Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Church Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Transcribed from LDS Family History Library copies of church records for this locality. For more information, see the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) for FHL 974.818 K2w.

About Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Church Records

Dauphin County was created in 1785 from Lancaster County and lies in the central eastern area of Pennsylvania. This database contains records from the following churches, all of which lie in present-day Dauphin County:

  • Salem Reformed Church, Harrisburg, 1800-1842
  • Lykens Valley Lower Church (David's Reformed), Killingern, Upper Paxtang, 1774-1844
  • Fetterhoff's Lutheran and Reformed Church (St. Peter's), 1789-1798
  • Fredricktown Church, Hummelstown, 1765-1768
  • Hoffman Reformed Church, 1782-1800
  • Lykens Valley Lower Church, 1774-1800
  • Middletown Church, 1756-1769
  • Paxtang and Derry Churches, Marriages, 1744-1800
  • Reformed Church, Hummelstown, 1796-1798
  • St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1757-1801
  • Salem Reformed Church, Harrisburg, 1790-1808
  • Shoop's Reformed Church, 1774-1801
  • Wenerich's Reformed Church, 1791-1801
  • Zion Church (Klinger's), 1787-1800

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 sources 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 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 records in Pennsylvania rank among the very best church records available.