Church records have been very valuable as I have researched the family of Jacob Fisher in Pennsylvania. Since the formal registration of births, marriages, and deaths in the state didn’t begin until the late 1800s and even into the early 1900’s, I have had to rely on church records as substitutes when researching earlier ancestors.
One thing I recently noticed was an interesting relationship between Lutheran and Reformed churches. For example, Jacob Fisher’s older children were baptized in a Reformed Church, while his younger children were baptized in a Lutheran church. Some records have “Lutheran and Reformed” in their title. I became very curious about this relationship and decided to do a little research.
What I found helped explain many of the questions I had regarding records from these churches. In an article titled “The Union Church: A Case of Lutheran and Reformed Cooperation” it states:
In the early pioneer days of settling on the land, the number of Lutheran or Reformed people in any given community was not large. There was a tremendous reliance on neighbors. People helped one another to build houses, clear land, plant crops, harvest, mend, repair, and start schools and churches…
These Christians who had suffered so much in the homeland and who looked to the future in this new place with much confidence believed that they could live together in harmony, not only as neighbors, but also as companions in worship…
Because few missionary pastors accompanied the early settlers, those who did divided their time among churches in several communities. Marriages were performed, Holy Communion administered, and baptisms accomplished only when the pastor could make the circuit of the congregations for which responsibility was carried. Sometimes months passed before an ordained person was available. Because both the Lutheran and the Reformed congregations faced this difficulty, they saw no need for having two separate buildings. By sharing facilities they could also share pastors. If the Lutheran pastor could be there once each month and the Reformed pastor once each month, the people could take advantage of two worship experiences in the month. This would not have been so easy if they had been separate…
Having come from the same regions in Germany and settled in the same regions in America, there was a closeness among these people that went beyond religion. Differences that are prominent among many religious groups today were not so important to the early settlers. The German language contributed to their community spirit and aided in their socialization. Church was the gathering place for many social events. Intermarriage was common between the two groups. Occasionally a Reformed person who married a Lutheran changed denominational affiliation, but usually the uniting couple felt no need for such a change. Traditions started quickly and endured a long time in Union Churches. For example, a girl who was born to a mixed marriage usually became a member of the congregation to which her mother belonged. Likewise, boys followed in the footsteps of their fathers.
Horace S. Sills, “The Union Church: A Case of Lutheran and Reformed Cooperation,” in Barbara Brown Zikmund, editor, Hidden Histories in the United Church of Christ, vol. 2, (Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1984), ch. 2.
This is just a sampling of facts about Union Churches. The entire article is worth reading. Knowing about the cooperation and congeniality among members of the Lutheran and Reformed churches has cleared my confusion. It has also helped me understand more about the lives of my ancestors, which is one of my aims as a genealogist.
