Question about finding someone that was a pastor?
I am perplexing to find someone which was a priest in Colorado Springs, CO in a 1970′s. we have no name, usually know which it was a lady as well as she was of a protestant denomination. Is there a place during a living room we can go to demeanour this report up? This is an embracing a cause box as well as she was my Grandmother. It’s a usually approach we can find my birthmother.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
The Local History / Special Collections room in the Colorado Springs Library probably has telephone books and city directories from the 1970′s. The ads for the churches in the yellow pages of the telephone books may mention the pastor. The City Directories may list them too.
The newspapers from the era may have a "Church Directory" section in the Friday or Saturday edition. In our town the churches but space in it Big churches with a lot of money usually mention more – like their pastor’s name – than small ones do.
The same room might have something else; if you were lucky, "Church Directory" from 1973. You should go there and ask the curator / Librarian. He/she probably has a Master’s degree; even if she/he doesn’t, she/he is a professional and makes his/her living helping people find things.
Some pastors belong to the Rotary, Lions or Kiwanis club; if you find a booklet titled "Notable Lions of 1973", leaf through it.
Best of luck!
February 6th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Get in touch with the exact church if you know which it is – they possibly have a board that lists names of pastors past and present. If not, there’s a really good chance that there are people in the church denomination who will be able to help if you know which – woman pastors wouldn’t have been as common back then as now so there is a chance that someone is going to be able to narrow down the possible churches and then someone in that church still may even have been there and still be in touch with her.
Also, quite often churches in a district will get together for special events or the pastors will meet together or at least know each other so start with any church denomination and the Catholic and Episcopalian (I think that’s what it is over there, Church of England, it was called) often have ministers of very long standing who may be able to help.
Teachers from schools may also know – some teachers seem to stick around for a long time and if there were any scripture lessons, she may have been one of them or the teacher may know who she was.
All the best with your search.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
The 70s was early in the ordination of women. I know the United Methodist and Episcopalians were allowing it then. The Evangelical Lutherans ordained their first woman in 1970, but other synods of the Lutheran church don’t recognize female ordination. Presbyterians occasionally had a female ordination, but it was still rare in 1970. The Evangelical Covenant denomination had only ordained a couple of women by 1970. but there were a handful of others during that decade. So that should narrow it down.
The states don’t require a registry of ordained ministers. And of course, there are some sects, like Pentacostals, where rules for ordinations are very "loose" and formal study isn’t necessarily required. The good news is that Colorado Springs was a very quiet small town back then. So the odds of finding her through old telephone books and newspapers on film at the library would be high. Finding her off the internet would be more difficult because it predates the internet by more than 20 years and information like that isn’t high on anyone’s list of things to transcribe. So I’d suggest a day at the library and just read everything, then start writing letters.