Church Records

Guide to locating church records for ancestry, family history, and genealogy research.

What are church records?

 * Church records are a valuable source for proving the dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths and the identity and relationships of family members. Births are verified by infant christening/baptism records. Marriages were performed by churches and burial records verify deaths. Some countries organized information in family registers, much like a family group sheet.
 * Church records are extremely important for documenting births, marriages, and deaths that took place before government or civil registration began. In some regions, it was also common for the local church records to function in the role of government civil registries.
 * Particularly outside the U.S. church records can contain financial account books, (they record charges for toll bells, fees for masses for the dead, and so on), lists of confirmation, penance register, communion lists, lists of members and the family register.
 * Scandinavian Lutheran church records kept census records, which in addition to listing basic family information, could include birth dates and the names of parishes moved from or moved to.

Baptisms
Children were usually baptized a few days after birth. Baptism registers usually give:
 * the infant's name
 * parents' names, often including the mother's maiden name
 * status of legitimacy
 * names of witnesses or godparents who could be relatives
 * baptism date.

You may also find:
 * the child's birth date
 * the father's occupation
 * the family's place of residence
 * death information

Marriages
Marriage registers may give:
 * the marriage date
 * the names of the bride and groom.
 * whether they were single or widowed
 * give the names of witnesses
 * include other information about the bride and groom, such as:
 * ages
 * birth dates and places
 * residences
 * occupations
 * parents' names
 * the names of previous spouses and perhaps their death dates.

Burials
Burial registers may give:
 * the name of the deceased
 * the date and place of death or burial
 * the deceased's age
 * place of residence
 * cause of death
 * the names of survivors
 * deceased's birth date and place
 * parents' names of those being confirmed
 * the confirmation date
 * their ages or birth dates
 * birthplaces
 * fathers' names.

Links to United States Articles by Religion
Outside the United States, most countries had a state religion, which cooperated with the government in keeping records. Because the United States separated church and state, many different religions evolved, kept records, and sometimes did not. These links lead to available records kept by these multiple religions. These provide links to nationwide archives and collections. You should still study the state church records pages fof information on records kept uniquely for that state.

Online Genealogical Records Pages
On the main page for each U.S. State page and country page, a blue button leads to a listing of online record collections.


 * Also, all the available Online Genealogy Records pages are linked at Online Genealogy Records by Location.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Church Records collected by FamilySearch, usually digitized and online, are listed in the FamilySearch catalog. Enter the name of the country in the "Place Field" and click "Search". A list of record categories will be provided. Select "Census".