Histories and vital records for a variety of Rhode Island churches and religious groups can be found in the first floor Reading Room, and can be accessed through the card catalog by the name of the church or religion. Rhode Island and New England church records can also be found as part of larger publications, such as James Newell Arnold’s Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, or may be abstracted in genealogical periodicals available in the Reading Room through the card catalog, such as the New England Historic Genealogical Register.
Inventories of Rhode Island churches and church archives, compiled by the Work Progress Administration in the 1930s and 1940s, are also available in the Reading Room through the card catalog. Our collection of city directories can also be useful in identifying the establishment dates of local churches and parishes.
Additionally, the archives of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends(NEYM) are housed here. Many of the records have been microfilmed and are available in the first floor reading room. A copy of A Guide to the Records of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in New England (1997) is available online at http://www.neym.org/GuideToRecordsRSOF_1997.pdf . You may also contact the NEYM archivist directly at neym@rihs.org.