(This page's most recent update is December 2024)
Another underutilized genealogy resource is Church Records. We tend to focus our research on civil records but need to be aware that often church records pre-date civil records and are a great resource as well. In the BMD Records section of this website, there are over 25,000 collections of civil records that are available online. Yes, that’s a lot, but we need to also search church records as well.
What can we find in church or synagogue records? Here’s just a short list of what nuggets we can find:
- Baptisms and Christenings
- Marriages
- Deaths
- Burials
- Confirmations
- Membership lists
- Church Minutes
- Church Directories
- Transfer Letters
- Bar or Bat Mitzvahs
- Sunday School lists
- Church newsletters
In addition, many folks also documented important events in family bibles, so they need to be searched as well if the event information has been digitized.
Here are a couple of articles that you might find useful:
- U.S. Church Records Research Guide
- United States Church Records
- A Genealogist’s Guide to Using Catholic Records in Genealogy Research
There is a large number of Free Online Church Record collections; the links for each state are below:
- Free Illinois Online Church Records
- Free Indiana Online Church Records
- Free Iowa Online Church Records
- Free Kansas Online Church Records
- Free Michigan Online Church Records
- Free Minnesota Online Church Records
- Free Missouri Online Church Records
- Free Nebraska Online Church Records
- Free North Dakota Online Church Records
- Free Ohio Online Church Records
- Free Oklahoma Online Church Records
- Free South Dakota Online Church Records
- Free Wisconsin Online Church Records
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!