Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Saddler's Lutheran Church Baptisms, York County, Pennsylvania, 1792-1861 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data: Sadler's Lutheran Church Records (Hopewell Township, York County, Pennsylvania). Original records housed at the York County Historical Society, York, Pennsylvania.

About Saddler's Lutheran Church Baptisms, York County, Pennsylvania, 1792-1861

York County lies on the southern boarder of Pennsylvania with the Mason-Dixon Line serving as its boundary. One of the southern-most townships for York County is Hopewell Township. This database is a record of Saddler's Lutheran Church in Hopewell Township. Researchers may find a record of baptisms, including sponsors, for individuals who lived in the area during the years 1792 through 1861. For those interested in this southern Pennsylvania area, 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 their 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.