Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1751-98: Keller's Lutheran Church Records

Keller's Lutheran Church is located in Bedminster Township, in the central part of Bucks County. The church was called Tohecka/Tohickon, not to be confused with the other Tohickon Church at Hagersville about three-and-a-half miles south. In 1802, the name ""Keller's"" came into use and later St. Matthew's. A Reformed Church, possibly called Solomon's, joined ca. 1841 and lasted til 1957-58. Keller's is located in Bedminster Township at Keller's Church on Route 563, eight miles northeast of Perkasie. Records of baptisms, marriages, and burials are included for the years 1751 through 1798.

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.