York County, Pennsylvania, U.S., Private Church Registers, 1738-1800

Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp. York County, Pennsylvania, U.S., Private Church Registers, 1738-1800 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data:

  • Baptisms Performed by Pastor Jacob Goering in Pennsylvania: York County, 1788-89. Manuscript from the Historical Society of York County.

  • Charles W. Rutschky, Jr. Private Marriage Register of Rev. Thomas Barton, York County, Pennsylvania. Manuscript by the author, 1940.

  • S. Hellen Fields. Records from Reverend John Cuthbertson's Diary, York County, Pennsylvania. Manuscript by the author, 1934.

  • Henry J. Young. Abstracts of vital records from the private register of the Reverend Robert Cathcart, Presbyterian minister at York and Hopewell, York County 1793-1837. Manuscript by author 1939.

  • Records of Rev. Johan Casper Stoever: Baptismal and Marriage, 1730-79. Harrisburg, PA: 1896.

    • About York County, Pennsylvania, U.S., Private Church Registers, 1738-1800

    York County lies along the Mason-Dixon line in southern Pennsylvania. This database contains various reverends' accounts of baptisms, marriages, and burials that occurred in York County. The following records books are included in this database: Baptisms performed by Pastor Jacob Goering, 1788-1789, Private Register of Reverend Thomas Barton, 1755-1759, Reverend Cuthbertson's Register, 1752-1790, Reverend Robert Cathcart's Register, 1793-1800, Baptisms and marriages by Reverend Johan Stoever, 1730-79.

    Pastor Jacob Goering, a Lutheran minister, served congregations in York County, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland. The records in this database and the baptisms performed in York County span the years 1788-1789 and include the names of over 516 individuals.

    Reverend Thomas Barton, who served St. James Episcopal Congregation of Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster County performed some marriages in nearby York County. His marriage entries were transcribed from the originals by Charles W. Rutschky, Jr. in 1940. The records in this database span the years 1755-59 and include the names of over 195 individuals.

    Reverend John Cuthbertson, a Reformed Presbyterian minister, served congregations in Adams, York, and Lancaster Counties. His diary of records was transcribed by S. Hellen Fields and printed originally in 1934. The records in this database span the years 1752-90 and include the names of 738 individuals who lived in York County.

    Johann Caspar Stoever arrived in Philadelphia in 1728 and was the only Lutheran pastor in Pennsylvania from 1733 through 1742. He served Lutheran congregations throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, including the Germanna colonists in Orange county. His registers were published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1896. The records in this database include entries made for persons belonging to York County congregations and span the years 1730-79. The names of over 1,600 individuals appear in the 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.