Lutheran Church Records

The Lutherans have very good membership records. Their Confirmation and death entries up to 1940 or so show the town born in.

Most of the Lutheran records for churches with Swedish members are on microfilm at the Swenson Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Also listed on the Swenson Center microfiche index: some Swedish Covenant, Baptist, Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, and Methodist church records, as long as there were Swedish members of the congregations.

Many German Lutheran records were microfilmed years ago by the old A.L.C.A. synod and are now kept by the E.L.C.A. synod at their archives on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

You can see the two microfiche indexes of Lutheran church records on microfilm at the Belvidere Library and at the Family History Center. The actual microfilmed church records can be purchased from these two Lutheran archives. I would recommend that local libraries obtain copies. (Records of the two Swedish and five Norwegian churches in Belvidere and Boone County have been purchased and are at the Belvidere Library. Lots of good information in many parts of these films.)