Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp. Goshert's Zion Lutheran Church, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 1879-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Zion Lutheran Church (Goshert's), Mt. Zion, Bethel Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania; records 1879-1957

About Goshert's Zion Lutheran Church, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 1879-1957

Lebanon County lies in south-east Pennsylvania. This database is a collection of records from Goshert's Zion Lutheran Church in Bethel Township, which lies in Lebanon County. Researchers may find records of baptisms, marriages and burials for individuals in the area from 1879 until 1957. For those interested in the community of Bethel, this may be a helpful 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.