Early Presbyterian Church in Scotland & Ireland/Puritans/later American

The Presbyterian Church USA is organized into regional Presbyteries. These are groups that bring together the local churches for bigger projects and, more importantly for your research, they articulate the beliefs of the church.

I think you should contact the local Presbytery in your region. Not every local church has a leader who is knowledgeable about the history of the church - different leaders have individual strength. But I bet that someone in the Presbytery knows someone in the region who has this interest. Or, maybe they could refer to you someone who teaches Presbyterian history in the Seminary.

You'll probably find a lot of info if you can get a hold of a theology professor at some university who could point you toward some specific books.

The Story of the Church
http://www.ritchies.net/churchhi.htm

The Protestant Reformation
http://www.ritchies.net/p4wk7.htm

https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/presbyterian-rebellion/

I was really fascinated by your question. When I was working on my Master's Degree (Catholic Theology), I did take some history courses. But I studied the Early Church and Medieval Church. That doesn't really help your question :-)

One of the things we learned in grad school was just which sources to trust. We talked about different magazines and journals and different publishing companies. Whenever I pick up a book, I always look at the publishing company to see if I trust it to be one that would be very well researched. I also remember that some were more conservative or orthodox and others more progressive. But everything I know (remember) is really based on Catholic theology.

While I agree that a good place to look be the library. They should have several books to help you look. They should also have access to books at other libraries.

But I think I would start with a local church. I do know that the Presbyterian chuch was "founded" by John Calvin (a French theologian from the early 1500's), so my guess would be that not every Presbyterian minister is going to be familiar with the history of the Scottish Presbyterian Church. But that would still be a good person to talk to. The minister should know some good authors or at least know which publishing companies are the ones to trust. If you do have a Presbyterian church in your area that is of Scottish decent, you might find even more help.

That's where I would start. Call the office one day. Explain what it is you are researching. Ask if you can speak with the minister about some good books or other resources that might aid your research.

Good luck!

I don't have any input, I am just going to say this is a GREAT question!

Well, maybe I do. Go to your library and see what information you can find. I would also go to your local Presbyterian church and talk with the lead pastor.

I hope you get a lot of great information! GOOD LUCK!!

I think a good reference librarian at your local public library (one of the dos under appreciated and underutilized resources in any community, in my opinion) would be of far more help. You may get some anecdotal info from Mamapedia members on individual families, but you aren't going to get the kind of in-depth background facts you seem to be looking for. Remember that most libraries participate in an inter-library loan program, so books that interest you can be ordered from another library, delivered to your local branch, and dropped off by you at that same local branch when you are done. You can usually renew on line too, which is a huge convenience.