Many times in researching family history, we often look to fiscal records for family documentation because they are public domain and more easily accessible. However, church records are held privately making their access more difficult to view. Another problem is determining if your ancestor did attend church, which one was it? Church records can give insight into family dynamics. If the church clerk or secretary was diligent and a person dedicated to details, church records can provide information concerning our ancestors that is otherwise non-existent - especially in a "burned" county such as Allen County.

These records, except in the case where specific dates are cited, should be used as a support to other records, and not as a primary source. The reason that church membership records cannot be cited as a primary source is that often the clerk would make notes beside a member's name with no dates, and the notes could pertain to a recent event or an event twenty years later. Often is was difficult to determine if the person's name was duplicated on a membership list as human error, or if there were two or more people with the same name. With this in mind, I have numbered the people with same names when it was apparent they were different people. Other times it was not so apparent, therefore nicknames were not merged with given names (ie Martha/Patsy), and there may be people listed as one who in actuality might be two. For this reason the information was transcribed into 20 year periods, hoping that the notes would be close to the proper time frame. Only the last notes found beside a member's name on the last list of that period was included. Some members had notes too numerous to include. A definition of abbreviations might help you understand your ancestor's situation:

X: Included on membership lists of that period.

Chtr mem: Charter Member of the church

Dis by ltr: Dismissed by letter. This usually meant the member joined another church of the same denomination either in the same area or in another location.

Dis, Excluded, Excom, Erased, Dropped: Dismissed, Excluded, Excommunicated, Erased. These terms are often used interchangeably with no designation as to the seriousness of the matter. These terms meant that the person was no longer an acknowledged member of the church but does not necessarily that the person left the church, although in most cases they did. They were often reinstated/restored to membership by asking forgiveness of the church body and recanting of the "sin". The infractions most often cited (regardless of denomination) were: intoxication, profanity, dancing, failure to attend church, selling or producing liquor, counterfeit, lying, gossip, family disagreements, adultery, fornication, heresy, or joining a church of a different denomination. For obvious reasons these notes are not included.

I do not have copies of the church minutes wherein these membership lists were extracted, therefore family secrets are left within the church where they were recorded. These lists can be a valuable aid in your search.