The Lutherans, especially in America, did not have a prescribed format for recording baptisms, but generally followed the pattern of giving the parents' names, the child’s name, birth and baptism dates, and the names of the sponsors. Exceptions were numerous, some for good reason. Our biggest loss is that many of the records have disappeared.
We know that the Rev. Klug, the Rev. Schwarbach, and the Rev. Frank visited some of the churches in the Shenandoah Valley. (All of these ministers were from the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley.) I believe it is the case that none of the baptisms, which they must have performed in the Valley, are known today. If a record was made, it was probably made and kept locally, and certainly not in the pastor’s home Church. On the other hand, some pastors kept one book of baptisms (and marriages), which was their personal book. The most famous of the pastors to do this was the Rev. John Casper Stöver, Jr., the son of the Robinson River minister.
Occasionally, the pastors added information that went beyond the standard format as for example in this comment, '...new comers from Edelmanischen Seckendorf'. This was done by Rev. Brunholtz, who did a similar thing for more than twenty other parents. His premature death is still mourned by genealogists.
In Virginia, the Anglican church and the Lutheran church held each other in high regard. The major difference between them was that one held services in German and the other in English. In case there was not an Anglican pastor available in the Robinson River, or vice versa, one would serve for the other. Rev. Klug served the Anglicans so much that the Virginia assembly voted him a monetary gift in recognition of his services to the Anglicans. Rev. Henry Muhlenberg described the Anglicans as his 'nearest and best friends'. This should not a great surprise as the two churches held similar views.
On baptism, both churches subscribed to the view, "The necessity of Holy Baptism to salvation is so urgent, and the blessing conferred by it so great, infants should be brought to the font as early as possible." The Anglicans favored public baptism, but would tolerate private baptisms. Most baptisms were performed in conjunction with a church service. Anyone who had previously been baptized could not be baptized again. Sponsors made vows on behalf of the infant. The Anglicans usually had three sponsors, as did the Catholics, two males and one female for boys, and the reverse for girls. The Anglicans would not allow parents to be sponsors for their own children until 1865. The Lutherans abandoned this prohibition in the eighteenth century.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.