Facts on Local Church Records

The records of one of the oldest and most noted churches were published as The Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Del., From 1697 to 1773, With an Abstract of the English Records From 1773 to 1810 and Catalogue and Errata of the Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, with a supplemental Catalogue and Errata, translated and edited by Horace Burr, in Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, 9 and 9-A (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Society of Delaware, 1890, 1919). Because of the erroneous translations, this work should be used with material by Courtland B. Springer and Ruth L. Springer in Delaware History, vols. 5 and 6 (1954, 1957); the Delaware Genealogical Society Journal; and in manuscript at the Historical Society of Delaware. Other major publications of church records include Records of the Welsh Tract Baptist Meeting, Pencader Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, 1701 to 1828, Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, 42 (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Society of Delaware, 1904); Friends in Wilmington 1738–1938 (N.p., n.d.), which includes marriages, burials, and genealogies; and Christopher M. Agnew, ed., God with Us: A Continuing Presence (New Castle, Del.: Immanuel Church, 1986), with an alphabetical list of baptisms, marriages, and burials, 1714–1985, of New Castle's historic Immanuel Church (Episcopal).

Some Delaware church records have been printed in the Delaware Genealogical Society Journal, Delaware History, and in other publications. Original and WPA-transcribed records of many Delaware churches are at the state archives and some are at the Historical Society of Delaware. At the historical society, the Kelso Collection contains a large amount of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Methodist records, mostly from rural circuits and charges, for Delaware and Maryland's eastern shore. An index to this valuable collection is in progress. Some Quaker records are at the state archives and the Historical Society of Delaware; others are at the Friends Historical Library in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

A project has been approved by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington (which includes Delaware and the nine eastern shore counties of Maryland) to place microfilms of its baptismal records to 1910 and first communion, confirmation, marriage, and burial records to 1955 at the state archives and historical societies in the two states.

Recommeded Reading

• Churches in Delaware during the revolution,: With a brief account of their settlement and growth, by Elizabeth Waterston (Author)
• The Directory of Churches and Religious Organizations in Delaware, compiled and published by the Public Archives Commission of the State of Delaware (while somewhat dated, is good for determining what records existed at that time.)
• The Churches of Delaware (1947) by Frank P. Zebley (while it does not discuss their records, identifies almost 900 existing and defunct churches in the state)
• The Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Del., From 1697 to 1773, With an Abstract of the English Records From 1773 to 1810 and Catalogue and Errata of the Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, translated and edited by Horace Burr

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Facts on Local Cemetery Records

   The largest central file of grave marker transcriptions and abstracts is in the Tatnell Tombstone Collection at the Delaware State Archives, compiled by the Historical Records Survey. Also at the state archives is the Hudson Collection of Sussex County tombstones, which is more thorough than the Tatnell. For Kent County see also Raymond Walter Dill and others, Souls in heaven, names in stone: Kent County, Delaware, cemetery records, 2 vols. (Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1989). Some cemetery records are at the Historical Society of Delaware, and some have been printed in the Delaware Genealogical Society Journal and in other publications.

   Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:

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