Church Records

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!!

History Carved in Stone

     Mount  Holly Cemetery is a park-like oasis in the center of and owned by the City of Little Rock.  Flowering plants, shade trees, berry bushes and honeysuckle give it a pleasant, restful atmosphere enhanced by  a Bell House built around the end of the nineteenth century.  

     The four square-block area was donated to be used as a city cemetery in 1843 by Roswell Beebe and Senator Chester Ashley.  It has become the final resting place of such a number of notable Arkansans that it has earned the nickname "The Westminister Abbey of Arkansas."  Interred here are ten state governors, thirteen state Supreme Court justices, five Confederate Generals, twenty-one Little Rock mayors, several newspaper editors, military heroes, physicians and attorneys.  

     The earliest birthday recorded on its stones is that of Peter LeFevre, born in Canada in 1750.  The first interment was of William Cummins in April 1843.