The Anglican Church became the official Church of Virginia and Maryland by 1700. In these provinces its role extended well beyond the religious. All residents were supposed to record births, deaths and marriages. The records suggest, however that this was rarely adhered to. Residents were also required to pay taxes to the church. Many of these lists of tithables survive.

Persons of denominations other than Anglican were called dissenters. These religions were given freedom to worship in varying degrees. In Maryland and Virginia the counties were subdivided into parishes and treated as jurisdictions in certain governmental aspects. In Maryland the parish boundaries often followed the boundaries of the hundreds, which were subdivisions of counties.

Certain functions were assigned to the Anglican Church in Virginia and Maryland. These included providing for the needy, conducting the levy tax, confirming the boundaries of real property (called processioning and conducted in Virginia only); overseeing cases of adultery, fornication, swearing oaths, etc.

With the advent of the Revolutionary War the Anglican Church (and its successor the Episcopal Church) fell into decline, and of course lost all its official standing.

Society of Friends (Quakers) constituted a major part of the population in Pennsylvania, (including the lower counties on the Delaware) New Jersey, and to a much lesser extent in Maryland and Virginia. Quakers were not freely accepted in Maryland in the 1600s. Quakers residing in Virginia were treated harshly by the provincial government, so much so that many migrated to Maryland where they were accepted. Lord Baltimore invited the Quakers from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the unsettled regions of Somerset County, largely as a strategy to establish the border with Virginia, anticipating an eventual dispute with the Virginia government.

Some Quakers of Lancaster County, Virginia migrated into Baltimore and Talbot Counties. This included the Gorsuch and Dickinson families.

Quakers did not believe in paid ministers, referring to all such ministers as priests. Many Quakers of Maryland and Virginia became Methodists by the early 1800s.

Baptists (especially from Wales) appeared in various pockets of the Mid-Atlantic region. They established colonies in southern Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Lutherans, Reformed, Moravians and Mennonites. German speaking congregations appeared primarily in Pennsylvania and in Northern New Jersey. These were the Lutherans, Reformed, Moravians and Mennonites. Their congregations gradually appeared in Western Virginia and Western Maryland as families of German origin moved south from Pennsylvania. Many of these churches retained the German language in their sermons and registers into the 19th century.

The Moravians entered Pennsylvania from Germany in 1742 to work among the Indians and established a base of operations for that purpose in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Moravian missionaries presented themselves as pan-denominational. Supported by their own economy around Bethlehem, their preachers declined to take money for their services. Their activity caused much anxiety among the regular clergy of the German Reformed and Lutheran churches. By 1748 it became mutually obvious that the Moravians should desist in their attempts at ecumenicalism and declare themselves to be a new, separate denomination. The congregations concerned were asked at that time to choose whether they wanted to continue as Reformed or Lutheran, or to become part of the new Moravian denomination.

Presbyterians (mostly Scotts-Irish) settled in Southern Pennsylvania. With the arrival of Francis Makemie in Somerset County, Maryland, and Accomack County, Virginia in the late 16oos Presbyterianism grew rapidly.

Methodism was established in the fledgling colonies in the late 1700s. Under John Wesley it remained an adjunct to the Anglican Church until the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Christmas day, 1792 at Lovely Lane in Baltimojre. By 1800 it had formed a foothold in the Mid-Atlantic area, eventually overtaking the Anglicans, Quakers and Presbyterians. It remains the predominant denomination in rural Maryland and Delaware.

Church Records

The type of information revealed in church records depends, of course, on the denomination, custom, and sometimes on the preferences or whims of the recorder. Often there are two types of documents: the register and the book of minutes or church business conducted by church officials. The latter may deal with such mundane matters as repairs and upkeep of the building along with matters of discipline of members.

Anglican (later Episcopal) - The Anglican registers may contain dates of baptisms and names of the parents of the child; births; marriages; deaths; and burials. In the Vestry Book or minutes of the vestry one will find church business dealing with repairs to the church, taxes levied on persons living in the parish, misconduct, and support of the needy.

Societies of Friends (Quakers) registers were maintained by the Monthly Meeting and contain dates of birth and marriages and sometimes deaths, especially of the society's leaders. These records reveal the names of parents, and residences of the groom, bride and parents.

In addition to the registers are copies of marriage certificates, which show same information given in the registers but also the names of witnesses who may or may not be Quakers. The Monthly Meeting also maintained a file of certificates of removal. These certificates were forward from a member's original monthly meeting to the monthly meeting of his or her intended destination. These certificates frequently contained the names of the spouse and children.

Quaker minutes can be helpful to genealogical research in several respects. Sometimes the minutes are the only record of a marriage when for some unknown reason the clerk failed to record the marriage in the register or copy the marriage certificate. Because the certificates of removal are often missing, the minutes offer evidence of the arrival or departure of members. The minutes also reveal concern for individual misconduct and disownment. (See Tree Talk, issue 3 for further discussion.)

Baptist records sometimes include records of marriage but more often not. They do include records of baptism (as adults), transfers to and from other Baptist congregations, discussion of individual misconduct, and excommunication. (In the records of one congregation the term "dismembered" was used!)

Roman Catholic - Although Maryland was settled by a Roman Catholic proprietor, the Catholics were disenfranchised after the establishment of the Anglican church in 1692. Nevertheless few records of baptism by the Jesuits were kept and have survived for Southern Maryland and for the Eastern Shore missions of St. Joseph's (Cordova in Talbot County) and Bohemia Manor (in Cecil County).

Lutheran and Reformed - The record books are identical in format to each other and consist mainly of baptisms, giving the names of parents and sponsors. The survival rate of these records is much better than that of others. Records of marriage and burials have survived to a lesser degree. There are also lists of communicants and confirmations.

Moravian - These records provide a wealth of genealogy, often giving information on the earlier origins of the family.

Presbyterian - Many of the registers have been lost. The registers contain births, marriages and deaths. The early cession minutes sometimes contain discussions of misconduct.

Methodist - Few Methodist records are extant for the first 50 years or so of its existence in the Mid-Atlantic. One explanation for the dearth of records is attributed to the fact that the records were usually maintained by a circuit-rider minister whose primary mission was to propagate the message.

Minister records. Some ministers (various denominations) retained copies of their record of baptisms, marriages and burials. Sometimes these records were in the form of a diary.. A few of these records have survived.

Church Records - Where Can You Find Them?

Church records, original and copies, can be found at state archives, church archives, and sometimes but least likely, at the church itself.

Delaware. The Delaware State Archives holds many church records of Delaware including some of the Quaker records; One should also check the Friends Library located at Swarthmore College or the Friends Library located at Haverford College. which original or copies of minutes and registers of Quakers meetings of the U.S.

Maryland. The Maryland State Archives has an excellent collection of church records, largely through the efforts of Phoebe Jacobsen, past archivist of the state, now deceased. Because the Baltimore Yearly Meeting included several monthly meetings of Virginia, one will find some Virginia Quaker records at the Maryland State Archives.

Virginia. The collection of the Virginia State Archives (co-located with the Virginia State Library) is excellent. You may also find a few church records at the Virginia Historical Society. Both repositories are located in Richmond. Because the Baltimore Yearly Meeting included several monthly meetings of Virginia, one will find some Virginia Quaker records at the Maryland State Archives.

Pennsylvania. A great number of church records were collected by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) and held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Very few, if any, church records are held by the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg. There are a number of published church records held by the state library at Harrisburg. Aside from the enormous collection at HSP the next best place to look for copies is generally at the historical library of the county. Especially noteworthy are the libraries of Adams, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, and York counties with which I am familiar.

For German Reformed records of Pennsylvania visit the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society of the United Church of Christ Library at the Lancaster Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This library holds many of the Reformed records (Pennsylvania and a few for Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia) transcribed by William J. Hincke along with other Reformed records and a large number of copies of Lutheran records.

Quaker records of Pennsylvania will be found at the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College and at the Haverford College Library, Quaker Collection. The Swarthmore collection was established to hold the records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Baltimore Yearly Meeting (includes Northern Virginia) in addition to these records Swarthmore holds copies of records of the London Yearly Meeting and records for the Midwest U.S. See also http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers/records.htm and http://www.gendatablog.com/quaker_records_depostories/

For Moravian records, visit the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA.

The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia has records of over 20,000 Presbyterian churches of the U.S.

Published Guides to Church Records

Delaware - The Directory of Churches and Religious Organizations in Delaware, Public Archives Commission of the State of Delaware, 1942.

Maryland - Edna Kanely, Directory of Maryland Church Records. Westminster, MD, Family Line Publications, 1987.

New Jersey - Guide to the Church Archives of New Jersey, Newark, WPA, (20 volumes), 1938-1941.

Pennsylvania - Helen Hutchison Woodroofe, A Genealogist's Guide to Pennsylvania Records. Philadelphia, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 1995.
Virginia - Jewell T. Clark and Elizabeth Terry Long, Church Records in the Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond, Virginia State Library and Archives, 1981.

Published Church Records -

See our catalog listing; also see the periodicals of the state genealogical and historical societies.

Colonial Roots Ongoing Projects

Maryland Militia in the War of 1812 on CD

In 1979 I began abstracting the muster and pay rolls of Marylanders who served in the War of 1812. After publishing most of the material in eight volumes of material - about 1000 pages, the remaining abstracts of muster and pay rolls for Washington and Allegany counties were published in the Maryland Genealogy Society Bulletin.

These abstracts were taken from the records held by the National Archives which also houses the applications made by the veterans or the widows (and in some cases the minor children) for bounty land warrants and pensions. In order to make a claim the veteran had to establish his service, the widow was required to provide additional information on her marriage to the veteran, giving the name of the minister who married them, date of marriage and other data. The records sometimes include descriptions of the veteran: color of eyes, height, color of hair, occupation at the time of entering service, and other facts. Persons acquainted with the veteran or widow also made affidavits establishing the veteran's service, and in the case of the widow's claim, confirmation of the marriage.

We are currently scanning these volumes to be released on CD-ROM format in the spring of 2006. All previously published material will be contained on the CD. Our "out-of-print" volumes will also be reprinted in limited quantities in soft cover, spiral bound.

Virginia - We have launched a major effort in the abstraction of court records of Tidewater Virginia. Our coverage of York County will probably be completed by mid-2006 to be followed by the abstracting of records of Essex, Lancaster, Northumberland and Middlesex. Abstracting these records takes painstaking effort. Our current team is patiently toiling away and could use a few more volunteers. The financial reward may not be great but the researcher in you may find it rewarding nevertheless.

Colonial Families Series:

Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Volume 22 will concentrate on Worcester and Somerset counties, covering the families of Byrd/Bird, Blades, Dalby/Dolby, McClester, O'Dear, Piper, Potter, Richardson, Timmons, Train, Turner, Turville, Veazey, Wallace, White (revised), Willis, and Windsor. This volume will probably be available in March.

Colonial Families of Delaware, Volume 9 is currently being researched. It will include families from Kent and Sussex counties.

Colonial Families of the Northern Neck of Virginia, Volume 2 - available Spring 2006.

Early Settlers of Tidewater Virginia, Volume 2 - estimated publication date Summer 2006.

Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Volume 3. Expected in late Spring 2006.

That's all for now.
-Ed