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Genealogy and Church History Research
Policies
About the Research Policies
The Wake Forest University Archives and the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection receive many requests for information from individuals researching family or church histories. Budget and time constraints make it impossible for our staff to fulfill these requests by mail or email. We can answer only specific queries about the availability of resources or provide very brief information that is readily available in our biographical files. Some examples of the types of questions we can and cannot answer are listed below.
We encourage genealogical and church researchers to make an appointment to visit our collections at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, at which point our staff will be happy to assist them in finding the resources they need to conduct their own research.
We also encourage researchers to make use of our online resources, including:
- the library's online catalog (for published books, newspapers, and magazines);
- our digital Finding Aids for manuscript collections;
- the electronic archives of the Old Gold and Black (college newspaper); and
- the online index of the Biblical Recorder (official publication of the NC Baptist State Convention).
If for some reason it is impossible for a researcher to visit the Archives/NCBHC, or if someone wishes to know in detail the extent of our holdings in his/her area of interest before making a trip to Winston-Salem, we offer the option of a Personal Research Session. For a fee of $15 per hour, one of our assistants will do up to three hours of personal research in our collections. Please contact Special Collections for more information.
If a patron cannot visit our collections in person and requires more extensive research than a 3-hour session can provide, he/she is advised to make contact with a local independent researcher.
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Any questions about our policies should be directed to:
Sharon Snow, Head of Special Collections and Archives
Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 7777 Reynolda Station
Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7777
ph. 336.758.5755
Examples of Research Questions
Examples of questions we cannot answer by mail or email:
- "Please send me all the information you have on the Flanders family of Maple Grove, NC."
- "Could your check to see what information you might have about my great-great-grandfather? His name was Hezekiah Wattle and I think he belonged to a Baptist church in Raleigh sometime in the 19th century."
- "I'm trying to find a picture of my Uncle Bert, who was a football player at Wake Forest in the 1930s."
- "I'm writing a church history for our 100th anniversary. Could you look through the microfilmed records of my church and make a list of all the pastors, including their dates of service?"
Examples of questions we can answer by mail or email:
- "Does your collection include any records for First Baptist Church of Muddy Swamp, NC?"
- "Do you have any published histories of Third Baptist Church of Barnsboro?"
- "The Biblical Recorder online index lists an article by Hudson Taylor, entitled 'Letter from China', in the November 14, 1888 issue. Could you send me a photocopy of this article?"
- "I'm trying to determine a year of birth for Rev. James P. Morris, pastor of Pebble Falls Baptist Church, Pebble Falls, NC. He died on January 11, 1894."
Example of a query that could be addressed in a Personal Research Session:
"I'm thinking of making a trip to your Archives from my home in Tennessee. But first I'd like to know whether you have any information about my family, the Wiggams. My great-great-great-grandfather, Arthur Wiggam, was born in Pinesville, NC in 1836 and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. His son, Lorenzo Wiggam, was born in 1859, attended Wake Forest College and became a Baptist minister, serving as pastor of at least two churches in NC. I am particularly interested in finding out whether you have any family papers or correspondence from the Wiggam family."
Example of a research topic too broad to be covered in a Personal Research Session:
"I am doing a research project on Baptist attitudes toward slavery in the 18th century. I'd like to know if there's any mention of slavery or of African-American slaves or freemen in any of your 18th century church records and convention minutes."
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