Researching Your Ancestors in

Religious Archives

TSLA Genealogy Workshop2 May 2009

To search for our ancestors in religious archives is to enter as best we can into their faith community, to understand them and their faith on their—and its—own terms.

Religious archives preserve and maintain data about your ancestors and their faith

community.Their function is to provide both

information and context.

This presentation is designed to: 1) acquaint you with some of the

resources available in religious archives, and

2) suggest some helpful ways to navigate these sources to

a) find information and b) context for your ancestors

Stone-Campbell Movement: three distinct Christian groups with a shared history1) Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)2) Churches of Christ3) Christian Churches/Churches of Christ

Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville is the only institution committed to the preservation of the common history of all three groups.

The key idea here is covenant. They voluntarily bind themselves to one another in these three ways and at these three levels.

There is no binding legal or ecclesiastical authority at the regional or denominational level.

1) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a liberal mainline Protestant denomination

Their polity, or church structure, is three-fold:Congregational …Regional… Denominational

2) Churches of Christ and 3) Christian Churches/Churches of Christ share some emphases with evangelical groups, but are not generally considered evangelical and do not generally consider themselves evangelical.

There is no structure larger than a local congregation. Cooperation in benevolent and mission efforts is common, but always voluntary among churches.

A key idea is “undenominational”; often they refer to their history as the Restoration Movement

An understanding of how a particular group or denomination functions will be very, very helpful as you navigate their historical records

Understand that religious groups function formally and informally…e.g.: concept of denomination among Churches of Christ

Types of Records at DCHS:--Congregational files--Biographical files (ministers, missionaries…) --Personal papers --Regional files (cf. Synod, Association, Presbytery)--Books (Yearbooks, annuals, local histories)--Periodicals (several are indexed, most are not)--State or regional periodicals--Organizational records (Missionary Societies…)--Institutional records (colleges, seminaries…) --Tracts and Pamphlets

--Sometimes people can be very protective of church records

Helpful tips for researchers:--Information hides in many places, and not necessarily in the obvious places--We have only what has been donated to us (remember that covenantal polity and independent structure!)