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).
• BAPTIST, METHODIST and UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST publications by SCCGS  online store.
• New book! St. Paul UCC Freeburg (1864–2013)  | all titles available for purchase in the online store.
• The SCCGS Quarterly includes churches and their records. Use keywords with the site search to find Quarterly articles, e.g., st. paul or catholic or methodist.

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

SMALL TOWNS

• Corpus Christi (Shiloh)  (May 2021)
• Holy Childhood of Jesus (Mascoutah) (29 January 2022)
• Holy Rosary (Fairmont City)  (June 2021)
• Immaculate Conception (Centreville)  (December 2021)
• Sacred Heart (Dupo)  (June 2021)
• St. Agatha (New Athens)  (May 2021)
• St. Albert the Great (Fairview Hgts) (May 2021)
• St. Clare (O’Fallon)
• St. John (Smithton)   (May 2021)
• St. Joseph (Freeburg)   (May 2021)
• St. Joseph (Lebanon)
• St. James (Millstadt)  (May 2021)
• St. Liborius (St. Libory)
• St. Martin of Tours (Washington Park) (December 2021)
• St. Michael (Paderborn)  (May 2021)
• St. Pancratius (Fayetteville)   (June 2021)
• St. Stephen (Caseyville)   (December 2021)

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.

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