Vermont Religious Certificates
- Author: Alden M. Rollins
- SKU: 1968
- ISBN: 0897254821
- Our Price:
$39.50
-
Description:
Vermont Religious Certificates. Compiled by Alden. M. Rollins, CGRS. 320 pp, 8,546 entry Every Name Index. Smythe sewn and hard cover. 2002 #1968 $39.50
Here is another valuable resource tool for Vermont researchers! You know how difficult it is to locate church membership lists, especially for Vermont's early history. In the late 18th century the government required some kind of church support from taxpayers. Each town had a "majority" church, usually Congregational, sometimes Baptist, and more rarely a "union" church. This town church received tax revenues from the town to support a minister and assist in the building of a meetinghouse. The great bonanza was the provision of the law which permitted dissenters from the majority church to file a tax exemption. With this certificate, a dissenter's religious tax could go to his denomination instead of the town church. The dissenter had to get a responsible leader of his denomination to state that he both attended and supported the dissenting church, which did not have to be in the same town where he lived.
Alden Rollins has abstracted and transcribed the religious certificates which were recorded in town records throughout the state of Vermont, giving researchers a means of locating some of those elusive ancestors. With these records you will not only discover what town your ancestor resided in and when but what his religious affiliation was.
Alden has done a marvelous job with this transcription and has provided a great new resource tool to researchers of Vermont families.
