"Hallelujah!" Researching African American Church Records

Role of Religion in African American Communities

African American churches provided a great deal of support for local communities and people. Their role in local jurisdictions helped to promote record keeping and preservation which helps us to conduct genealogical research. As you discover more about churches that your ancestor's attended, it can paint a more accurate of your ancestor and their values. Religion helped to:

• Connect communities
• Give hope
• encourage civil rights
• lead school and education initiatives
• promote and lead social welfare functions

Here are a couple articles and websites to read and discover more about the role of religion in local communities:

• JSTOR articles:
  • "The Enduring Legacy of an African-American Plantation Church" https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717754?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
  • "The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community" https://www.jstor.org/stable/2295494?seq=9#metadata_info_tab_contents
• The Church in the Southern Black Community
• African American Church Records
• Historic African American Churches

Genealogical Value

Church records are a great resource for any genealogical research, but it can especially be helpful in African American research especially as you consider a lack of other record types in the 1800s. Church records are valuable as they a good substitute for vital records and provide community context. Many family members would attend the same local churches, thus their records may also be located in the same church. This allows for easier connections to be made between family members. One of the key values to church records is that there are possible documents and information available for ancestors during their enslavement.

There are three main types of church records:

• Baptism
  • Information in these records could include: name of baptized child/adult, parents of child, date of baptism, date of birth, godparents/witnesses, and enslaver
• Marriage
  • Information in these records could include: bride and groom names, ages, residences, parents, occupations, and marital status; date of marriage, person preforming marriage, and place of marriage
• Burial
  • Information in these records could include: name and age of deceased, previous residence, date and place of death, and date and place of burial

Another record type that you may often find, especially pre-1865, are member lists or lists of communicants. These records are generally just lists of names, but sometimes they would even list the enslaver of African Americans listed. This can help to track your ancestors to different households, jurisdictions, and possibly to plantations. This expands the ability to conduct research on your ancestor.