Religious Biographical and Genealogical Information

Congregational records sometimes include member lists and records of births, marriages, deaths, and dedications. Harvard Divinity School Library is the official repository for the Unitarian Universalist Association amd our collections are particularly strong in the Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition.

HOLLIS, our library catalog, is a good place to begin exploring Unitarian Universalist congregational records.  Search the congregation's name, and also more general keywords, e.g. Universalist and Cambridge.  

If you know the name of the minister who served while yoour ancestor belonged to the church, search the minister's name in HOLLIS.  If you do not know the minister's name, you may find it in a Unitarian, Universalist, or Unitarian Universalist yearbook.

To be very thorough, please also search for congregations and ministers in these places:

• Unitarian Universalist Congregational Records
• Congregational Resource Files
• HOLLIS for Archival Discovery

Search for records not at Harvard in WorldCat and ArchiveGrid.

Additional sources for locating congregational records include:

• Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research
• An Inventory of the Records of the Particular (Congregational) Churches of Massachusetts Gathered 1620-1805 [Print Only]
• An Inventory of Universalist Archives in Massachusetts.
• Guide to the Records of the Canadian Unitarian and Universalist Churches, Fellowships and other Related Organizations [Print Only]

If you are not at Harvard, check for the availability of these reference sources in your local library. 

Research can be complicated. For personalized help, contact a research librarian

Biographical information on Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist clergy and lay people may be found on the following websites:

• Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography
• Harvard Square Library
• Yearbooks are a great place to trace the career of a minister and often include obituaries of clergy.
• See also these journals in the public domain for articles by and about clergy.

HOLLIS, our library catalog, is a good place to begin exploring Unitarian Universalist minister papers at Harvard.  To be very thorough, please also see:

• HOLLIS for Archival Discovery
• Search the finding aids at Harvard Divinity School Library

Search for records not at Harvard in WorldCat and ArchiveGrid.

While most of the material that follows deals with North American clergy, there are other sources we can consult about clergy throughout the world. For more information, contact a research librarian.