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Published July 7, 2019

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With the possible exception of my own commercially published books, I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to receive a copy of a new book as the one that showed up in my mailbox last week.

That’s because co-author Sunny Jane Morton had given me a heads up that she was working on How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide some years ago (By means of full disclosure: I gave feedback on drafts of some of the chapters, and Morton and co-author Harold A. Henderson name me as one of several “influential cheerleaders”).

Truth be known, I was so enthusiastic about this project that I hectored Morton for progress reports any time I saw her at conferences around the country.

With that background information, you can probably imagine that I was locked and loaded to take a deep dive into the book immediately upon arrival.

What I found from that deep dive was a book that, simply put, needs to be on every genealogist’s bookshelf. Period. Full stop.

That’s because whether your ancestors were religious or not—they almost undoubtedly will be mentioned in some sort of church record.

The book is divided into two parts. The first makes the case for using church records and then sets the scene by drilling down chapter by chapter.

This part starts with an overview of the most common church records, to identifying the church of your ancestors, then tracking down the actual records (which may or may not be with a present-day church—even if that church still exists!), giving tips for working with the records, and finally showing a laundry list of lesser known types of church records.

Each of these chapters is peppered with excellent sample records, “at-a-glance” flowcharts and examples of timelines.

The second part of the book is devoted to a dozen different faiths in America, profiling the history of each along with a sensible rundown on the types of records applicable and where (or, alas, “if” in some cases) you’re most likely to find those records.

From Episcopalians to Baptists and from Lutheran and Reformed to Anabaptists, Morton and Henderson cover a huge swath of religious ground on which the ancestors of today’s researchers tread.

Truth be known—I was expecting a much larger book but after reading it, I’m convinced that this product is just the right size to be “digestible” by the vast majority of genealogists (One thing I would have liked would have been an appendix of names of religious denominations in America).

This book’s value will be as a primer for any genealogist who wants to get a feel for what religious records might be out there.

Which is to say, virtually every genealogist.

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How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide ($29.95, 143 pages, indexed) is available from Genealogical Publishing Company, genealogical.com.

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