I feel sorry for people who pick up the Hebron Church Register merely to find their ancestor's birth and/or baptismal record. Looking in the index, finding a name, turning to the page, getting the date and the name of the parents is hardly the complete story. The book is so rich in history that using it as a one minute or even a five minute reference guide is hardly scratching the surface.
As I have already said, the register dates from 1775, when the first writing was made in it. So, it is not as old as one might imagine. When they rewrote it in 1775, what was the basis of the data that they wrote? I believe they had written notes to work from. They did not call in people and ask them when their children were born and who the sponsors were. Though the information is not as complete as it could be, it is more complete, and seemingly accurate, than memory alone could account for. (One or two families were written from memory, in part.)
In the period 1750 to 1775, generally, no baptismal dates were recorded, which is a strange thing to omit in a baptismal register. The information in the period from 1750 to 1775 was written, not as a record of baptisms, but as a record of family structure, for the benefit of the next minister, who, in this case, was to be Rev. Franck. Organized as family data or group sheet, it told who the parents were (no maiden names for the mothers though), and the children by birth date.
No family was included who had children born before 1750. Naturally there were families with children born before and after 1750, but these families were not included.
You may be wondering why your family was not included. First, they may have moved away before 1775. Second, they may have had children born before 1750. Third, they may not have gone to church, perhaps because they were not Lutherans.
Why were families with children born before 1750 not included? The reasons are not clear. It may be that they had no records before 1750, and they did not wish to include any family whose record was not complete. I am inclined to this view, but the answer may be otherwise. It may be that starting with 1750 was just an arbitrary decision.
Baptisms are missing in the present record for at least two reasons. The families who had moved away were omitted. Before they moved, they had children baptized but there was no need to rewrite the record of these, for the register of 1775 was being written to inform the new minister. Those families who had children baptized (born?) before 1750 were omitted even if they had children after 1750.
People often ask me questions (pertaining to Hebron) which I would not normally think of answering. If someone has a question, then probably a few other people have the same question. So send your questions in and I will attempt to answer them.
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.