This collection, 299X includes selected documents on Western Michigan churches, with a few Detroit churches also found. These items were acquired and used by Ed Skendzel for his reference library, and subsequently given to the Grand Rapids Public Library Archives. Coll. 299X is a sibling collection of Coll. 299, the Eduard Adam Skendzel Polonian Historical Collection. Coll. 299, the primary collection given by Skendzel, documents his research of the Polish communities of Grand Rapids and Michigan, including references related to churches with Polish members.

This collection, Coll. 299X, the Skendzel Church References Collection, contains items which were out of scope for the Polish collection, but were desired for the archival collections and substantial enough in number to warrant a separate collection.

Documents for those churches which supported Polish, usually Catholic, congregations have been retained in the Skendel Polonian Historical Collection, 299. Many of the documents in this collection are specific to one institution and congregation. Included in those specific to an institution may be those related to the congregation in general, or to specific subgroups, such as committees or schools, etc.

Other documents found here are general to one faith, though they may document specific aspects or documents of that one faith. Histories, correspondence and periodicals are some of the representative times of documents documenting those faiths. There may also be found some directory type materials which document several different area churches, such as maps of area churches. Directories for specific churches will be found under the name of the specific church. Catholic, Christian Reformed and other Netherlands based reformed churches, are those most heavily represented. But, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and various other denominations are also included in the documents found here.

Most of the items in the collection in their published state, but some are represented by photocopies.