Tracing Your Ancestors in Church or Synagogue Records

The Mormons do genealogical work as part of their religious activities called Temple Work. The concept a non-Mormon would most readily recognize is "baptism for the dead" which is mentioned in  1 Corinthians 15:29. What "baptism for the dead" might actually mean is not an object of discussion in this particular post.

I am not a Mormon and it is not necessary for you to be a Mormon to be interested in your family history. Your ancestry is a large part of who you are. It is your link to history. You love your parents. Why not also learn of and love your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents?

There are many techniques genealogists use to trace family relationships. One of them is studying church and synagogue records. These are as much primary source records as are public civil records.

Jewish genealogy seems to present particular problems since there is very little centralization of the records. The following repositories may be helpful: The Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Archives at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, the Douglas Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center, and the Jewish Genealogical Center. The New York Public Library has a Jewish Genealogy Collection. If your family has a long connection with a particular synagogue there may be records available of some family specific information.

Christian church records are also highly fragmented because of the existence of over 200 different religious denominations in the United States alone. 

Many of today's Christian religious denominations have gone through highly contentious times, with multiple mergers, splits, mutinies, power battles, excommunications, shunnings, relocations, etc. Many splinter groups declared themselves to be the original pre-split group. The groups often took with them as many historical documents as possible. Lawsuits over ownership of property and documents produced court records which are also primary historical source material.

Organizational records may include payroll information, property rental and purchase documents, tax records, employment records, records of disciplinary actions, chains of command and job descriptions, etc. The records may also contain personal records (births, marriages, deaths, burials, consecrations, and ordinations.

When individuals shifted their allegiance from one group to another their church-held vital genealogical records usually were not shifted with them and remained with the parent group. The records may now be stored in the archives of the original body (which may or may not be in their original geographic  location.)

If you know the dates when organizational shifts occurred or the approximate dates when your ancestors moved from one group to another, you may be abler to infer the likeliest place to begin searching for a particular record. Early public records are often spotty and incomplete or even totally lost due to floods,  ,fires, or wartime rapacity. The only extant record of the marriage of your great-great-great-grandparents, who lived in California, may be housed in church archives in Florida for a group which originated in Minnesota.

Many universities and colleges with denominational ties have extensive records. Samford University (Southern Baptist) and Birmingham Southern College (Methodist) are two examples. Contact the national headquarters of your particular religious denomination and they may be able to steer you to their own historical repositories.

A Toast

The new Pope Francis apparently has a sense of humor.  New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has related that Francis' post-election toast to his fellow electors was, "May God forgive you."

Christians

Chiang Ching-kuo (B. 1910, China –d. 1988)  President of the Republic of China 1978-1988.  Methodist.

Titus (fl. 1^st century) A Gentile Christian who was a convert and later a friend and emissary of Paul. Paul sent him on several specific missions.  Galatians 2:3, 1 Corinthians 1-6, 2 Corinthians 2:13, 7:5-16, chapter 8, the book of Titus, 2 Timothy 4:10.  He was accepted as Paul’s spokesman.

Horatio Gates Spafford:  (b. 1828, New York (USA) – d. 1888) Attorney, investor, philanthropist, hymnist.  After all four of his daughters died in a shipwreck he wrote the words to the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.”  He, his wife, and their subsequent children worked for years in Jerusalem providing soup kitchens, hospitals, and orphanages.  He died in Jerusalem.  “I am glad to trust the Lord when it will cost something.”

Tiana Anpo Win Spotted Thunder (b. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota (USA), aka: Tasiyagmuka Ho Waste Win; Good Voice Meadowlark  Woman)  Singer in English and Lakota.

Melchior Grodziecki (b. ca 1582, Poland – d. 1619) Jesuit priest, military chaplain,  and martyr.  Beheaded by Transylvanian troops in Kosice.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Mary of Clopas: This woman is possibly the same as Mary Salome, who was either the wife or daughter of Clopas.  She is mentioned in John 19:25.

Julia Anne Sweeney: (b. 1959, Washington, USA) Film, stage, and theater actress. She left the Catholic Church to become an atheist and is associated with the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

William Todd Aikin: (b. 1947, New York, USA) Engineer, United States Representative from Missouri, elected 2001.  He is an opponent of abortion and embryonic stem cell research.  Presbyterian.

Jeremiah Horrocks: (b. 1618, England –d. 1641) Astronomer, mathematician, mechanic. Considered to be the Father of British Astronomy.  He was the first person to demonstrate that the moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical pattern and was the only astronomer to predict the Transit of Venus which occurred in 1639.  Puritan.

Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba: (b. 1935, South Africa) President of Namibia, elected in 2004 and 2009. Anglican. 

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Ozzy Osbourne: (b. 1948, England, aka: John Michael Osbourne; The Prince of Darkness) Heavy metal vocalist and songwriter.  Best known for his song, “Crazy Train.” Anglican.

Dion: (b. 1939, New York, USA, aka: Dion Francis DiMucci) Singer, songwriter best known for his songs “Run Around Sue,” and “The Wanderer.” Evangelical.

Bob Dylan: (b. 1941, Minnesota, USA; aka: Robert Allen Zimmerman) Singer, songwriter, painter, sketcher.  Best known for his songs “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin,’” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”  2012 United States Presidential Medal of Freedom winner. He was a convert from Judaism.

Uyaraq: This man was the first Inupiak convert in Alaska (late Nineteenth Century) and spent the last twenty years of his life as an evangelist in Alaska (USA).  He was known to break long-standing social taboos, ridicule the local animist shamans, and hold the Bible up in the air to demonstrate its power.  

Bob Marley: (b. 1945, Jamaica- d. 1981; aka: Robert Nesta Marley)  Singer, songwriter, guitarist. Marley is considered to have been the face of the Reggae music movement.  He was a Rastafarian who, in 1981, was baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.  His final words were, “Jesus take me.” 

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

John Wooden: (b. 1910, Indiana, USA – d. 2010) John Wooden was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1961 and as a coach in 1973.  His University of California at Los Angeles team won 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association championships.

Jonas Michaelius:  in 1628, Michaelius organized the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in New Amsterdam (the modern New York, New York, USA)

Beatrix of the Netherlands: (b. 1938, Netherlands, aka: Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgaard) Queen of the Netherlands.  Protestant.

Jacques Dupre (b. 1773, Louisiana –d. 1846) Louisiana State Representative and Senator, Governor of Louisiana (1830-1831).  Roman Catholic.

Julian Wellshausen: (b. 1844, Germany – d. 1918) Bible scholar, orientalist, university professor. Protestant.

Download the Bible to Your Mobile Device

To download the Bible to your mobile device go to www.YouVersion.com/download .  The application has been downloaded over 12,000,000 times.  The download is free from Pastor Craig Groeschel and his congregation at Life Church.  They have fourteen church campuses (in Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas) and online church services.

"The New York Same Sex Marriage Vote" Revisited, #4

On 28 June 2011, I posted "The New York Same-Sex Marriage Vote" and promised, "More on tax-exempt status, homosexuality, persecution, and marriage later."  Today, marriage.

"Because the Bible says so" doesn't hold much water with the rest of the world.  The world doesn't, for the most part, accept our values.  Most people in Western countries think that marriage is between a man and a woman because that is how it "just is," "that's the way it has always been."  That is, of course, not actually true.

Marriage worldwide has taken many forms: multiple husbands for a single wife; multiple wives for a single husband; one man, one woman for life; group marriage of multiple husbands and multiple wives all of whom "belong" to everyone; serial marriages to individual spouses; "open" marriages into which other persons may be temporarily inserted for sex; marriages for legal purposes in which the "spouses" might never even meet one another; marriages between children and adults; wives who may be "shared"with visitors as a form of polite hospitality; a form of prostitution called "comfort marriages" in which men marry and then divorce the wife in a single afternoon so their sexual relations will not be considered to be illegitimate; and many other variations.  

For the Christian, the words of Jesus in the Bible are authoritative.


"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."  Matthew 19:4-6


I predict that we will eventually lose the battle over same-sex marriage.  Remember that the world does not share our values, except incidentally.  The modern argument is that there are no absolute values; nothing is always true; there may not even be such a thing as "truth.".  Your "truth" may not be my "truth."


Public opinion can be easily swayed by seemingly reasonable arguments about "fairness."
We are called to obey the truth as given to us by God, not as determined by the changing opinions of men.  We must understand that this will in no way convince the rest of the world and they may react very negatively to us.  We must decide which we value more, the opinion of other people or the opinion of God.  This makes our choice very simple and,  possibly, very difficult.


A possible option if we eventually lose the legal battle over same-sex marriage: drop our tax exemption status and continue to do what we know is right.  Hold religious wedding ceremonies which we consider to be binding and submit whatever civil paperwork is required to make our marriages "legal."


R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, speaks on this subject in "Evangelicals and the Gay Moral Revolution," an article appearing on page A13 in the Friday 1 July 2011 issue of The Wall Street Journal.  The chilling final sentence of the article is "We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach."

The New York Same-Sex Marriage Vote

The State of New York, on Friday, 24 June 2011, became the sixth of the United States to legalize same-sex marriage.  This prompted a strong response from the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, Timothy Dolan.

“We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves.

“This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths.

“We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization.

“Our society must regain what it appears to have lost - a true understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God, grounded in nature, and respected by America's foundational principles.”  Timothy Dolan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York

I applaud Archbishop Dolan for his strong statement.  He is correct that there may be consequences for the stand.  The most obvious would be attempts to remove tax exempt status from churches which refuse to accept the legislation.  We must be willing to accept persecution for the truth without wilting.  We do not have a spirit of fear.

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More on tax-exempt status, homosexuality, persecution, and marriage later.

The Broadway Play,"High," Closes Today

High, a Broadway play starring Kathleen Turner, closes today after only twenty-eight off-Broadway previews and eight Broadway performances.  Reviews of the play were mixed and the box office receipts were disappointing.  The only thing that everyone agreed upon was that the star, Kathleen Turner, is still capable of a great performance even in what many consider to be inferior material.  Some called the production a "boulevard play."  An Internet commentor named “wim” said, “A "boulevard play" is a so-so play that is only produced because some major late-career actor sees an opportunity for a big (essentially solo) star vehicle where the play itself won't get in the way.”


High is the story of a rough-edged Roman Catholic nun who has a crisis of faith while working with a drug addict.  Here is the link if you wish to read the article.

I have not seen the play.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Mark David Chapman: (b. 1955, Texas) Chapman murdered former Beatle John Lennon in New York City on 8 December 2010.  He is incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York.

Richard David Falco: (b. 1953, New York; aka: David Richard Berkowitz, Son of Sam; .44 Caliber Killer) American serial killer and arsonist.  Between July 1976 and August 1977, he shot and killed six persons and severely injured several others, for which he received a 365 year prison sentence.  In 1987, he became a born-again Christian after reading Psalm 34:6. ("This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.")
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Pe Maung Tin: b. 1888, Burma – d. 1973) Pali and Buddhism scholar, educator, journal editor, librarian, writer, grammarian, and historian.  Anglican.

Tin Tin Myaing: (aka: Brenda Tin) Daughter of Pe Maung Tin.  French language scholar, librarian.  She lives in London.

Pu Thuam Hang:  Pu was a Chief of Khuasak and was the first convert  (1905) among the Zomi (Chin) in Chin State, Burma.   

A Cemetery Inscription in Cooperstown, New York

It is believed that the inscription on this grave in Cooperstown, New York, was intended to be a religious statement; "thine" instead of "thin."

"Here lies Suzannah Ensign,

Lord, she is thin."