CHURCH, SCOTTISH AND FRENCH CANADIAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH
Brenda Kellow
March 20, 2011
Finding the church your ancestor attended is both easy and difficult. Some families remained in the same denomination while others attended the church closest to their home. Church going devout Catholics would attend a Baptist church if it was the only church in their community. Immigrants attended churches that spoke their native language. It is important to know the churches nearest to your ancestor’s property because that is where you might just find them.
American church records are difficult to find. The hunt begins with trying to locate them and then getting access to them. Each denomination is different and each may have its own archive. Your search should include locating and examining family Bibles, baptismal certificates, wedding announcements. Existing county marriage records usually give the name of the officiating minister.
Examine county histories for churches and their clergymen to identify the family’s religion. Large city histories may not list every minister or church affiliation. When you find your ancestor in the church records, look for their tombstone in the churchyard cemetery. If there is not one attached to that particular church, then inquire whether the church has a cemetery in the surrounding community.
GENEALOGY AT A GLANCE: I continue to be impressed with the laminated series of research topics containing an overview of facts necessary in order to begin and proceed successfully with research. More and more I am finding it difficult to carry anything other than my lap pad, pen and paper on research jaunts, and these lightweight fact sheets, the “Genealogy at a Glance” series, are lightweight and perfect for me. Some are only one sheet of laminated paper with useful information on both sides, while others contain four pages.
I have been using two of these recently from the series to search for my Scottish and French Huguenot ancestors who came into Canada before coming to the States. I used David Dobson’s four-page laminated guide to Scottish Genealogy Research to give me quick facts; background information; sources; supplementary record sources. It directed me to the major online resources such as Scotland’s People at www.ScotlandsPeople.gov_uk, National Archives of Scotland at www.nas.gov.uk, National Register of Archives for Scotland at www.nas.gov.uk/nras/register.asp, the Scottish Archive Network at www.scan.org.uk, and the National Library of Scotland at www.nls.uk.
With the Scotts documented coming from their homeland into Canada, I turned to Denise R. Larson’s French-Canadian Genealogy Research to help unlock my French Huguenot family history. The four pages contain quick facts; a brief history of French Canada, Quebec, Acadia and the Huguenots; surnames with a factual explanation of “dit” names; civil and church records; census returns; emigration and naturalization; identification of major record repositories in Canada.
The online resources were most helpful. They are American-Canadian Genealogical Society Library http://acgs.org/library/resources.html; Canadian Council of Archives at www.archivescanada.ca/english/index.html; Canada’s GenWeb at www.canadagenweb.org/; among others. It advised me that the renovation of the University of Moncton site would soon to be available in English. That site is the best source of information on Arcadian ancestry. This was just enough information to direct me to records, repositories and online databases
I have conducted Scottish research off and on for several years but having this little ‘cheat sheet’ opened up many resources and facts I had not used in previous research. The French-Canadian Genealogy Research is the most helpful four pages I have read.
These heavy laminated pages are ideal and contain the necessary information to guide me through my research, inexpensive, and they are perfect for pacifying cranky backs.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].
American church records are difficult to find. The hunt begins with trying to locate them and then getting access to them. Each denomination is different and each may have its own archive. Your search should include locating and examining family Bibles, baptismal certificates, wedding announcements. Existing county marriage records usually give the name of the officiating minister.
Examine county histories for churches and their clergymen to identify the family’s religion. Large city histories may not list every minister or church affiliation. When you find your ancestor in the church records, look for their tombstone in the churchyard cemetery. If there is not one attached to that particular church, then inquire whether the church has a cemetery in the surrounding community.
GENEALOGY AT A GLANCE: I continue to be impressed with the laminated series of research topics containing an overview of facts necessary in order to begin and proceed successfully with research. More and more I am finding it difficult to carry anything other than my lap pad, pen and paper on research jaunts, and these lightweight fact sheets, the “Genealogy at a Glance” series, are lightweight and perfect for me. Some are only one sheet of laminated paper with useful information on both sides, while others contain four pages.
I have been using two of these recently from the series to search for my Scottish and French Huguenot ancestors who came into Canada before coming to the States. I used David Dobson’s four-page laminated guide to Scottish Genealogy Research to give me quick facts; background information; sources; supplementary record sources. It directed me to the major online resources such as Scotland’s People at www.ScotlandsPeople.gov_uk, National Archives of Scotland at www.nas.gov.uk, National Register of Archives for Scotland at www.nas.gov.uk/nras/register.asp, the Scottish Archive Network at www.scan.org.uk, and the National Library of Scotland at www.nls.uk.
With the Scotts documented coming from their homeland into Canada, I turned to Denise R. Larson’s French-Canadian Genealogy Research to help unlock my French Huguenot family history. The four pages contain quick facts; a brief history of French Canada, Quebec, Acadia and the Huguenots; surnames with a factual explanation of “dit” names; civil and church records; census returns; emigration and naturalization; identification of major record repositories in Canada.
The online resources were most helpful. They are American-Canadian Genealogical Society Library http://acgs.org/library/resources.html; Canadian Council of Archives at www.archivescanada.ca/english/index.html; Canada’s GenWeb at www.canadagenweb.org/; among others. It advised me that the renovation of the University of Moncton site would soon to be available in English. That site is the best source of information on Arcadian ancestry. This was just enough information to direct me to records, repositories and online databases
I have conducted Scottish research off and on for several years but having this little ‘cheat sheet’ opened up many resources and facts I had not used in previous research. The French-Canadian Genealogy Research is the most helpful four pages I have read.
These heavy laminated pages are ideal and contain the necessary information to guide me through my research, inexpensive, and they are perfect for pacifying cranky backs.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].