Family History
If you are just starting to research your family history, there are some helpful websites to get you going. Try The National Archives (nonconformist records covering the years 1567-1970 are held in catalogue series codes RG 4, RG 5, RG 6, and RG 8, which can all be viewed on The Genealogist website) or the BBC Family History Unit or British Genealogy. You should do this before going anywhere else. Another excellent resource is Geoffrey Breed, My Ancestors were Baptists (2007).
There are several streams of Baptist churches and therefore more than one network. to which a church might belong - Baptist Union of Great Britain (which incorporates the New Connexion of General Baptists), Reformed Baptists including Strict & Particular, Gospel Standard and Grace Baptists. Some C17th Old General Baptist congregations gradually associated with the Unitarian movement. Each stream has historical resources.
Baptist records can be a cause of frustration for family historians. Local Baptist congregations maintain their own church records. These vary considerably in range and subject matter but usually biographical details - birth, marriage or death – do not appear. Baptism refer to the rite for those making profession faith and not for infants.
Because each congregation maintains and manages its own records independently, some churches kept more detailed records than others. There is no central index or list of all the records which have been kept. Many local churches retain their records. In the case of closure there is no designated place of deposit. Records may be kept at local Archives or County Record Offices, or local libraries or in the Angus Library in Regent’s Park College, Oxford (angus.library@regents.ox.ac.uk). Others have simply been lost in the passage of time.
If you know that a member of your family or ancestor was a Baptist minister or missionary, it is possible that a memoir appeared in the Baptist Magazine, the Handbook of the Baptist Union, the Baptist Missionary Herald, the Baptist Times or other Baptist publications. Lay preachers and lay pastors are not included. An index of known memoirs to 2013 appears here. Copies can be ordered from the Angus Library for a small charge, but it should be noted that many entries do not include family details. The Angus Library is the repository of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and holds correspondence and minutes relating to many hundreds of women and men employed as missionaries from the late 18th century onwards. If your ancestor was a missionary with the BMS, there may be relevant material held there.
Some Obituaries of Baptist ministers and missionaries from 2013 onwards can be found here.
Other useful sites to note:
Gospel Standard Baptists – https://www.gospelstandard.org.uk
Strict Baptist Historical Society – https://www.sbhs.org.uk
Society of Genealogists – https://www.sog.org.uk
Unitarian Historical Society – https://unitarianhistory.org.uk