Facts on Local Church Records

Church records are under utilized in Vermont research, but they do contain good sources for genealogical research. Lists of members (sometimes the only place where wives' names are mentioned in any records), baptisms, removals, exclusions, and the intricacies of community life are obvious in many church records. The only easy way to access them is through the WPA inventory located at the Vermont Public Records Office. The inventory is divided into Protestant Episcopal (published), Congregational, and miscellaneous denominations (only typescript copies), and then by town. The inventory, taken in the 1940s, can be used as a guide for tracking down the whereabouts of many church records that may have been held in private homes of church members, or the town clerk's office, for safe keeping. However, both the Special Collections at University of Vermont's Bailey-Howe Library and the Vermont Historical Society have become repositories for many records if they are not at the local church or in the town clerk's office.

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Facts on Local Cemetery Records

   Town, church, family, and private cemeteries all exist in Vermont. The cemetery cards in the vital records microfilm of the Vermont Public Records Division constitutes the only statewide cemetery index. There is a Grand Army of the Republic card index of all veterans' graves through World War II at the Vermont Historical Society Library. Since 1982 there have been a number of projects undertaken to publish some Vermont cemetery records. The Vermont Historical Society has the most extensive collection, but some town offices are known to have good indexes of their own cemeteries.

   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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