Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. York County, Pennsylvania, 1801-53: Trinity Reformed Church [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Transcribed from LDS Family History Library microfilm copies of church records for this locality. For more information, see the Family History Library Catalog.

About York County, Pennsylvania, 1801-53: Trinity Reformed Church

Located in the City of York (in York County, Pennsylvania), Trinity Reformed Church, formerly called the First Reformed Church, was organized in the 1744 and began keeping records in 1745. The records in this database span the years 1801-53 and include the names of more than 16,500 individuals. For researchers of German immigrant ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania, this database can provide valuable vital statistics not available in other records.

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.