Family Tutor: Immigration/Naturalization, German Church Record

1.	Church name
2.	Marriage date
3.	Name of groom
4.	Groom's residence prior to immigrating
5.	Name of Bride
6.	Bride's residence prior to immigrating
7.	Witnesses' names
8.	Date of entry

German Church Records

Religion played an important role in the lives of our immigrant ancestors. Establishing a relationship with a religious denomination exactly like or similar to the one an ancestor attended in his or her homeland became one of the first things an immigrant did after arriving in the United States or one of its former colonies.

Clergymen created the same type of records in the United States or its former colonies as those kept by churches in Europe.

The register entries made here nearly always contained the same details as those made by their European contemporaries, including the birthplace or residence of the key people mentioned in a record.

The example has been translated literally from the original entry. It gives the places from which the bride and groom left. In the absence of modern immigration records, this type of entry in a church register may be the only source that will tell you where an immigrant was born or lived in his homeland.

Write to the clergy of the congregation to which an ancestor belonged to obtain a copy of a religious register entry. If the records have been transferred to denominational archives or historical association, the sitting clergy may send the inquiry on to that facility of advise you of the address.

If no one responds to your inquiry, see "Research in Church Records" by Richard W. Dougherty, The Source: A guidebook of American History, Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, ds., Rev. eds., (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997: 149-170) for a discussion of religious recordkeeping practices and lists of denominational archives and repositories with addresses.

Hundreds of volumes of religious registers have been transcribed and published. These sources can be found among the collections of public, private, and institutional libraries throughout the country. The LDS Family History Library has the largest collection of published and microfilmed copies of original registers.