South Dakota Church Records
This entry was originally written by Laura Hall Heuermann and Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FUGA, FASG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Most church records remain in private hands. Two helpful publications are Guide to the Archives of the Episcopal Church in South Dakota, by Alan Schwartz, archivist, housed at Center for Western Studies, Mikkelsen Library, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD 57102; and Early Churches and Towns in South Dakota by Donald D. Parker (Brookings, S.Dak.: the author, ca. 1964). Another publication includes Ralph and Kathleen Tingley, Mission in Sioux Falls: The First Baptist Church, 1875-1975 (Sioux Falls, S.Dak.: First Baptist Church, 1975).
The Sioux Valley Genealogical Society has been microfilming church and funeral home records in many counties as part of several DAR grants. The society has given a copy of these microfilms to the South Dakota State Historical Society. USGenWeb (see page 16) has a number of church records projects for South Dakota.