Discovering Family History at Pitts
The staff of Pitts Theology Library are happy to make the following resources available for individuals who want to learn more about their Methodist ancestors in North Georgia, and to assist genealogists in using these resources. However, we cannot conduct in-depth genealogical research for our patrons. Since the primary responsibility of the library staff is to serve the students and faculty of the Candler School of Theology and Emory University, we are limited in the amount of time we can devote to non-Emory researchers. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated.
Most resources that contain genealogical information are available in the reference and circulating collections of the library. These resources, which include published conference journals and minutes, are available to researchers whenever the library is open to the public. Unpublished conference records and manuscript material are housed in the Archives and Manuscripts Department and are available by appointment on weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Family History Resources: Published Materials in the Reference and Circulating Collections
Books
Information on Individuals
The only indexed sources of information on Georgia Methodist ministers available in the library are:
- Lawrence, Harold. Methodist Preachers in Georgia, 1783-1900.
- Lawrence, Harold. Methodist Preachers in Georgia, 1783-1900. A Supplement.
These publications are kept at the desk of the special collections reference assistant.
Other books that may contain information about individuals in the North Georgia Conference are:
- Pierce, Alfred. A History of Methodism in Georgia, 1736-1955. BX8248.G4 P51
- Scott, W. J. Biographic Etchings of Ministers and Laymen of the Georgia Conferences. [This book does not include an index.] BX8491.S3
- Sheets, Herchel. Methodism in North Georgia: A History of the North Georgia Conference. BX8248 .G4 S54 2005 (There is also a copy of this at the special collections reference assistant's desk.)
- Smith, George Gilman. The History of Georgia Methodism from 1786 to 1866. BX8248.G4 S5 1913
Genealogists should also search:
- DiscoverE, the Emory University Libraries online catalog, for publications about or by the individual of interest.
- ATLA Religion Database, for journal articles about or by the individual of interest. (If you are not affiliated with Emory, you will only be able to access this database from campus.)
Information on Churches
Researchers may search DiscoverE for published histories of particular churches. One of the best publications for tracing the district in which a particular church is located and for church closings is:
- Lawrence, Harold. Changes in Charge Lines: North Georgia Conference, 1913-1996. Ref BX8248 .G4 L296 1997 (A copy of this book is kept at the desk of the special collections reference assistant.)
For information about meeting houses and some societies, see:
- Lawrence, Harold. Early societies in upper Georgia. BX8248 .G4 L382 1997 (A copy of this book is kept at the desk of the special collections reference assistant..)
Conference Journals
The North Georgia Conference meets annually, usually in June. At this meeting, ministers receive appointments and statistics are gathered for each charge (church or circuit). A conference journal is published each year that recaps this vital information. Of particular interest in each journal for genealogists are the memoirs honoring ministers who died during the previous year. An index to these memoirs is available on CD-ROM.
Church historians will also find the conference journals to be the best source for tracing the pastoral appointments of individual ministers. Pre-1939 conference journals are available on microfilm on the first mezzanine of the library. Journals published from 1939 to the present are shelved in the glass enclosed mezzanine of the library.
The Advocates
The Southern Christian Advocate is the newspaper of the South Carolina Conference. The Georgia Conference did not begin publishing its own paper until 1878. Prior to 1878, Georgia Methodist news appeared in the South Carolina paper.
There are three published indices for marriage and death notices printed in the Southern Christian Advocate:
- Holcomb, Brent. Marriage and Death Notices from the Southern Christian Advocate, 1837-1867. Ref F208 .H6 V.1 & 2
- Holcomb, Brent. Marriage notices from the Southern Christian advocate, 1867-1878. Ref F208 .H65 1994
- Holcomb, Brent. Death and obituary notices from the Southern Christian advocate, 1867-1878. Ref F268 .H632 1993
In addition, the South Carolina Conference archives at Wofford College's Sandor Teszler Library maintains an online Methodist Obituary Archive, which indexes obituaries in the Southern Christian Advocate.
The Wesleyan Christian Advocate is the newspaper of the North and South Georgia Conferences. This publication began in 1878 and continues to the present. This paper is not indexed.
Both the Southern Christian Advocate and the Wesleyan Christian Advocate are available on microfilm on the first mezzanine of the library.
Family History Resources: Unpublished Materials (Archives and Manuscripts)
Pitts Theology Library is the repository for the records of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (U.S.). The library is not the repository for the records of the national organization of the United Methodist Church. We do not have conference records from any state except Georgia, with one exception: we have a small collection of records from the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The national archives of the United Methodist Church are located at:
The General Commission on Archives and History
The United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 127, 36 Madison Avenue, Madison NJ 07940
Phone: (973) 408-3189
FAX: (973) 408-3909
The General Commission on Archives and History maintains a list of conference archives throughout the U.S. If you are seeking information on a Methodist church or individual from a state other than Georgia, please visit that page to find contact information for the appropriate archival repository.
A North Georgia Conference Local Church History collection is maintained in the Archives. It contains church history narratives, newspaper clippings, bulletins from anniversary services, and occasionally photographs of church buildings. A file is not available for every church in the conference, and the depth of information varies. These files do not contain membership, marriage, baptismal, or death records, but names of various members are occasionally listed. These files are arranged alphabetically by the name of the church, so researchers must provide the name of the church for which they are seeking information. For a list of churches whose information is included, see the Local Church History finding aid.
Other sources of information on individual churches in the North Georgia Conference Archives include:
- United Methodist Church (U.S.) North Georgia Conference District records, RG 025 This series contains the records maintained in district offices on the churches in a particular district. The files contain primarily 20th century documents, with the bulk dates spanning the 1960s through the 1990s. Quarterly (now annual) conference reports make up the bulk of the documentation in the files.
- United Methodist Church (U.S.) North Georgia Conference Charge records, RG 025 This series consists of miscellaneous quarterly charge conference records.
The records of active United Methodist churches usually remain with the churches themselves. Membership records for the United Methodist Church are maintained by individual churches, not by the conferences. This means that ordination records, marriage records, baptismal records, death records, and cemetery records are NOT found in the North Georgia Conference archives.
The records of closed churches in the North Georgia Conference are sometimes transferred to Pitts Theology Library. For a list of the closed churches whose records we hold, see the North Georgia Conference Archives page
We have no index that identifies Methodist churches in North Georgia by county or town. If you do not know the name of the church with which your ancestor was affiliated, we have no easy way of providing this information.
We also do not maintain a biographical file of any type on individuals. A search of EUCLID or the Methodist Collections page will provide the names of individuals whose papers are held by the Archives and Manuscripts Department.
In 1867, the Georgia Conference divided into the North and South Georgia Conferences. The records of the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church are maintained at:
Arthur J. Moore Methodist Museum
Box 20407,
St. Simons Island, GA 31522
(912) 638-4050.
Prior to 1830, Georgia was part of the South Carolina Conference. The records of the South Carolina Conference are housed at:
Archives, The Sandor Teszler Library Wofford College, 429 North Church Street Spartanburg, SC 29303-3663 (864) 597-4309
The Archives at the Sandor Teszler Library also maintains an on-line Methodist Obituary Archive that indexes obituaries in the Southern Christian Advocate.