I am an amateur historian in my local genealogical chapter. I recently came across a situation where I discovered that records of a small ethnic church were missing after the church closed years ago. I started the investigation by contacting the historical society for said church to no avail, and then contacting the last remaining members of that congregation who held leadership positions and they had no idea where those records would be, pointing to each other essentially. It is my suspicion that the vertical files as well as baptismal, marriage, and other records of this church may still be inside of it. The congregation was down to 4 people when it was closed and it was closed in a hurry and sold off to a private owner, who’s information I obtained through public record.

I would like to know what the best way to approach a private owner of a historical property as an amateur historian would be, to ask that person for either a guided tour or permission to search the property for the missing records, document them, and ask if it’s okay to return the records to the relevant historical society for future generations if they are able to be found.

Edit: just a slight addition. If permission were to be obtained to conduct a search and documentation of this church, where might be the most common places such records would be stored?