Event Registration
Discovering New York Religious Records: An Overview
02/26/2026 12:00 AM - 12/31/2026 11:55 PM ET
Admission
- $149.00
Summary
Religious records are among the most important categories of resources for family history researchers, especially those researching in New York State prior to the late 1800s.
There were very few government-kept vital records for the colony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as the Dutch viewed this to be a function of the church and not the state. When the English took over administration in 1664, they took a similar approach. New York State didn't create laws that required civil vital recordkeeping until the 1840s, although some local government records from the mid-1800s and earlier can sporadically be found. As a result, religious records are excellent vital record substitutes.
This New York Family History School course will provide registrants with an understanding of New York’s religious history and introduce the foundational resources and methods for tracing ancestors from a variety of faiths. This course will cover religious records dating from the 1600s to the early 1900s.
There were very few government-kept vital records for the colony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as the Dutch viewed this to be a function of the church and not the state. When the English took over administration in 1664, they took a similar approach. New York State didn't create laws that required civil vital recordkeeping until the 1840s, although some local government records from the mid-1800s and earlier can sporadically be found. As a result, religious records are excellent vital record substitutes.
This New York Family History School course will provide registrants with an understanding of New York’s religious history and introduce the foundational resources and methods for tracing ancestors from a variety of faiths. This course will cover religious records dating from the 1600s to the early 1900s.
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