One is new this year, How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist's Guide by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold Henderson, CG. I think church records are underused and I plan to learn a lot from this book. I have met Harold Henderson at a Midwest Geneabloggers meetup and I am looking forward to meeting Sunny Morton on November 14, 2020 (save the date) when she is the speaker at the 2020 Fall Family History Event that Michigan Genealogical Council is hosting. Full disclosure here-I am the President of Michigan Genealogical Council and was instrumental in scheduling Sunny's presentations. The views are my own and I haven't received any compensation in any form for reviewing this book.
The book is divided into two parts. Part One covers "Family History Research in Church Records" Five chapters introduces the reader to general church record research in this part.
- What's in Church Records: Information on the various records churches were responsible for, baptism, confirmation, marriage, memberships, funerals, etc. are listed. The authors talk about what type of information and what to expect from these records.
- How to Identify Your Ancestor's Church: The authors give four approaches to locating your ancestor's churches with detailed information for each.
- How to Find and Order Church Records: Tips for finding church records are included here, including a state by state list of WPA Church Inventories. Information on church offices, archives, published sources, images and indexed records completes the chapter.
- Tips for Working with Old Church Record: The importance of looking at original records is stressed. Guidelines for understanding and working with church records is given.
- More Records about Church Life: This chapter concentrates on what other records a church may have kept and how to find them. If you want an example of the importance of looking for these records check my blog post, Samuel Stillman Glover Excommunicated and the Reason Shocked Me, blog post.
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