Cook Islands Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in the Cook Islands, go to the Religious Records page. =Historical Background= Religions: Cook Islands Christian Church 49.1%; Seventh-day Adventist 7.9%; Assemblies of God 3.7%; Apostolic Church 2.1%); Roman Catholic 17%; Mormon 4.4%; Other 8%. This "Other" group includes smaller Christian denominations, and mostly non-indigenous adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, as well as the irreligious.

"The dominant religion of Polynesia and the Cook Islands is Christianity. The missionaries arrived in 1821 and quickly uprooted the old animistic worship of tribal gods and idols. The London Missionary Society focussed its early efforts on the Society Islands. Ex-ironmonger John Williams hit on the idea of using converted Polynesians to spread the gospel to the islands to the west. He sent two Raiateans to Aitutaki in 1821 and others followed shortly after to Mitiaro, Mangaia, Mauke and Atiu. Finally, Rarotonga fell to the new beliefs...Missionaries had a huge impact on the land, structure of society and the people. Most of them came from the lower middle classes of 19th century England, what has been termed the "mechanic" class. They brought their wives with them. Many of these women were the daughters of missionaries in New South Wales, Australia, and were well aware of the hardships of missionary life. The islanders were employed by these families around the mission houses to cook, clean, wait at table and work in the garden.

Before contact with missionaries, the Rarotongans lived inland deep in the valleys and thus protected from neighboring tribes. However, the location of these settlements did not suit the missionaries' attempts at conversion since access was difficult and restrictive. The missionaries set up their stations on the coast and persuaded the chiefs to build villages around them.

Parish Registers
Research use: Uniquely identifies individuals and connects those in one generation to the next.

Record type: Church records kept by religious authorities of births/baptisms, marriages, and deaths/burials.

General: The compilation and preservation of church records is random.

Time period: 1838-present.

Contents: Names of the person and other family members, residence, relationships, dates and place of birth and baptism, marriage, death and burial. Sometimes, baptisms include names of godparents; marriages include the ages of the bride and groom; burials include the age of the deceased and cause of death.

Location: Churches and ecclesiastical archives. These locations need to be more fully investigated.

Population coverage: 10% coverage for early periods; 50% coverage for the 20th century.

Reliability: High.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in 1899. In 1949 church membership numbered 160.