Church records
Church records are great substitutes for missing vital records, particularly before county-level records were recorded.
- Read the genealogical value of church records (below).
- Church records in the SCCGS Quarterly: Use keywords with the site search to find Quarterly articles, e.g., st. paul or catholic or methodist.
Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and United Church of Christ
- Translations of congregational records by SCCGS online store, and some in print.
On the Member website
St. Peter’s Catholic Church 1859-1909 burials (Belleville). Abstracts from Latin include name, age, date buried, date died, date buried, spouse (if married), and, if a child, the parents.
On this website
Bethel Baptist Church Minutes Index 1809-1909.
Belleville’s Methodist church histories and surname index to baptisms, marriage, and death registers, 1840-1998.
Catholic parish records
German Catholic Clergy in Illinois 1892 (PDF 128KB)
A finding aid and introduction to microfilmed records of 140 parishes in 28 southern Illinois counties.
Map of parishes in St. Clair and others in the Diocese of Belleville
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BELLEVILLE
- Blessed Sacrament Catholic
- St. Elizabeth Hospital Chapel
- St. Luke
- St. Henry
- St. John Orphanage
- St. Mary
- St. Peter
- St. Teresa
EAST ST. LOUIS
SMALL TOWNS
- Corpus Christi (Shiloh)
- Holy Childhood of Jesus (Mascoutah)
- Holy Rosary (Fairmont City)
- Immaculate Conception (Centreville)
- Sacred Heart (Dupo)
- St. Agatha (New Athens)
- St. Albert the Great (Fairview Hgts)
- St. Clare (O’Fallon)
- St. John (Smithton)
- St. Joseph (Freeburg)
- St. Joseph (Lebanon)
- St. James (Millstadt)
- St. Liborius (St. Libory)
- St. Martin of Tours (Washington Park)
- St. Michael (Paderborn)
- St. Pancratius (Fayetteville)
- St. Stephen (Caseyville)
Genealogical value of church records
- The baptism, marriage, death, or confirmation is recorded at or very close to the time of the event and written by the officiant who was present at the event. The information then scores as highly reliable in genealogy proof arguments.
- Baptisms often cite a birth date and parental names. Statewide recording of that information was mandated in 1916.
- Sponsors and witnesses are often related to the recipient.
- Marriages provide parental information for the bridal couple and occasionally provide the age and place of residence, some from other counties or states. It wasn’t until circa 1878 that county-level marriage applications recorded the parents.
- Death and burial dates are often found in church burial records, as the decedent’s age, spouse, cause of death and cemetery where buried.
St. Clair County Genealogical Society, PO Box 431, Belleville, IL 62222-0431.
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