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Church Records As you go further back in your family's genealogy, you will find that sources for populating your family tree become scarcer and scarcer. One possible solution to this dilemma is to look for your ancestors in the various religious databases. These can be actual parish records where births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths were recorded in the parish church. Many of these are available for Catholic, Church of Ireland, and various protestant church parishes in other European countries. The Jewish faith has a variety of databases available to peruse. However, it will be advantageous to know if a Jewish ancestor was Sephardic or Ashkenazi Jewish since these are closely tied to different parts of Europe (Spain – Sephardic and Eastern Europe - Ashkenazi), North Africa, and the Middle East (more Sephardic until the late 14th century when the Catholics forced them from Spain). If you are of Scottish ancestry, many were Presbyterians. The Quaker church kept records of their parishioners in many of the towns and cities of the American Colonies. However, the "Holy Grail" of church members over the years is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) Church. They maintain one of the largest data bases of not only church members, but also of people of other faiths. This data is available online at Familysearch.com. For the Irish amongst you, the Protestant Church of Ireland maintains their parish records and can be accessed on line for your review. There are many other smaller databases that can be found online to help you and of course you can always Google a particular church, synagogue, or faith to find potential other online sources. If you are still having problems, you can also contact one of us in the Ancestry Group to determine if there might be other sources not mentioned above for you to explore. We meet on the fourth Friday of the month at the Clubhouse. ~ Bill Cramsie 28 | LIFE IN SOLERA | DECEMBER 2021 | CLUBS & GROUPS At our November meeting, Mike Ryan presented the third and final talk, "The 1876 Battle at Little Bighorn," on General George Custer (see photo below). At the next meeting on Dec. 6, John McLaughlin of the San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society will present a lecture on the history of the San Gorgonio Pass. ~ Richard Crowe ANCESTRY GROUP HISTORY GROUP