{"id":19057,"date":"2017-01-25T11:04:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T16:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=19057"},"modified":"2017-01-25T11:04:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T16:04:33","slug":"genealogy-tip-newspapers-chronicled-history-of-churches-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-tip-newspapers-chronicled-history-of-churches-too.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tip: Newspapers Chronicled History of Churches Too!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only did newspapers document our ancestors \u2013 but they also documented the churches that our ancestors attended.<\/p>\n

For example, this newspaper article gives a history of the Centennial Methodist Church of Rockford, Illinois \u2013 the oldest church in that town. It gives details of the life of that church over the years.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank.com, Register Republic (Rockford, Illinois), 20 September 1976, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is one interesting detail from the church\u2019s history:<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank.com, Register Republic (Rockford, Illinois), 20 September 1976, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So \u2013 when the two Methodist churches merged in May of 1876 it was \u201cnine-year-old Sunday school girl, Jessie Seal\u201d who suggested their new name \u201cCentennial Methodist,\u201d commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States.<\/p>\n

The article goes on to add that:<\/p>\n

Jessie grew up, married, and became Mrs. William Shimmin. Her daughter, Lois Shimmin, has been a member of the church since 1905.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Centennial Church also has documents, letters and journals that date from the earliest days of their ministry there. Here is an excerpt of a letter by an original settler who wrote his recollections of the arrival of his family there in 1835.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank.com, Register Republic (Rockford, Illinois), 20 September 1976, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the oldest members of the church, Abraham Isaac Enoch, wrote the history of \u201chis family\u2019s settlement here in September, 1835, in vivid detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following an Indian trail from Fox River we crossed Kishwaukee where Cherry Valley now stands. I well recollect the cutting or felling of the first large tree.
\nFather standing near by in his usual easy position, when the rebound of the echo from the forest in the rear had passed away, said, \u201cNow boys you will have the credit of cutting the first tree that was ever cut\u2026 in these woods.\u201d
\nI felt more a man than ever before and bounded upon the trunk of the fallen tree, swung my hat and hurrahed for the new settlement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Was this great family story passed down in his family?
\nDoes the family still have a copy of Abraham\u2019s handwritten recollections of his youth?<\/p>\n

If not, they might not know it even was written if not for GenealogyBank digitizing the pages of the Register Republic<\/em> (Rockford, Illinois) newspaper and making it available online in its Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find your family\u2019s stories \u2013 don\u2019t let them be lost.
\nDiscover them \u2013 preserve them \u2013 and pass them down to the Rising Generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article about how old newspapers not only documented our ancestors \u2013 but they also documented the churches that our ancestors attended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[12695,12,2020],"class_list":["post-19057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-churches","tag-genealogy","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/photo-0125-2017-featured-graphic-congregational-church.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}