The American Baptist Historical Society, founded in 1853, is the oldest Baptist Historical Society in the United States. The American Baptist Historical Society is the archive for the American Baptist Churches in the United States and covers more than 5,800 churches and 1.5 million people.

Genealogy Records in the Archives Center

A Guide to all Original Church Records at the American Baptist Historical Society, by state, then by State or Governing body or other location, with the name of the church and the date range for records.

Records at ABHS are indexed by the name of the local church, not by the county in which it was located.

Baptismal records include the person’s name and date of baptism (which was not generally performed until a young adult)

Marriage records were rarely kept by Baptist churches because marriage is not considered a sacrament. Some marriage logs exist at ABHS.

Church records may exist for American Baptist Churches, USA (formerly Northern Baptist Convention), the Free Will Baptist General Conference, and the Danish Baptist General Conference of America.

Materials in the Archives Center

• Books and pamphlets
• Original correspondence and church records
• Periodicals representing the Baptist press worldwide
• State and Association minutes of many Baptist denominations and a few international bodies
• The archives of the national mission boards of the American Baptist Churches, USA (formerly the Northern Baptist Convention)
• Archives of the Baptist World Alliance
• Artifacts from missionaries
• Memorabilia from Baptist institutions (colleges, city community centers, homes, and hospitals). 

The Rochester, NY & Valley Forge, PA offices were consolidated to Atlanta, GA in the fall of 2008 and have nearly 6 miles of shelving.