Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp. Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1765-1858: Jordan Reformed Congregation [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Records 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 #1671314.

About Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1765-1858: Jordan Reformed Congregation

Jordan Reformed Congregation is located in South Whitehall Township, which lies in central Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. This database contains records of baptisms, marriages, and deaths from the church, as well as a history of the congregation. For researchers of this eastern Pennsylvania region, this will be a useful database.

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.