Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1787-1856: St. Peter's Yellow Church [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: St. Peter's Lutheran Church Records, 1787-1856. Originals housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

About Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1787-1856: St. Peter's Yellow Church

St. Peter's Church lies in North Wales Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. This database contains records of births, marriages, and deaths that the church recorded for the area. The data covers the years 1787 to 1856 and includes more than 4,800 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 also 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.