Delaware Baptisms - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
The collection consists of an index to selected church records from Delaware, mostly from the city of Wilmington. The collection covers the years 1697-1886.

Collection Content
Sample image of indexed information:

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The records may include:
 * The child’s full name
 * The baptism date and place
 * The date and place of child's birth
 * Child's gender
 * Father's name
 * Mother's name

Some records may include:
 * Race
 * Whether living or stillborn
 * Father's age, occupation and place of birth
 * Mother's maiden name, age and place of birth
 * Child's place of order in family
 * Parents' place of residence

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the child
 * The approximate date of birth

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s baptismal record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Print or download a copy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The parents' birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.
 * The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.
 * The city of Wilmington also has a register of vital statistics.

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Search the related collection Delaware, Vital Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

"Delaware Baptisms, 1697-1886." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. From Delaware Public Archives, Dover, and Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, IX: The Records of Holy Trinity Old Swedes Church, (Wilmington, Delaware: Historical Society of Delaware, 1890).
 * Collection Citation:

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