New Jersey, Calvary United Methodist Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains church registers, membership rolls, minutes, etc. of the Calvary United Methodist Church (formerly known as Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church) in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey. This collection is being published as images become available.

The church began keeping records as soon as it was organized. The church kept records to know who were members, to track important events in their lives, and to protect their legal interests.

Church records are considered a primary source. They are usually reliable because they are kept by the minister, or a clerk appointed by the minister, who usually recorded an event at or very near the time it occurred.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptisms, Funeral, Marriage
 * Birth and christening dates and places
 * Names of parents and children, witnesses and godparents
 * Names of deceased persons, their parents, spouses and children
 * Birth, death and burial dates and places
 * Ages of persons
 * Places of residence
 * Names of husbands and wives, parents and witnesses
 * Birth, marriage and divorce dates and places
 * Ages of husbands and wives
 * Places of residence

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The ancestor’s name
 * The approximate date of the event such as the christening or baptism

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 in a church record compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination. Carefully evaluate each piece of information in the record. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

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

 * Use christening and birth records of christenings (baptisms) to identify a person’s birth date and place
 * Use confirmation records to identify a person’s birth date and place and his or her age
 * Use death or burial records to identify a person’s birth date and place
 * Use marriage records to identify a couple and the marriage date and place
 * Use church records in general to identify other family members who may have served as witnesses to an event
 * Use the date of the event along with the locality to find the family in census and land records
 * 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 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
 * An infant’s christening may have happened within a few days or few weeks of the birth

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

 * Look for variant spellings of the names
 * Check the records of other congregations in the area or nearby communities

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of New Jersey.
 * New Jersey Guided Research
 * New Jersey Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

Other FamilySearch Collections
These collections may have additional materials to help you with your research.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, CG, How to find your family history in U.S. church records: a genealogist's guide Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 2019 FS Library 973 K27m
 * Calvary United Methodist Church records, 1821-2003

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Franklin Ellis. History of Monmouth county, New Jersey. Philadelphia : R. T. Peck & Co., 1885. reprint. Cottonport, Louisiana : Polyanthos, 1974
 * New Jersey Historical Records Survey Project, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration, Directory of churches in New Jersey, vol. XIII, Monmouth County Newark, New Jersey : Historical Records Survey, 1941

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.