Sunday, June 24, 2012

Church Record Sunday: Florida Church Archives Inventory

Form 20HR, http://www.floridamemory.com/collections/churchrecords/20hr.php
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) left us with a rich legacy. From building projects, to art to writing and even historical inventories, the WPA continues to be important.

The WPA left records of great value to genealogists including inventories of church records done as part of the Historical Records Survey. These inventories were done across the United States. Florida has made available not only information from these inventories but the actual tools used to record the interviews about the state's church records.

The Field Manual for the Church Archives Inventory states, "When the Church Archives Inventory for the United State is completed, historians will be able to analyze the churches of our country as to why they were organized , the type of records they keep and the contributions they have made to the cultural, historical and genealogical background of our country." (Emphasis mine).

Form 20HR was used for this inventory and included such information as church name, pastor name,  address, building details, location of church records and more.

The WPA Church Records Collection is found on the Florida Memory website. The collection can be searched or browsed in alphabetical order by church name.

The field manual used by WPA employees can also be found on this website as well as Form 20HR and a history of the project.

2 comments:

Torviewtoronto said...

Enjoyed reading your book From the family kitchen posted about it
http://createwithmom.blogspot.com/2012/07/from-family-kitchen.html

Gena Philibert-Ortega said...

Thanks so much for your kind words about my book. I appreciate it!