Why should be interested in church records? The most useful information in them are the baptisms which may also contain the birth information. Even if the birth date information is not included, baptisms were often performed at a very young age. In Germany, the baptism is sometimes the day of birth. In America, there were often delays. The baptism nearly always includes the parents and perhaps the sponsors. It should never be assumed, though it is usually correct, that the couple who brings a child for baptism are the parents.
What information is implied by the sponsors? At the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley, for the years of 1750 to about 1790, the sponsors were siblings or cousins of the parents, or the spouses of the siblings and cousins. There were a few exceptions to this rule, but 95% (as a guess) met this rule. In other churches, this rule may NOT apply. It was the position of the Catholic church that the sponsors could not be related to the parents. The different denominations varied as to the number of sponsors. The Reformed Church in Germany often had only a single sponsor, but, in Virginia, the 1714 John Hoffman often had three or four sponsors and most of these were known to be related by blood or marriage.
Who could perform a baptism? Any Christian believer (even a layman) may perform a baptism. So records of baptisms may be found in many places other than the church to which the parents belonged. John Hoffman's baptisms were recorded in his Bible and may have been performed by him.
Because the German Lutheran Church in the RRV did adhere for many years to the requirement that the sponsors be related to the parents, this can often be used to establish the maiden names of the wives, and the family structures. Working this out requires a study of the community and not just a family. I have published the baptisms that were recorded for this church and given my best estimates of the relationships and the maiden names of the wives. This is a unique document and so far as I know it has only been done for this church. It also has the advantage that this printed record is very accurate and easy to use, much easier than the microfilm or even the original documents.
There are no death or marriage records per se in the RRV German Lutheran Church. Deaths can sometimes be inferred from the appearance of an individual in the communion lists as a widow or a widower.
There are a few recording errors in the church records. Some of these came about because of the recopying of earlier documents.
(03 Dec 05)
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.