How do I find the records of both Trinitarian and Unitarian Congregational churches in Massachusetts?
Andover-Harvard Theological Library serves as a national repository and library of record for the Unitarian Universalist tradition. The collection includes books, hymnals, periodicals, curricula, pamphlets, sermons, personal papers, audio-recordings, movies, church records, photographs, and many other types of material, so this is an excellent place to look for the Unitarian records.
A guide to finding records of Unitarian congregations at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library is available on our website:
Unitarian Universalist Resources: Church Records
A somewhat dated, but nonethless helpful, guide to records in both traditions is Harold Worthley's An inventory of the records of the particular (Congregational) churches of Massachusetts gathered 1620-1805 (1970) (Print only). This source surveys Massachusetts "standing order" congregations and notes extant published and unpublished records c. 1970. It also lists ministers, founding dates, and describes mergers of congregations that occurred before 1970. To find out where the collections are located today, check out Archive Finder, a current directory which describes over 200,000 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories. Search for the congregation by name.
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