Another under utilized genealogy resource is Church Records. We tend to focus our research on civil records, but need to be aware that often church records pre-dated civil records and are a great resource as well. In the BMD Records section of this website there are about 15,000 collections of civil records that are available online. Yes, that's a lot, but we need to also search church records as well.
What can we find in church or synagogue records? Here's just a shortlist of what nuggets we can find:
- Baptisms and Christenings
- Marriages
- Deaths
- Burials
- Confirmations
- Membership lists
- Church Minutes
- Church Directories
- Transfer Letters
- Bar or Bat Mitzvahs
- Sunday School lists
- Church newsletters
There is a large number of Free Online Church Record collections from the New England States; the links are accessible by state below.
(Updated February, 2020; recently added links are in BOLD):
- Free Connecticut Online Church Records
- Free Maine Online Church Records
- Free Massachusetts Online Church Records
- Free New Hampshire Online Church Records
- Free Rhode Island Online Church Records
- Free Vermont Online Church Records
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!