New Jersey, Newark, St. Stephan's Grace Community Lutheran Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
The collection consists of images of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, memberships, funerals, minutes, and other records from the St. Stephan's Grace Community Lutheran Church in Newark. The collection covers the years 1874 to 1989. The records are in German and English.

Record Content
Information in a baptism record may include:


 * Full name of person being baptized
 * If adult or child
 * Birth date and place
 * Baptism date and place
 * Residence
 * Names of parents
 * Names of sponsors

Information in a marriage record may include:


 * Date of marriage
 * Names of bride and groom
 * Birth dates of bride and groom
 * Names of witnesses

Information in a death, burial, or funeral record may include:


 * Name of deceased
 * If member or nonmember
 * If adult or child
 * Death date
 * Cause of death
 * Age
 * When and where buried
 * Remarks

Information in a confirmation record may include:
 * Confirmation date
 * Name of candidate
 * Birth date
 * Other remarks

Information in a communion record may include:
 * Name of member
 * Address or residence
 * Year
 * details about the person's knowledge of the doctrine

How to Use the Record
To begin your search you will need to know the following information:


 * The ancestor’s name
 * The approximate date of the event, such as the christening or baptism

Search the Collection
To search the collection: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒ Select the 'Record Type and Year Range' category which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

Using the Information
When you have located your ancestor in a church record carefully evaluate each piece of information in the record. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. For example:


 * Use christening and birth records of christenings (baptisms) to identify a person’s birth date and place. These are an excellent substitute for civil birth records.
 * Use confirmation records to identify a person’s birth date and place and his or her age. If only the age is given, use it to calculate the person’s death date.
 * Use death, burial, or funeral records to identify a person’s birth date and place. Use age at the time of death or burial to calculate the person’s birth date. These are an excellent substitute for civil death records.
 * Use marriage records to identify a couple and the marriage date and place and to begin compiling a family group. These are an excellent substitute for civil marriage records.
 * Use church records in general to identify other family members who may have served as witnesses to an event.
 * Use the date of the event along with the locality to find the family in census records and land records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.
 * An infant’s christening usually took place within a few days or few weeks of the birth, depending on the religion. Some churches, such as the Baptists, baptized only adults not infants. Members of other sects blessed their infants when they were a few weeks or a few months old.
 * Many religions tested the church knowledge of those that had been baptized as infants and then confirmed them a member of that religion. Frequently, a person’s age at confirmation was between 14 and 20.
 * Church records are considered a primary source. They are usually reliable because they are kept by the minister, or a clerk appointed by the minister, who usually recorded an event at or very near the time it occurred.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

For Help Reading These Records
Some of the records in this collection are in German. For help reading the records see the wiki articles:
 * German Word List
 * German Language and Languages

Unable to Find Your Ancestor?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names.
 * Check the records of other congregations in the area or nearby communities.
 * Check the records of other religious sects in the area or nearby communities.

Related Websites

 * New Jersey Vital Records
 * Essex County, NJ GenWeb Project

Related Wiki Articles

 * Essex County, New Jersey Genealogy
 * Lutheran Church in the United States
 * New Jersey Church Records
 * New Jersey, Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * New Jersey Genealogy
 * New Jersey Vital Records

Citations for This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

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