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Reformed Church in Canada

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Various Reformed Churches

Historical Background

Christian Reformed Church in North America

The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) split from the Reformed Church in America (then known as the Dutch Reformed Church) in an 1857 secession. In 1857, four churches with about 130 families (about 10 percent of the Dutch immigrant church members in West Michigan at the time) seceded. The new denomination that formed from this secession was led by elders and ministers from the churches in the northern Netherlands, especially from the province of Groningen. For the two years the denomination had no corporate name. In 1859, Holland Reformed Church was adopted, which was changed to Free Dutch Reformed Church in 1861. Two years later, True Dutch Reformed Church was approved which was changed to Holland Christian Reformed Church in 1880. In 1894, congregations also could use Christian Reformed Church as well. The full adoption of Christian Reformed Church came in 1904, which became Christian Reformed Church in North America in 1974. By 1920, the denomination had grown to 350 congregations. In 1992, at the height of its membership, the Christian Reformed Churches had 316,415 members in 981 churches in the United States and Canada.[1]

Protestant Reformed Churches in America

The Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRC or PRCA) is a Protestant denomination founded in 1924 as a result of a controversy regarding common grace in the Christian Reformed Church. The PRC currently has 33 member churches and 8,000 members scattered throughout the United States and in Canada. A majority of the churches in the United States are located in western Michigan but there are also churches in the midwestern and western United States.[2]

Canadian and American Reformed Church

In the 1540s, through the leadership of John Calvin in Geneva, there developed the Reformed churches in Switzerland, an area in Germany called the Palatinate, the Netherlands and Scotland. The Canadian Reformed Churches are rooted in this branch of the Protestant Reformation as it developed in the Netherlands from the 1550s and onward. The cause of the Reformation made great inroads and led to the establishment of a vigorous Reformed church life.

After the Second World War there was a massive immigration from the Netherlands to North America, especially to Canada. When members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands arrived in Canada, they first took up contact with already existing churches of Reformed persuasion in the hope that they could join with them. That hope soon disappeared and immigrants organized their own congregations. The first congregation was instituted on April 16, 1950, in Lethbridge, Alberta. That same year also saw churches instituted in Edmonton and Neerlandia, AB, Orangeville, ON, and New Westminster, BC. Over the years, this has grown to a federation of sixty-four churches, most of which are in Canada, but also some in the United States.

The Canadian Reformed Churches are therefore rooted in the Protestant Reformation especially as it developed in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and came to Canada via post Second World War Dutch immigrants.[3]

Reformed Church in America

The Reformed branch of Protestantism is rooted in the Reformation of the 1500s. Its primary leader was John Calvin of Switzerland, whose reform movement spread to Scotland, where it became the Presbyterian Church, and the Netherlands, where it became the Dutch Reformed Church.

  • In the 1600s, congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America spread and expanded, even after the English took control of the region from the Dutch. The Revolutionary War was particularly divisive in parts of the church and some of the congregants split from each other following the war. A group of parishioners loyal to the British settled in Canada along the St. Lawrence River. The congregations these refugees founded eventually became part of the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
  • Most of the RCA’s influence in America continued to be among settlers and immigrants of Dutch descent throughout the nineteenth century–including two congregations organized with Dutch immigrants in Alberta, Canada, in 1909 and 1912.
  • Another expansion of RCA ministry in Canada took place in the middle of the twentieth century, following World War II. The RCA worked to assist Dutch immigrants who were leaving Europe and seeking new starts in Canada. By 1950, the RCA had ministers working in seven sites helping more than 18,000 immigrants, and two congregations were organized in Ontario. This foundational work led to the establishment of the Regional Synod of Canada in 1993.[4]

Information Found in the Records

To effectively use church records, become familiar with their content. Click on these links to learn about a specific record type:

Finding the Records

Look for online records.


Caution sign.png

Online databases are incomplete. This can lead to two common errors:

  1. Near matches: Researchers might mistakenly accept an entry very similar to their ancestor, thinking it is the only one available. Only use information that matches your ancestor in date, place, relationships, and other details.
  2. Stopping research: Researchers might assume the database proves church records do not exist. Actually the record is still out there, just not in this incomplete collection of records. Keep searching!

Look for digital copies of church records listed in the FamilySearch Catalog.

FamilySearch Library
Salt Lake City, Utah
  • The FamilySearch Library (FS Library) has microfilmed and/or digitized records for churches in the Canada.
  • Online church records can be listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under the province or a town.
  • If you find a record that has not yet been digitized, see How do I request that a microfilm be digitized?
  • Some records might have viewing restrictions, and can only be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you, and/or by members of supporting organizations.
  • To find records:
a. Click on the records of Canada.
b. Click on Places within Canada and a list of provinces will appear.
c. Click on your province.
d. Click on the "Church records" topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
e. Or click on Places within Canada, [PROVINCE] and a list of towns will appear.
f. Click on your town if it appears, or the location which you believe was the parish which served your town or village.
g. Click on the "Church records" topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
h. 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.

Consult available finding aids.

These aids generally provide lists of records that are known to exist and information on their location.

Correspond with or visit the actual churches.

Some records are still held in the local churches. Contact the current minister to find out what records are still available.

  • Make an appointment to look at the records. Or ask the minister of the church to make a copy of the record for you.
  • To find church staff available, you might have to visit on Sunday.
  • Ask for small searches at a time, such as one birth record or a specific marriage. Never ask for "everything on a family or surname".
  • A donation ($25-$40) for their time and effort to help you would be appropriate.
  • If the church has a website, you may be able to e-mail a message.
  • See the Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help with composing letters.

Addresses

Check the church records collections in archives and libraries.

Some church records have been deposited for preservation in government archives or in libraries. Watch for links to digitized, online records offered by the archives. Some archives provide research services for a fee. For others, if you cannot visit in person, you might hire a researcher.

Archives of the Christian Reformed Church in North America
Heritage Hall
1855 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546-4402

Phone: 616.526.6313
Fax: 616.526.7689
Email:crcarchives@calvin.edu
Text Us: 616-214-3355


"In 1962, the Historical Committee of the Christian Reformed Church was instructed by Synod to collect the records of local, active congregations and microfilm their minutes (council, elders, deacons, the executive committee and the congregation), returning the originals to the congregation, so that a back-up set of records was available to local congregations should anything happen to their original set. The microfilm is stored in our vault, and the originals are returned to the congregation sending them."

Privacy restrictions apply.

Many of the records are included in U.S., Dutch Christian Reformed Church Vital Records, 1856-1970, index & images, Ancestry.com($)

Archives of the Reformed Church in America
21 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732)-246-1779
Email: rgasero@rca.org


The records of the Archives are available by appointment for research use. You are welcome to undertake your own research or use the services of a local researcher. Costs for a researcher hired by the Archives would be $30/hour for the first hour and $20/hour for each hour after that. Research could include providing digital copies of pertinent materials.

Recent records of the Reformed Church in America are restricted. However, many records from the first three centuries (approximately 1630 through 1950) of the life and ministry of the RCA are available for scholarly research. These include the records of congregations, classes, regional synods, the General Synod, and mission fields.

Genealogy Research: Unfortunately, the RCA Archives does not have the staff or financial resources to do genealogical research for family historians. However, we can tell people what records are available and guide them in the right direction for further research.

Most of our congregational records have been digitized and made available on Ancestry.com at U.S., Dutch Christian Reformed Church Membership Records, 1856-1970, index & images, Ancestry.com($). That site would provide the least expensive and most efficient method to research Reformed church congregational registers. --- Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0N4
Canada
Service Points Outside Ottawa

Telephone: 613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll-free in Canada and the United States)
TTY: 613-992-6969 or 1-866-299-1699 (toll-free in Canada)
Fax: 613-995-6274


Library and Archives Canada holds only a small collection of parish registers, none of which are comprehensive for any region. Most are transcripts rather than originals, available on microfilm and listed in our Checklist of Parish Registers (ISBN 0660538636). Due to the heavy volume of inquiries we receive, we are unable to conduct searches in parish registers.

Canadian Council of Archives / Conseil Canadien des archives
130 Albert Street, Suite 1201
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5G4
Canada

Toll free 1-866-254-1403
Fax (613) 565-5445
Email: info@archivescanada.ca

  • ArchivesCanada.ca Archive Search You can search the holdings of more than 800 archives across Canada through this portal, formerly known as CAIN (Canadian Archival Information Network).

In 2018, CRKN merged with Canadiana.org, an organization dedicated to the preservation and access of Canada’s documentary heritage since 1978.

Canadian Research Knowledge Network
411 - 11 Holland Avenue
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1Y 4S1
Phone:(613)907.-7040

Correspond with genealogical or historical societies.

Some church records have been given to historical societies. Also, historical societies may be able to tell you where the records are being held. To find a society near you, consult these lists:

Contact local libraries.

Churches sometimes donate their records to local libraries. Call or write to the libraries in the close vicinity of the church your ancestors might have attended and the towns where they resided.

Look for published books with transcripts of church records.

Many early records, especially from the 1600's and 1700's, have been transcribed and published in books.
These books can be digitized and available online. Check these online digital libraries:

Dark thin font green pin Version 4.png Try different keywords in various combinations:the name of the town,
the name of the specific church, the denomination, "church records", and "[PROVINCE] church records".

Consult the PERSI index for records published in journals.

  • PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) at Allen County Public Library; index. PERSI is an index to family and local history periodicals from 1847 to the present. Many of these periodicals publish church records. If you locate an index entry for a church, you will then need to find the periodical. Use the WorldCat.org search engine to find a library near you that carries the periodical. Library reference desks can be contacted to request a copy of articles, or you may need to hire a researcher.


Carefully compare any record you find to known facts about the ancestor

You will possibly find many different people with the same name as your ancestor, especially when a family stayed in a locality for several generations, and several children were named after the grandparents or aunts and uncles. Be prepared to find the correct church records by organizing in advance as many of these exact details about the ancestor as possible:

  • name, including middle name and maiden name
  • names of all spouses, including middle and maiden name
  • exact or closely estimated dates of birth, marriage, and death
  • names and approximate birthdates of children
  • all known places of residence
  • occupations
  • military service details


Dark thin font green pin Version 4.pngCarefully evaluate the church records you find to make sure you have really found records for your ancestor and not just a "near match". If one or more of the details do not line up, be careful about accepting the entry as your ancestor. There are guiding principles for deciding how to resolve discrepancies between records that are seemingly close. For more instruction in evaluating evidence, read the Wiki article, Evaluate the Evidence.

References

  1. ↑ "Christian Reformed Church in North America", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Reformed_Church_in_North_America#Demographics, accessed 27 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "Protestant Reformed Churches in America", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformed_Churches_in_America, accessed 27 July 2020.
  3. ↑ "History", at Canadian and American Reformed Church, https://canrc.org/history, accessed 27 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "History of the RCA", at Reformed Church in America, https://www.rca.org/about/history/, accessed 27 July 2020.
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