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.