* Denominations and Religion

[gsward]

I am interested to hear of the approaches others use for recording the denomination of a church where an event took place. We have the 'Religion' attribute that can be attached to an individual. When a marriage takes place the two parties could be from different denominations. The church itself where the event occurs could be of yet another denomination.

The question really is how can you assign an attribute to a 'place'?

Gedcom specification reads:
RELI {RELIGION}: = A religious denomination to which a person is affiliated or for which a record applies.

Now assuming that your churches are identified using the Address field associated with the Place of the record, can you associate a 'Religion'' attribute with the place or do you just put the denomination in the description?

[mjashby]

For UK non-Church of England churches, I identify the denomination in the address field as most churches now do, e.g. St Roberts Catholic Church. This is also consistent with the addresses/locations of most non-conformist churches, as the denomination is (was) often the only 'name' accorded to a church/chapel, e.g. Ossett Green Independent Congregational Church.

I don't tend to 'specify' Church of England as that is the 'norm' in my research.

Mervyn

[ColeValleyGirl]

I do much the same as Mervyn -- I include whatever denomination was specified in the identification of the church/chapel, otherwise assume the default for the location (Church of England, Church of Wales etc.). I don't specify the denomination separately.

For individuals, in the countries I'm mostly concerned with, you can't always derive a denomination for a person from the church they married in (for example, non-conformists were forced to marry in CoE churches for a long time) unless the marriage was e.g. a Quaker or Jewish marriage.

Baptisms might reveal the denomination of one parent but which parent? And what if it was an 'emergency' baptism - any port in a storm? Or an adult baptism?

Burials are equally not definitive -- the Church of Wales churchyard where many of my ancestors were buried is rife with Baptist ministers, as there was not nearby Baptist chapel with burial facilities. One of my favourite entries from the Bishops Transcripts for that Church is unusually informative:

From the Llanfair nant y gof Bishops Transcripts, 31 December 1824 to 31 December 1825
Burials
Not any Buried by me, but two children of Joseph Francis of Cwmwyntell & Martha his Wife were buried by those who attended the funerals before my arrival at the Church Gate whose names were John Francis aged 20 and Anne Francis aged 24. The mother of them is a Baptist & it’s customary in this neighbourhood (that the parents of those) to name their children themselves, they were not baptized in the Chapel of Llanvair as there is no account of them in its Registers & I have reason to believe & think that they were not baptized by any licensed Preacher of their own Sect.
This Circumstance happened on the 9th of October 1825 a day of as violent Rain as happened before or since, the Body of the Chapel was then unroof’d to be put in repair, & they – the Congregation assembled, pleaded as an excuse, that they had no place to shelter themselves from the Inclemency of the Weather.
William Edwards Rector of Letterston with the Chapel of Llanvair annexed.