Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1748-1854: Falckner Swamp Reformed Congregation [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Transcribed from LDS Family History Library microfilm copies of church records for this locality. For more information, see the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) for FHL 20351.

About Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1748-1854: Falckner Swamp Reformed Congregation

New Hanover Township lies in the northern section of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and the Falckner Swamp Reformed Congregation is located in New Hanover. This database contains more than 15,000 entries for births, marriages, and deaths from the congregation between 1748 and 1854.

Church records rank among the very best genealogical records available worldwide, but they are one of the most under-used sources in American genealogy. Until the advent of vital statistics in the United States—a very late development in most states—church records were the primary source of birth, marriage, and death information. The sheer number of denominations and affiliate churches has made identifying and locating each one's records a time-consuming ordeal for most genealogists. Church records vary a great deal in content and emphasis according to the basic theology of the religious group that created them.

Early immigrants from England, Scotland, and other European countries brought their religious beliefs, institutions, and customs with them, including the keeping of church books in which to record births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, communion lists, deaths, and burials. Lutheran and Reformed Church records in Pennsylvania rank among the very best church records available.