methodist

Researching Your Methodist Ancestors

Researching your Methodist ancestors can be a frustrating, but ultimately very rewarding experience. Documentation is not always well-organized, preserved, or easily accessible, but once you *do* find your information, you may be surprised just how much there is!

The key thing to remember is PERSISTENCE! Many of the links on this page cater mainly to "fully-ordained, full-time" ministers. This leaves you to your own devices to research everyone else, including "local preachers" (such as my gggrandfather.)

Research Recommendations:

For research outside the U.S., click here. For research in the U.S., read on below. NOTE: Steps 1 - 6 pertain to info other than baptisms and marriages. Go to step 7 for the latter.

1. Contact the annual conference archives where you believe your ancestor may have records.

If your ancestor was an ordained minister, the archivist should be able to give you at the very least an obit, and information about where and when your ancestor served. Most conferences have access to an index that gives this information. Sometimes, the index also includes other family members or prominent members who were not ordained ministers.

Ask the archivist to check out the various Methodist publications such as the Christian Advocate newspapers that contain obits, wedding announcements, etc. The archivist might respond that he/she does not have the staff or other resources to search for information not contained in an index.

If you cannot access publications through your archives, try the LDS Family History Centers for their microfilms. You might also consider offering to hire a college student to assist in the research, as most archives are associated with a college library.

Contacts for U.S. United Methodist archives:

Searchable table index

Full listing of the archives

2. Contact the historian for the conference. (Find them in the archive listings link above.)

3. Contact historical societies connected with the church. Find them here:

Historical Societies for the U.S. United Methodist Church

4. Learn about the history and structure of the Methodist church to understand more about your ancestor. Here are some more links to help you do just that:

GCAH Homepage

United Methodist Church Organization and Structure

200 Years of Methodism: An Illustrated History

Archives Facility at Drew

5. Join the Rootsweb Mail List for Researching Methodists

If you have not done so already, please sign up for the Methodist-L@Rootsweb.com mail list that I maintain. This mail list is full of folks researching Methodists who love to share information and problems encountered in their research. Just send an e-mail by clicking here and put only the word

subscribe

in the subject and in the body of the message. Do NOT put anything else (not even "thank you") in the message or it will be bounced back to you.

6. Read Some Memoirs

Many Methodists kept journals, wrote articles and letters, and penned a few memoirs, too. Click here for some links to read some of these and learn more about life as an early Methodist.

7. Contact the church where your ancestor was a member.

It would seem that this should be Step #1. However, often it is hard to find the exact church; the church may no longer exist; the church may not have the records or a person knowing how to find them; the church staff may not consider it their duty to find the records. Even if they do have the records and they wish to help, chances are the records may be minimal--such as just the dates and names for a baptism. They would be very unlikely to have an obituary or other extensive biographical information.

Here is a link for finding a church on the Internet:

WWW Church Directory

8. Contact a "List Angel"

If you still need a little help, send an e-mail to one of our "List Angels." These are folks from the Methodist-L@rootsweb lists who have volunteered to take researchers "under their wings." Click here to go to the list of List Angels, or to volunteer to be one.

9. Join the Methodist Genealogical Society. For more information, click here.

More links and information coming soon, so please check back from time to time!

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