ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’m not going to name the particular church that motivated this column because that’s not completely the point.

What, then, is the point?

Well, as a Pennsylvania German genealogy specialist, knowledge of churches and church records comes with the territory (Faithful “Roots & Branches” followers will recall that it was not too many columns ago that I opined about making digital copies of original church records to make them more accessible).

Part of that knowledge is knowing about the beginnings of church congregations and here, finally, is when I get to my point.

Why does virtually every church exaggerate the date of its founding?

Oh, I suppose there’s a degree of vanity or “one-ups-man-ship” that might be involved – wanting to be the first of this particular denomination in an area or some other distinction.

But I look at these sorts of “brags” from a different perspective: When an earlier founding date is accepted as fact, then my cry immediately becomes, “Well, what about records from that time period?”

And I hate to think that I might pursue a will-o’-the-wisp.

Of course, I don’t do that because long ago, I acquired a book published by the Pennsylvania German Society in its series of annual volumes that was authored by the late Charles H. Glatfelter: Pastors and People: German Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Pennsylvania Field, 1717-1793, Vol. I: Pastors and Congregations.

In this book, Glatfelter first puts together all the biographical information he could find on Lutheran and Reformed pastors active in America up to close to the end of the 1700s.

This was made challenging by the many pastors who came by their offices in what Glatfelter delicately calls an “irregular ministry.” The 1700s in America were a time with a great shortage of ordained German-speaking clergy and therefore these irregulars filled in many gaps.

After profiling the pastors, Glatfelter then takes on documenting the early histories of these Pennsylvania German congregations, another difficult task since so many congregations had several informal names in their early years.

Glatfelter, a legendary professor of history at Gettysburg College, dug deep into Colonial records looking for primary source evidence of congregational beginnings – and in many cases found it lacking when compared to congregations’ own accounts of their origins.

To give just a few examples (left unidentified since embarrassing church historians is not the point):

• “Until there is some historical evidence to deal with, we must regard this for what it is: a charming and old tradition, with no known basis in fact.”
• “No credible evidence has thus far been found and presented to substantiate the claim first advanced about 1900 that the congregation was organized in 1703, 1700 or even earlier.”
• “In a real sense these are congregations almost without a history. They have no church registers from their early days. No known land records chronicle their beginnings.”

My moral to this story? Unless there’s new documentation, use Charlie Glatfelter’s dates.