See my note within your text.

Ian McGiver wrote:

Is anyone familiar with Baptist Church records dating to the late
eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries and how/where they might be
kept?

I am researching a Baptist congregation that was organized around 1805
within
Schoharie County. (I have checked all the usual local sources and, so far,
I have had no luck uncovering any records for this church.)

Dear Ian,
Can you tell me what the "usual local sources" are? I descend from a family of Baptists in Pittsford, NY, which is just southeast of Rochester. They arrived from Leicestershire, England in about 1804. They also established a Baptist church in Pittsford. It was then reported that one of the sons in the family was kicked out of the fold because he was guilty of "adopting Universalist doctrine," The son then took his wife and two small children and moved to Ohio. I am interested in the group, and their beliefs.
Sincerely,
Bob Armstrong Houston, TX
 

I know that there is a Baptist archive in Rochester (the name slips at
the moment and I dod not have my notes at hand). HOWEVER, my understanding
is that most of the Rochester records are from CALVINIST Baptist
congregations. And
I believe that the particular congregation I am interested in tended
toward a FREEWILL faith. And, whereas these distinctions might not have
been so distinct toward the end of the nineteenth century, they seem to
have played an important part in community formation in the early
nineteenth century in the particular locale I am looking at. For example,
I
am noticing that people in one part of this community attended Baptist
services in a calvinist congregation that was several miles away. But
another  Baptist congregation (the one I am interested in) existed within
the community.
It is because some members traveled so far to attend a Calvinist
congregation that I suspect that the local Baptist congregation was
Freewill.
        But I am not sure about this and whether or not there were genuine
distinctions in ideology and faith. The self-segregation of the Baptists
could simply have been a result of older clan ties that predated
settlement in the community. (that is, the Baptists who travel so far
rather than attend services locally may have simply wanted to associate
with friends and kins from their older neighborhoods.)

Thanks for your help

Ian McGiver
Ph.D. Candidate
History
University of Chicago