Published May 9, 2020
| 1 Comment | Leave A ReplyI get occasional review copies of books from publishers such as F. Edward Wright’s Heritage Books imprint, which includes a large catalog of church and vital records.
One of the more recent efforts, Early Church Records of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania ($22, 140 pages), came me the other day and it seemed like a good time to probe the content that it includes and compare it to other works about such records.
In a mostly theoretical ideal world, all researchers would strictly be working with original handwritten records rather than published, typeset transcripts and abstracts.
Well, Mr. Theoretical, may I introduce you to Ms. Practical for a course called “Realty Check 101.”
Said reality is that many of the early church registers in Pennsylvania have been transcribed and abstracted so often (including by compilers such as Wright) that the data from the original record books sometimes is distorted by centuries of copying errors. Likewise, in many cases, early translations do not use what would be present-day standards.
Wright’s Dauphin County collection stands worthy of contrast with the late John T. Humphrey’s volume titled Pennsylvania Births, Dauphin County, 1757–1825. First and obviously, Humphrey only abstracted birth and baptismal records, while Wright includes marriages, burials, confirmations and communion records for the congregations that preserved them. And because he presents a transcript of the original registers, the names of sponsors are included.
Humphrey, on the other hand, presented an alphabetical listing by the child being born, along with dates of birth and parents’ names, and is therefore easier to use at a glance.
Humphrey’s book gives a little bit of background about the county and its early churches in general while Wright goes further by giving a quick history of each of the congregations that are the sources of records in his volume. Wright credits much of that history to the well-researched work of the late Charles Glatfelter in his classic Pastors and People.
Both compilations suffer a bit from the habit of congregations choosing to give new names to church buildings, which may make sense from the standpoint of the spiritual community but is awfully confusing historically.
And that probably accounts for the fact that neither compilation appears to have all the extant early Dauphin County church records; Wright has baptisms and burials from Hummelstown Reformed not appearing in Humphrey while there are churches Humphrey lists that are lacking in Wright.
Neither Humphrey nor Wright say what sources were used for the transcriptions of the records they publish. They also would have done the reader a great service by having made an attempt to track down where the records reside today—with the original congregation or in a variety of archives and libraries.
Because no matter what, an effort should be made to find that original record rather than relying on iterations that may be several times removed from the source record.
To order Heritage Books, go to the URL, www.HeritageBooks.com.
1 Comment
For Sale
The Best of "Roots & Branches", Fifth Edition published July 2017, edited by Terri J. Bridgwater.
It contains a selection of columns from Beidler’s award-winning newspaper column (currently published in the Altoona Mirror), which is the only syndicated newspaper column on genealogy in Pennsylvania.
The book can be ordered online, or purchased directly from Jim when he speaks at a conference.
Rick Bender
4 years ago
Original sources: Ugh! (I always enjoyed accounting but hated bookkeeping chores.) But really, my Benders aren’t too troublesome regarding original records: There aren’t any! (Without DNA, I’d be lost.)
However, I combed through church transcripts, vertical files, and pedigree charts in Lebanon County 25 years ago looking for my related Pennsylvania families. I made a large direct-line chart — sort of a map of our presumed “other” ancestors — but I’ve never had the time (or inclination) to go back and verify the data, figuring I’d just leave that to some future family historian who might be more into bookkeeping.
If I did it myself, it would likely require so much time there that I’d probably need to actually move to Myerstown.
(Hmmm . . . maybe I could buy an OLD HOUSE there!)