Church records are usually private records. When they are private records, the general public does not have a right to view them. It does not matter how long your relative attended the church, how devout they were, etc. Private records are not subject to public access laws.
Many churches do allow individuals to view their records or will graciously allow them to be looked at, transcribed, etc.
But they do not have to.
3 Responses
Well that makes sense when I was wanting to look several years ago & got nowhere. But I also didn’t know what I was looking 4 either.
I was denied by one church because the records were too fragile. Wish more of them would preserve them by digitizing them with overhead scanners.
Overhead scanners would be an ideal solution in a case like that.