Church of the Brethren in the United States

United States   Church Records   Church of the Brethren

History in the United States

 * The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination with origins in the Schwarzenau Brethren (German: Schwarzenauer Neutäufer "Schwarzenau New Baptists") that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany, as a melding of the Radical Pietist and Anabaptist movements.
 * The first Brethren congregation was established on Christmas Day 1723 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, then a village outside Philadelphia.
 * These church bodies became commonly known as "Dunkards" or "Dunkers", and more formally as German Baptist Brethren.
 * The Church of the Brethren represents the largest denomination descended from the Schwarzenau Brethren, and adopted this name in 1908. The denomination had 122,810 members as of June 2012 and 1,047 congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico as of August 2010.
 * Other than Pennsylvania, the states with the highest membership rates are Virginia, Indiana, Maryland, and West Virginia. Source: Wikipedia

Look for online records.
Some records have been digitized and posted online, where they are easily searched. More are being added all the time. Partner websites such as Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and American Ancestors can be searched free-of-charge at any Family History Center.
 * Brethren Church Genealogy Records: Church of the Brethren Network of Genealogy & History Resources
 * Brethren Cemeteries.
 * Online COB-Net Brethren Bibliography

Correspond with or visit the actual churches.
Some records are still held in the local churches. Contact the current minister to find out what records are still available.
 * Make an appointment to look at the records. Or ask the minister of the church to make a copy of the record for you.
 * To find church staff available, you might have to visit on Sunday.
 * Ask for small searches at a time, such as one birth record or a specific marriage. Never ask for "everything on a family or surname".
 * A donation ($25-$40) for their time and effort to help you would be appropriate.
 * If the church has a website, you may be able to e-mail a message.
 * See the Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help with composing letters.

Addresses:
 * Church of the Brethren Directory

Check the church records collections in archives and libraries.
Brethren Historical Library and Archives 1451 Dundee Avenue Elgin, IL 60120 Phone: 847-742-5100 Ext. 294 Fax: 847-742-6103 (Be sure to include Brethren Historical Library and Archives on the fax)

Brethren Heritage Center Brookside Plaza 428 Wolf Creek Street, Suite H Brookville, Ohio  45309-1297

E-mail: mail@brethrenhc.org Telephone: 937-833-5222 "The Brethren Heritage Center (BHC) has an extensive research library as well as an in-house and online bookstore. Visitors are welcome to use our large conference table and comfortable chairs to do their historical and genealogical research. Assistance in finding materials is always available."
 * Website Emphasis on Schwarzenau Brethren, Old Order churches, and Ohiuo state.

Societies

 * Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists

Baptismal Records
The Brethren practice adult baptism, therefore there are no records of baptisms of infants. After an adult was baptized, his or her name was added to the church membership list.

Church Membership Lists
Although many early church membership lists have been lost, most of those which have survived have been printed in Brethren church history books. Some of these lists are available online at the History and Genealogy: Church Records. More recent membership lists are in the local churches. Use The Brethren Encyclopedia to find the names of churches. See a list of currently Active Congregations with web pages at the History and Genealogy site. Write to the Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, Illinois, to ask the location of historical records. Check the card catalogs of Brethren College libraries and of area city and county libraries for history books about the congregation which may have printed membership lists.

Church Minutes, District Minutes, and Annual Meeting Minutes
Business meetings of a church and of the quarterly and district meetings were recorded in minutes. These unpublished and unindexed records are in manuscript form and usually at the local church. If the church has ceased to exist, the minutes may be at the Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, Illinois, or at a nearby Brethren college library. Annual Meeting Minutes are published each year and are available at local churches, Brethren college libraries, at the Brethren Historical Library and Archives, and are available for sale. Brethren Press reprints historical annual minutes for the earliest years.

Brethren Cemetery Records
The earliest Brethren congregations used public cemeteries. On the frontier, Brethren families had small graveyards on their farms. More recently, cemeteries were located next to meetinghouses, some of which still exist as cemeteries although the church is no longer active. Letters to the various agencies which may have current responsibility for the care of old cemeteries will be necessary. Write to local churches, county cemetery boards, historical societies, local libraries, the Brethren Historical Library and Archives at Elgin, Illinois, and Brethren college libraries in the area. A current project of the Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists is to gather and index records of Brethren Cemeteries.

Brethren Church Histories
Since 1900, the publication of district and congregational histories has been encouraged. Look for a history of your family's church in the online card catalogs of Brethren College libraries, in the chapter "Bibliography of the Brethren" in volume three of The Brethren Encyclopedia, and in the online COB-Net Brethren Bibliography under "Local History." After finding a title, write to the Brethren Historical Library.

Carefully compare any record you find to known facts about the ancestor
You will possibly find many different people with the same name as your ancestor, especially when a family stayed in a locality for several generations, and several children were named after the grandparents or aunts and uncles. Be prepared to find the correct church records by gathering in advance as many of these exact details about the ancestor as possible:
 * name, including middle name and maiden name
 * names of all spouses, including middle and maiden name
 * exact or closely estimated dates of birth, marriage, and death
 * names and approximate birthdates of children
 * all known places of residence
 * occupations
 * military service details

Carefully evaluate the church records you find to make sure you have really found records for your ancestor and not just a "near match". If one or more of the details do not line up, be careful about accepting the entry as your ancestor. There are guiding principles for deciding how to resolve discrepancies between records that are seemingly close. For more instruction in evaluating evidence, read the Wiki article, Evaluate the Evidence.