So we are all in agreement that church records are valuable, but here's the tricky part: how do you figure out which church your ancestors attended? Okay, here is where we separate the men from the boys, as the old expression goes. Truly determined researchers are willing to engage in the detective work that is often necessary to figure this out, and then additional effort to track where the records now reside. Here are some approaches that have worked for me...
Abandon Assumptions
Sometimes, we think we know what religion ancestors were, but either they changed religions, or because a religious institution of their denomination was not available where they lived, they attended a church of a different denomination from the one you assumed they attended. Yes, assumptions about our ancestors can hinder our research process greatly! So instead let's look for clues about what the correct religion really was.
Finding Clues in Other Sources
1. Work backwards and check sources that the ancestors generated last. First look at death notices and obituaries. They are not the same thing, and there may be both. Death notices list the bare bones details of how and where a person died. Obituaries list more information about the deceased including surviving family members, biographical details, and details about the interment and any accompanying religious services.
You probably looked for these in the local paper where the person died. But have you looked in the papers in other localities where the person lived including the birthplace? Have you looked in not just the mainstream local paper, but in ethnic newspapers that match the deceased's background?What about publications of the deceased's church, fraternal/social organizations, and college/university? Have you checked the newspaper where his siblings and children lived at the time of his death? These are all possibilities, and sometimes the information in different publications can vary.
"Rev Louis Kohlmann" "Rev L. Kohlmann" "Lewis Kohlmann" and Kohlmann minister Chicago
If the obituary holds no clues to the religion at all, it may still list the undertaker, or the death certificate will. Sometimes the undertaker's records list which religious officiant presided.
2. The place of interment itself may be a clue. The cemetery may be affiliated with a current or defunct place of worship. This may be obvious (e.g. St. John's Lutheran Cemetery) or it may be hidden because the cemetery has had a name change over the years. Do your background research on that cemetery. Also, some cemeteries that are non-denominational are sub-divided into sections that are for members of specific organizations or religious groups.
3. Look at articles in county histories and other biographical reference works. They sometimes list both religious and political affiliations.
4. Civil marriage records such as licenses and returns are another place to check, because both can list the name of the party who performed the ceremony. If this person is a civil servant such as a judge or a justice of the peace, then you are out of luck. Either the bride and groom were not particularly religious, or a religious officiant was not handy, or they were of different faiths and it was too hard to decide whose religious leader to use for the wedding ceremony.
This is the marriage license of my great grandparents Carl Brandstetter and Maria Wiederer, Austrian immigrants who married in Chicago in 1909. It lists the officiant as "Rev. Louis Kohlmann" of the German Evangelical Fredens [sic] Church. I could find nothing googling that church name, but using the variant search terms technique for the minister's name worked to find information. Some of the hits included newspaper articles, references to him in others' genealogical research, and digitized books on Google Books and Internet Archive that listed religious and charitable institutions. Kohlman's church was more typically called the Church of Peace. I also discovered it was located at the corner of Josephine and 52nd Streets. Another reference on Rootsweb explained that the church had moved and changed its name and denominational affiliation over the years. It was now the Palos Park Memorial United Church of Christ, located in suburban Palos Park. They still hold the records.
I shared this with my mother, who first phoned the church office, and then, when the secretary was having trouble locating the record, asked permission to drive over and examine the church book herself. So she did, and found that their June 1908 marriage was not recorded in the book until six months later, at the very end of the 1908 marriage records section. Apparently, Rev. Kohlmann had forgotten to write it down soon after conducting the marriage, but remembered it several months later, just as he was starting the the new section in the book for the 1909 marriages.
This should teach us to be very thorough in our searches, and to examine all records personally when possible. Now, one might assume that this couple belonged to this congregation because they were married there. Nope. A search of the membership lists did not turn them up, although a Henry Brandstetter was found, who may have been a relative of the groom. We know from family knowledge that the bride was Catholic, and that the groom was an Evangelical protestant who disliked the Catholic church, but tolerated his children being raised as Catholics. We also know that the protestant ceremony was a concession to the groom, but that the bride longed for a Catholic ceremony as well. She did not get her wish for many years, but it finally occurred on April 22, 1931 at Sacred Heart Church in Chicago. So one has to search for additional church records for this family in multiple religious institutions in a range of years outside the norm.
