Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Cumberland 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 974.843 K2w.

About Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Church Records

Cumberland County was formed in 1750 from Lancaster County. This database includes the following church records for the area:

  • Pastoral Records of John C. Bucher, 1763-69
  • Marriage Bonds from the J. Zeamer Collection, 1761-63, 1784
  • Carlisle Gazette and the Western Repository of Knowledge, Marriages and Deaths, 1786-1800
  • Big Spring Presbyterian Church, Newville, 1737-1898
  • Bobenmayer (St. Peter's) Church, Upper Frankford, 1796-1863
  • First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Carlisle, 1788-1923
  • Marriage Licenses Issued by John Agnew, Esq., Carlisle, 1771-89
  • Marriages and Baptisms from Rev. Cuthbertson's Register, 1751-91
  • Meeting-House Springs, 1742-48
  • Middle Spring Presbyterian Church Marriages, 1786-94
  • Middle Spring Presbyterian Church Session Book, 1742-48
  • Poplar (St. John's) Evangelical Lutheran Church, Shiremanstown, 1787-1800
  • German Reformed Church, Shippenstown, 1770-1800
  • St. James Episcopal Church, 1755
  • St. Stephen's (Longsdorf's) Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Kingston, 1778-1801
  • First Presbyterian Church Marriages, Carlisle, 1785-1800
  • Trindle Spring Lutheran Church, 1792-1800
  • Ziegler's Church, Mifflin Township, 1797-1800

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 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 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.