Hello all, I was just wondering what kinds of records give clues to an individual/family group's religious affiliation? Or rather, how do you know which to which church a family/individual belonged? I often hear about the usefulness of church records in genealogy but if you don't know whether your ancestors were catholic, presbyterian, lutheran, baptist, etc. how would you know which church to contact when searching for information? Thanks very much!

The records that provide clues to religious affiliations are usually: burial records, marriage records, and baptisms. Often these are compiled through a place of worship.

Start with a death certificate. That can state where the person was buried. If it's on church grounds, search for your ancestors in that church's records.

A civil (city, county, state) record of marriage can have a minister/priest/rabbi, etc. listed as the officiator. Try to track down where that person officiated.

Trace the ethnic background of your ancestors. Certain groups are linked with specific religions (although it's not a 100% correlation, of course.)

Obituaries and wedding announcements in newspapers may tell you your ancestors' religion, too.

You need to find as many original documents as possible in order to piece their histories, including their religious histories together.

thanks for the reply. that's pretty much what i was thinking but the problem i'm having is that the death record does not specify a place of burial and that's what i'm looking for. the marriage record would be another way to go though. i'll have to figure out where they were married first but i may have a lead on that. thanks again!