Nigeria Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Nigeria, go to the Religious Records page.

Online Resources and Websites

 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Nigeria, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Africa, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Africa, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Nigeria, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, index and images, ($)

Historical Background
Nigeria has the largest Christian population in Africa though Christians are only about 45% of the population. According to a 2011 Pew report, over 80 million Nigerians are Christians. Among Christians, about a quarter are Catholic, three quarters are Protestant, and about 750,000 belong to other Christian denominations and a few of them are Orthodox Christians. The leading Protestant churches in the country are the Church of Nigeria of the Anglican Communion, The African Church, the Assemblies of God Church, the Nigerian Baptist Convention and The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations. The Yoruba area contains a large Anglican population, while Igboland is predominantly Catholic and the Edo area is predominantly Assemblies of God. Denominations like the Seventh-day Adventist also exist.

Information Recorded in the Records
Different denominations, different time periods, and practices of different record keepers will effect how much information can be found in the records. This outline will show the types of details which might be found (best case scenario):

Baptisms
In Catholic and Anglican records, children were usually baptized a few days after birth, and therefore, the baptism record proves date of birth. Other religions, such as Baptists, baptized at other points in the member's life. Baptism registers might give:

Marriages
Marriage registers can give:

Burials
Burial registers may give:

Digital Copies of Church Records in the FamilySearch Catalog
Watch for digitized copies of church records to be added to the collection of the FamilySearch Library. Some records might have viewing restrictions, and can only be viewed at a Family History Center near you, and/or by members of supporting organizations. To find records:
 * a. Click on the records of Nigeria.
 * b. Click on Places within Nigeria and a list of towns will appear.
 * c. Click on your town if it appears, or the location which you believe was the parish which served your town or village.
 * d. Click on the "Church records" topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the listing for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the record is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the records.

Writing for Records
You will probably need to write to or email the national archives, the diocese, or local parish priests to find records. See Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help with composing letters.

Writing to a Local Parish
To locate the mailing address or e-mail address for a local parish, consult:
 * The Catholic Directory: Nigeria

Historical Background
The Archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church are: Abuja, Onitsha, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, and Owerri. It has about 19 million members in Nigeria in 2005.

Online Records
Information is available to current members only for deceased members and immediate family members who are still living. Sign in to FamilySearch and then select Family Tree in the drop-down menu.

Historical Background
From the 1950s on, some Nigerians learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through magazine articles and acquired Church literature. Groups of people began meeting unofficially in the Church's name. Through the years, some of them wrote to Church headquarters requesting missionaries. Glen G. Fisher, returning from service as South Africa Mission President, visited Nigeria in 1960 and reported that the groups were sincere. Attempts to send missionaries, however, were thwarted because visas were unavailable. In 1978, two couples were sent to Nigeria as special representatives of the Church's International Mission. The first baptized member was one of those who had waited many years for the coming of the missionaries. In 1987, less than 10 years after the Church's establishment in Nigeria, membership approached 10,000. In January of 1997, membership in Nigeria had reached 30,300, the highest of any nation in the Africa Area. Total Church Membership: 177,280. Congregations: 649.

Writing for Records

 * Address list for local churches
 * [ Google Maps search results for Anglican churches in Nigeria]

Historical Background
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptized membership (but not by attendance), after the Church of England. It gives its current membership as "over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 140 million. Other statistics reveal that the Church of Nigeria has 2 million active attendees on a Sunday. The ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria are: Lagos, Ibadan, Ondo, Bendel, The Niger, Niger Delta, Owerri, Abuja, Kaduna and Jos. The Church of Nigeria has about 17 million members.

Writing for Records

 * [ Google Maps search results for Assembly of God churches in Nigeria]

Writing for Records

 * Nigerian Baptist Vonvention contact information
 * [ Google Maps search results for Baptist churches in Nigeria]

Historical Background
The Nigerian Baptist Convention claims about three million baptized members.

Writing for Records

 * [ Google Maps search results for Eastern Orthodox churches in Nigeria]

Writing for Records

 * [ Google Maps search results for Pentecostal churches in Nigeria]

Historical Background
There are over 300,000 Early Pentecostal Apostolic Churches parishes in Nigeria having about 4.2 million adherents. Such denominations in this group are:
 * The Apostolic Church,
 * The Celestial Church,
 * The Cherubim and Seraphim Church et cetera.
 * There are also about 380,000 New Apostolic Church parishes constituting about 6.5 million believers|New Apostolic Christians in Nigeria include: 1) The Redeemed Church, 4) Deeper Life Church, 5) Overcomers ministries and other new springs. Bye and large Protestantism particularly the Pentecostals, Apostolic and evangelicals constitute the major Christian population of Nigeria from the late 1990s to the present.

From the 1990s to the 2000s, there was significant growth in Protestant churches, including the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Winners' Chapel, Christ Apostolic Church (the first Aladura Movement in Nigeria), Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Evangelical Church Winning All, Mountain of Fire and Miracles, Christ Embassy, Common Wealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Aladura Church (indigenous Christian churches being especially strong in the Yoruba and Igbo areas), and of evangelical churches in general. These churches have spilled over into adjacent and southern areas of the middle belt.

Writing for Records

 * [ Google Maps search results for The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations churches in Nigeria]

Writing for Records

 * [ Google Maps search results for Seventh-day Adventist churches in Nigeria]