An obituary, wedding announcement, or birth announcement may mention a family's religion. To get a copy of an obituary, wedding announcement, or birth announcement, you must at least know the approximate date of the event, the full name of the groom and/or the maiden name of the bride for wedding announcements, the names of the new parents or the name of the child for a birth announcement, or the full name of the deceased for an obituary, and the state and city or town where the event took place (or where the announcement or obituary was likely to have been published). If you do not have the minimum information to access a newspaper article, you can either:

Get help finding some of the minimum information by selecting one of the following items,

Name

Birth date

Birthplace

Marriage date

Marriage place

Death date

Place of death

click the Back button on your browser to return to the list of other places where you can find an individual's religion, or

read the paragraphs below for a few additional tips.

Finding a religion

You can sometimes find references to an individual's religion on their gravestone. If you haven't already tried this possibility and would like help locating the burial site, see the topic Burial place.

Make sure to check photo albums, scrapbooks, and diaries at home. Also check for mementos such as rosaries, religious jewelry, yarmulkes, or other religious items. See the topic Finding information at home for more information. If there is a family Bible, look for the version: A Douai Bible would indicate a Catholic family, for example, and a King James Bible could indicate a Protestant family. A copy of the Old Testament or a Torah would indicate a Jewish family.

A local history about the hometown may indicate what the predominant religion in the area was. For help with finding local histories, see the topic Previous research.

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