"It takes zeal and Christian fortitude to thus labor a lifetime for others," is a line from Elizabeth (Niesz) Titus' obituary from an 1891 United Brethren in Christ newspaper. The sentence describes her character and her role in life. Yet, what do I know about her? What did she do to earn this tribute?

Genealogy is more than collecting names and dates. We want to know who were our ancestors, and this means we research their history and the history of their times. Clues to what type of history comes from obscure lines like the one in Elizabeth's obituary. We need to research the history of her church. This is not as easy as researching wars or migrations or anything else that we might find in standard history books. Researching churches is not as easy as collecting names and dates, but the steps are similar.

When we research nineteenth century women's history, we face additional difficulties. Women did not have the right to vote. Married women seldom owned land in their own name. Women's lives were intertwined with their husbands. So, we also need to research the husbands.

The first Internet place where I go to research something is "Google.com." When I entered "United Brethren in Christ" in the search field and clicked "search," there were 99,300 hits. The first one took me to the church website.

When I added "niesz" to the search terms, there were 12 results, including some for John Niesz, her father, and for the location of the Niesz Cemetery where her parents are buried.

When I searched for "w s titus," her husband, there were three hits for him.

The second Internet place that I go is CyndisList, www.cyndislist.com. The United Brethren in Christ is a small denomination, and it does not have its own section in Cyndi's List. It's listed under "Religion & Churches" where I found links to Brethren archives.

Religious denominations often have their own genealogy. In 1968, the United Brethren in Christ merged with the United Methodist Church. So, I checked that section in CyndisList and found more links to church archives.

The ultimate repository for researching anything is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Their library catalog is online at www.familysearch.org. When I entered the search term "United Brethren in Christ" in the "keyword" option, I found 130 hits. One of them is a history of the church. I printed out the catalog entry and am going to order it from the Family History Center.

For Elizabeth's story, click here.

If you are interested in other helpful articles, go to my Columns page.

© 2000–2009

Connie Lenzen, CG^SM

CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certified genealogists after periodic evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.