Church Record Sunday: Presbyterian Church in America Historical Center

screenshot of http://www.pcahistory.org/ from 14 July 2013

According to the PCA Historical Center website:

"The Historical Center of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a ministry of the PCA Stated Clerk’s Office, with facilities located in St. Louis, Missouri on the campus of Covenant Theological Seminary. Our mission is to document the story of the conservative Presbyterian movement of the 20th & 21st centuries.

The Historical Center serves as the official archives of the Presbyterian Church in America, housing the records of the PCA and its agencies. The Center also serves as the repository of record for four other Presbyterian denominations. In addition, the Center houses the manuscript collections of over 100 people connected with those denominations, plus history materials for some 700 congregations. A modest research library of about 5,000 titles, covering all aspects of American Presbyterianism, augments the Center’s archival collections."

By clicking on the Collection link you can view the Collection Index and learn more about the archive's holdings. Their collections are varied and include the papers of key individuals, periodicals, and even interviews. You can conduct a search for the keyword "genealogy" on the website for a small list of available genealogies.

One of my favorite parts of this website is found under the Local Church Historians link. Here you will find resources for church historians including how to write a church history. This is a great guide for even those of other religious faiths and what better way to do genealogy then by preserving our own history? This page also provides a year by year summary of church histories that they have received and archived.