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→What are church records?
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==What are church records?== | ==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'''. | *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. | ||
*Eventually, countries and states of the U.S. started state keeping birth, marriage, and death certificates. Church records are extremely important before those records started. | *Eventually, countries and states of the U.S. started state keeping birth, marriage, and death certificates. Church records are extremely important before those records started. In many 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. | |||
==What can you find in church records?== | ==What can you find in church records?== | ||