you avoided the tax for the primary denomination in your town. So, > these records are lists of persons indicating their church affiliation. > It is known that in some instances people registered as members of a > particular denomination in order to avoid taxation. The main value in these > records is to establish a given name in a particular location at a given > time; they MAY also extablish church affiliation. They only cover the time > period from the late 1700's to early 1800's. > > > ==== VTADDISO Mailing List ==== > Addison County Gen Web page: > http://home.att.net/~swaitela/Default.htm > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237