When we all start our genealogical research, we hope to find all the
answers in one place or another. This generally turns out to be a pipe
dream for each of us. Even if we find a collection that someone else
finished in the past, we all too often find mistakes that they did not
discover.
Many of us hold out for the church records that will give the vital
records of when one is “borned- married- deceased” as these would
be very helpful. When we finally find the right church, then we
discover some of the problems with these records. In this country,
church records were not as important as in Europe when these records
were primarily the main source of records for the area. Few if any
civil records were kept intact. In this country, however, the civil
government was much
stronger and the records tend to be in their collection instead of the
church. Yet, the church records are still important.
In the past, our ancestors were not as closely associated with a church
as we are today. If a Methodist preacher came on the scene as the
pioneers moved West, then everyone in the community would go to hear
him. This did not mean they accepted the Methodist doctrine or even
beliefs, but they wanted to hear the word of God and this was their only
chance. In another month, a Baptist preacher came into their community
and everyone flocked to hear him. Not everyone accepted the Baptist
doctrine
or beliefs either. At this time in our history, the ministers were the
ones that kept down the records. Primarily the records of marriages and
deaths. They may not have it all together as many times a person died
weeks or even months before the funeral was held since they had to wait
on the preacher to come back around. Couples might even have a child
before the wedding as there was no one in the area to perform the
marriage ceremony.
As churches began to get established, the records improved. For
example, in the mid-1800s the Baptist records are better than the
Methodist, but later into the early 1900s the roles were reversed. In
southwest Virginia and east Tennessee for the Methodist church, there
are only about two dozen churches that are over 200 years old. In most
of these, who ever kept the church records might have stored them under
their bed for many years of their life. When they died, those records
were passed
around the family for a time, but now no one knows what happened to
them. Many of the early Baptist minutes and records have suffered the
same fate.
When you read these early records when found, they offer a gleams into
the world of the times. It is not uncommon for them to state something
like “...Mary Jane, the daughter of Miss Ella Smith and John
Jones.” The ones I like are when a church dismissed a member for loud
talking in church or drunkenness. These two were the same in their
eyes. Many times, the individual will repent and they take them back at
the next meeting only to be ousted at the following one for the same
“sin”.
Are the church records worth the search - YES!! Sometimes you just
might find the answer to all your questions, or at least the answer to
one of them. They are very difficult to find because our ancestors did
not leave too many comments on where they attended or which records
might have been made available. But yes, go for them. You never know
what interesting piece of information you will find.
Happy Hunting!!
