Presbyterian Ministers and Missionaries
Reference Services
Workshops

Biographical material on Presbyterian ministers may be found in books listed in our bibliography of Denominational Ministerial Resources. Before consulting the Presbyterian Historical Society, you may want to look for these books in libraries in your area.

Minister and Missionary Biographical Sketch Service

The Presbyterian Historical Society can provide limited biographical information on some, but not all, Presbyterian ministers and missionaries.

Fees
For the general public, a search of our indexes costs $15.00 for each name. The fee for requests initiated by a PC(USA) church is $10.00 per name, and there is no charge for requests from a PC(USA) governing body. This is a fee for conducting a search and applies whether or not we find a name in our indexes. We will notify you if we do not find a name in our indexes.

Services
After we receive the search fee, we will search our catalogs and indexes and mail you photocopies of short published sketches from indexed reference sources. Please allow four to six weeks for our reply.

Limitations on Material We Provide
Most sources provide only the places and dates of birth or death, plus the educational and church career of the minister or missionary; that is, the college/seminary attended, and places and dates of service as a minister or in another church vocation. Many sources do not name the individual's parents, spouse, or children.

When we have other materials on an individual beyond our ready reference sources, limits on our staff's time prevent us from doing additional research. Where feasible, we will refer you to independent researchers who can do a more thorough search of our collections for a fee.

We will not make photocopies from sources that are, in our judgment, too fragile to photocopy. We will provide you with citations to periodicals which we cannot photocopy, so that you can request these items from other institutions.

Minister/Missionary Biographical Sketch Request form