Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Freysville, York County, Pennsylvania, 1871-89 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data: Evangelical Lutheran Church, Freysville, York County, Pennsylvania, 1871-89. Manuscripts at the York County Historical Society in York, Pennsylvania.

About Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Freysville, York County, Pennsylvania, 1871-89

York County lies in the southern region of Pennsylvania, and the town of Freysville lies in the central area of the county. This database contains records for the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Freysville. Researchers will find records of baptisms, marriages, and burials for individuals who lived in the area during the years 1871 through 1889.

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.