NC Baptist

Historical Collection

Church Records*, Biographical Files, & More

The North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection serves as a repository for records from North Carolina Baptist churches and institutions, including Southern, Missionary, Primitive, African American, Union, Alliance of Baptist, and Woman’s Missionary Union. More aboutFAQs

NC Baptist Digital Collections

  • Baptist Newspaper Collection

    A collection of Baptist newspaper titles published within North Carolina made available via DigitalNC.org. Issues date from 1857.

  • Baptist State Convention of NC Digital Collection

    Audio recordings containing presentations by prominent Southern Baptist pastors and church representatives at a number of evangelical conferences and annual meetings of the Convention in North Carolina from 1957-1980.

  • Biblical Recorder

    The official journal of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, reflecting the history of Baptist life and culture in North Carolina since 1834.

    RESEARCHER’S NOTE: The Biblical Recorder digital collection moved to a new online platform on June 20, 2024. Any previous bookmarks will need to be updated. Please contact ZSR’s Special Collections and Archives if you have any questions.

  • Books and Pamphlets

    Digital reproductions of books and pamphlets held in the Special Collections & Archives of Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University.

  • John D. Whitford's Typescript of The Home Story Of A Walking Stick with Indexes

    This collection features a digitized typescript of The Home Story Of A Walking Stick: Early History of the Biblical Recorder and Baptist Church in New Bern, North Carolina Told in Every Day Talk by John D. Whitford

  • North Carolina Baptist Church and Association Files

    Ephemeral materials related to churches or associations that are associated with Baptist communities of North Carolina and surrounding areas.

  • North Carolina Baptist Church Records

    This collection contains material on 118 digitized manuscript church records, selected from our NC Baptist Historical Collection. The majority of the N.C. Baptist Church Records contain minutes of meetings, membership lists, and financial records.

  • North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection Resources

    Finding aids and inventories of church records in the Department of Special Collections & Archives.

  • Religion in North Carolina

    A collaborative project regarding religious bodies in North Carolina via the Internet Archive. It includes church histories, periodicals, clergy biographies, cookbooks, event programs, directories, and more.

  • Reverend Harold L. McKinnish Collection

    Reverend Harold L. McKinnsh served as pastor or interim pastor at 10 different Baptist churches in North and South Carolina. He delivered thousands of sermons, conducted more than 1,100 funerals and preached at more than 400 revivals across 12 states.

  • The Asheville Baptist: Organ of the Baptists of Western North Carolina

    Weekly newspaper published by the Asheville Baptist Publishing Company

  • University and N.C. Baptist Biographical Files Collection

    Ephemeral materials related to individuals associated with Wake Forest University and/or Baptist communities of North Carolina.

  • Wake Forest Baptist Church (Winston-Salem, N.C.) Records

    This collection contains materials related to Wake Forest Baptist Church, which was established in 1956 following Wake Forest College’s move to Winston-Salem, N.C.

  • Zion's Landmarks

    Newspaper of the Wilson Primitive Baptist Church available online via DigitalNC.org

* Important Note about Church Records

The majority of our NC Baptist Church Records contain minutes of meetings, membership lists, and financial records. Historical data such as birth, baptism, and marriage records were normally kept by the minister performing the service and are usually not included in the official records of the church.

Questions? See our FAQs or contact us

More NC Baptist Resources

The North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection’s church records collection is composed of original records (some dating back to the 1700s), photocopies of records, and microfilmed records. We have digitized our paper finding aids and lists to assist researchers interested in our Baptist church records.

Looking for information on Baptist collections outside of North Carolina? See our list of other Baptist collections.

Find a Person

To search for a person, we recommend starting with our Biographical Files collection. It contains ephemeral materials related to individuals associated with Wake Forest University and/or Baptist communities of North Carolina.

You can also browse by name or jump to names starting with:

Not finding the person you're looking for? Do you know their church? Find a church ›

If you have questions or need help, contact Special Collections & Archives at 336-758-6175.

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Find a Church

When searching for a church, we recommend starting with our Finding Aids. Finding aids provide inventories of archival and manuscript collections. These inventories are the primary sources of information about these collections. Most of our finding aids are available in electronic format.

You can also browse by church name.

Not finding the church you're looking for? Do you know where it was located? Find a place ›

If you have questions or need help, contact Special Collections & Archives at 336-758-6175.

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Find a Place

Do you know where your ancestors lived in NC or where their church was located?

Browse our list of church records by NC county.

If you have questions or need help, contact Special Collections & Archives at 336-758-6175.

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