Daily AncestorMembership roll
A membership roll is a church's list of its members, usually showing how and when each joined and sometimes how and when each left: by letter, death or exclusion.
Rolls typically show how a person was received and when, and sometimes how they left the church. Membership was recorded only by the local church, so you need to know which church your family attended.
Read the remarks column closely: dismissed, dead or excluded, with a date, can give you a move or a death year that no civil record shows.
As seen in a recordBaptist or Methodist church membership roll, 1800s
Haskins, Lavinia. By letter. Dismissed by letter Dec. 1885
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Membership roll." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/church/membership-roll. Last checked 2026-10-03.