Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists Organized: 1966 Sponsored by the Historical Committee - Church of the Brethren |
Finding Ancestors In Brethren Records
A Genealogical Guide to Brethren Records and History
Church Membership Lists
Although many early church membership lists have been lost, most of those which have survived have been printed in Brethren church history books. Some of these lists are available online at the History and Genealogy: Church Records. More recent membership lists are in the local churches. Use The Brethren Encyclopedia to find the names of churches. See a list of currently Active Congregations with web pages at the History and Genealogy site. Write to the Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, Illinois, to ask the location of historical records. Check the card catalogs of Brethren College libraries and of area city and county libraries for history books about the congregation which may have printed membership lists.
Church Minutes, District Minutes, and Annual Meeting Minutes
Business meetings of a church and of the quarterly and district meetings were recorded in minutes. These unpublished and unindexed records are in manuscript form and usually at the local church. If the church has ceased to exist, the minutes may be at the Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, Illinois, or at a nearby Brethren college library. Annual Meeting Minutes are published each year and are available at local churches, Brethren college libraries, at the Brethren Historical Library and Archives, and are available for sale. Brethren Press reprints historical annual minutes for the earliest years.
Submitted: May 1998 - Judith C. Whipple