Common short forms: U

The United Church was formed by a union of many different churches. The most recent union, in 1925, was of the Methodist, part of the Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches. Each of those, in turn, are unions of other churches. In all, there are well over thirty churches involved. This complex situation can only be understood with the aid of a map, that from Silcox, Claris E - Church Union in Canada - Institute of Social and Religious research, New York (1933). This is reproduced in OGS - Guide to Family History Research in the Archival Repositories of the United Church of Canada (1966). This booklet is recommended to anyone doing much work with United Church archives or exploring the churches that made up the United Church.

Of all the churches that eventually formed the United Church, the following are known to have been active in Peterborough County. Please note that the structure of the name is very significant – there is a difference between “The Methodist Church” and “The Methodist Church of Canada”. Although the records are now held by the United Church, they are discussed under their original names. United Church records (ie post 1925) are discussed in the United Church of Canada section. The dates given in the list below are of that church’s activity in Upper Canada. For their activity in Peterborough County, see the church’s entry.

Bible Christian Church in Canada (1832 - 1884)
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada (1790 - 1884)
The Methodist Church (1884 - 1925)
The Methodist Church of Canada (1874 - 1884)
The Methodist New Connexion Church of Canada (1840 - 1874)
The Presbyterian Church in Canada (1875 - 1925) (which itself is a combination of several churches)
The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada (1825 - 1874)

United Church Organization
The Peterborough area has always been in the Bay of Quinte Conference.
It was originally in the Lindsay Presbytery, but became the Peterborough Presbytery in 1927 or 1928.
The information below comes primarily from the United Church Yearbook, available at UCA and elsewhere. Additional information comes from individual church histories (listed under the church) and from the Local Church History Files (LCHF) at the UCA. Data from the Yearbook may concern the previous year, so information here listed as 1927 may have come from the 1928 Yearbook. There is a possibility that dates given as year only are incorrect by one year.