Electronic Versions of the Bible

Here are a few electronic versions of the Bible.  I have not searched each site and do no know their denominational origins or the safety of each site.  Use customary internet caution.

http://www.thebiblesource.com/electronic-bibles

http://www.biblegateway.com/

http://ebible.org/

http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-versions/#13441162297121&0|3/1/2013%201:37:09%20AM|z-index:%201002;%20width:%20619px;%20height:%20520px;%20margin-left:%20-309.5px;%20left:%2050%;%20top:%2070px;%20position:fixed;|nlst

http://bibledatabase.net/

http://www.personalpromisebible.com/bibles/electronic-versions.html

The Religious Affiliations of the Presidents of the United States of America

George Washington (1789-1797) Most probably Deist.
John Adams (1797-1801) Unitarian.
Thomas jefferson (1801-1809) Deist.
James Madison (1809-1807) Unknown.
James Monroe (1817-1825) Episcopal.
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) Unitarian.
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) Presbyterian.
Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) Dutch Reformed.
William Henry Harrison (1841-1841) Episcopal.
John Tyler (1841-1845) Episcopal.
James K. Polk (1845-1849) Presbyterian.
Zachary taylor (1849-1850) Episcopal.
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) Unitarian.
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) Episcopal.
James Buchanan (1857-1861) Presbyterian.
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) Unknown.
Andrew Joihnson (1865-1869) Non-denominational Christian
Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) Methodist.
Rutherford B. Hayes )1877-1881) Methodist.
James A garfield (1881-1881) Disciples of Christ.
Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885) Episcopal.
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889) Presbyterian.
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) Presbyterian.
Grover Cleveland (1893-1897) Presbyterian.
William McKinley (1897-1901) Methodist.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) Dutch Reformed.
William Howard Taft (1909-1913) Unitarian.
Woodrow Wilson (1913*1921) Presbyterian.
Warren G. harding (1921-1923) Baptist.
Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) Congregational.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) Quaker.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) Episcopal.
Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) Southern Baptist.
Dwight D. Eisenhower )1953-1961) Presbyterian.
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) Roman Catholic.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) Disciples of Christ.
Richard Nixon (1969-1974) Quaker.
Gerald Ford (1974-1977) Episcopal.
Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) Baptist.
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) Disciples of Christ/Presbyterian.
George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) Episcopal.
Bill Clinton (1993-2001) Baptists.
George W. Bush (2001-2009) Episcopal/United Methodist.
Barack Obama (United Church of Christ/non-denominational Christianity.

What Is Your Religious Tradition?

People from 58 countries are now reading this blog.  We, I am sure, come from numerous and varied religious traditions.  I am a member of a church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (13,000,000 members, primarily in the United States) and live in the US State of Alabama.  I would describe my country and my religious affiliation as:

United States: Trinitarian, Evangelical, Baptist.

Any readers of this blog who would like to identify themselves by country and religious tradition can do so below by leaving a comment.  Just click on the blue "comments." It should be interesting to see who we all are.

The Genealogical Value of Tracing the Historical Development of Religious Denominations: Part 2

     Many of today's religious denominations have gone through highly contentious time, with multiple mergers, splits, mutinies, power battles, excommunications, shunnings, relocations, etc. Each splinter group usually declared itself to be correct and the true church and took with it as many of the group's historical documents as it could.  Lawsuits over property and documents produced court records, another source of information about the groups and their leaders and members.

     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.  In the case of religious groups all of the above will be included as well as records of the personal type (births, marriages, deaths, burials, consecrations, ordinations, etc) which we more commonly associate with genealogy.  

     When individuals shifted their allegiances from one religious group to another, their church-held vital genealogical records usually weren't shifted with them and stayed 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 able 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 official record of the marriage of your great-grandparents, who lived in California, may be located in church archives in Florida for a group which originated in Minnesota.  

The Genealogical Value of Tracing the Historical Development of Religious Denominations: Part 1

     The same principles used in preparing and interpreting genealogical descent charts can be applied to organizations (ie. churches, religious denominations, businesses, political movements, etc).  It is possible to trace persons as they followed their leaders from place to place, because, wherever the leaders went, the followers, and often, the group's organizational records, accompanied them.  Sometimes, especially in the case of contentious splits, the records were left behind when the move occurred.

     When individual church congregations dissolved, the records sometimes ended up in the possession of individual families who had been prominent in the church.  One example of this is the Presbyterian Record Book of Carolina Church, 1837-1845 (Coosa County, Alabama), which was carried to Sibley, Louisiana by the Graham family.  The final home of this book became Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston. 

     The level and nature of document retention varies greatly from group to group.  The smaller, more congregational, religious groups may have kept no information at all.  Others will have a mixture of local and denominational record keeping.  A few of the more highly structured denominations will have at least copies of almost everything collected into one central archive.

Part 2 of this article will be posted tomorrow.