The Mennonite Church USA Archives has created an easy and free method to record births, deaths and marriages through the vital record form on its website.
“Until recently, we had an agreement in which The Mennonite magazine forwarded birth, marriage and death announcements to the archives,” said Jason Kauffman, director of archives and records management. “Volunteers would then enter obituary information into the MennObits database. In 2020, when The Mennonite merged with Mennonite World Review to create Anabaptist World, that arrangement ended.”
By offering the free form on the MC USA Archives website, Kauffman hopes more people will be encouraged to record births, deaths and marriages, so that statistics the archives collect reflect the breadth and diversity of the denomination.
“Questions about family history are among the most frequent inquiries we receive at the archives,” he said. “The new form is a way to continue to serve family history researchers but also share important news from congregations within the broader MC USA community.”
Records can be submitted by individuals or congregations. They will be stored in the archives’ digital collection, updated in the MennObits database and compiled by archives volunteers into periodic reports at mennoniteusa.org/historical-archives.
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