News

From burlap sack to digital file, church records get makeover

c. 2013 Religion News Service

BOSTON (RNS) Six years ago, the people of First Congregational Church of Rowley in Massachusetts were convinced they’d lost their treasure. A 17th-century minister’s 664-page diary, and its rare detailed account of community life in early America, had been missing for nearly two decades.

Then the phone rang.