It was January of 1888, and probably cold, in the small German church that towered over the village of Tioga, Illinois. On that frosty day, the minister's sermon covers a Bible text where the writer asks not to be taken away in the midst of his days. It was appropriate for the task at hand. During the funeral for the thirty-six year old, her husband and seven children endure the lesson and wait for their wife and mother to be buried in the graveyard outside the church. The oldest child was nineteen, the youngest a toddler.

Six short years earlier, in the same church, the same family laid to rest their two-year-old daughter. In fact, in February and March of that year three families buried children in the church cemetery.

And in December of 1917, the father would also be buried from the same church and the minister would give a sermon based upon the first and second verses of the 91st Psalm. Six lines below his funeral entry is the entry for his daughter who died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Directly above her entry is that of her husband who preceded her in death by only six days. Tales of tragedy and heartache catch the reader's attention despite the span of time and probable differences in religious conviction.

I had neglected the records of this small church in my research and nearly missed a gold mine of information. A relative located the records on microfilm through the Family History Library and e-mailed me about their availability. My paternal grandmother's family had attended the church for over fifty years, through several generations. I was extremely anxious to see the records for myself.

I made a quick dash to my nearest family history center and was told that while film could be ordered, there was a United Parcel Service strike and that it could be several weeks before any orders could be processed (this was nearly two years ago). I was disappointed. I looked up the church records in the library card catalog and discovered that they were also at the Eden Theological Seminary in Wester's Grove, Missouri. This was on a Saturday. I arrived home and a quick check of Ancestry's The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy indicated the seminary was affiliated with the present-day United Church of Christ. Next I hopped on the Internet and located a Web page for the seminary's library. One of the pages for the archives indicated that the seminary had a microfilm copy of these records as well. There also was a phone number to call the archivist. Unfortunately he did not work on Saturday evening at 10:00. On Monday I called to obtain the archives' hours of operation and the potential to see the records. After all, the library was a good three hours from my home and there was no need to waste a trip.

Before I called the archivist, I told my wife we might be going on a short research trip to the St. Louis area. I called the archivist who told me they did have the records and that presently the archives was open two days a week and closed at 11:00 both days. He indicated that if I were there before closing I could view the film in an upstairs room separate from the library. I quickly began printing out family group charts and other materials for my research trip. By 1:00 in the afternoon, we were packed and on our way to St. Louis.

The library was a wonderful place. Classes were not in session and our entire family had a picnic on the park-like area outside the library. I spent three hours in the library madly making photocopies of every relevant page.

The time and effort was worth it, for I made many discoveries in the records. My grandmother had indicated she was christened at age of five, on the same day as two of her other siblings. This seemed a little odd, and I had written her story off. I should not have. The minister recorded the baptisms of three children of George and Ida Trautevtter on 28 Nov 1915. Grandma was five years old—exactly the age she told me she had been. Seeing my grandmother's christening entry written in German was a strange experience as Grandma did not know one word of German herself. The entry confirmed her birthplace, which was not what she had always told me. But sure enough, Grandma had been baptized at the church in the town she always referred to as "Tiogee."

But there were other discoveries to be made within those records. Marriage, baptisms, burials, and confirmations were recorded in the records, which began in the 1850s and continued until the 1930s. The marriage entry for my great-great-grandparents in 1868 even indicates where the license was obtained (the church was near the Adams/Hancock County, Illinois line and there were licenses obtained in each county).

The baptismal records of all the children for my great-great-grandparents and my great-grandparents as well as marriage and death information for many of them were located. Additionally there were numerous entries for first cousins of my great-grandfather and grandmother. Some of the burial entries provided the ages or the dates of births. Most of the burial entries after 1900 provided the birthplace of the deceased. Not all pre-1900 entries provide the place of birth, but the 1877 burial entry for Sophia Elizabeth Trautvetter listed her birthplace as Helmershausen, Germany. I nearly yelled out loud as I located the birthplace of my third-great-grandmother.

Some of the earlier records were difficult to read and I am still trying to decipher a few of them, particularly those that contain surnames that are essential to further research. Some burial entries even provided the text on which the sermon was based and a few entries post 1910 indicate the language of the sermon.

There was even one more discovery to make. Like many whose families have lived for several generations in the same area, I am related to many families within the community. As a result, I am slower to go through any record as I am scanning virtually all the names within the records. I made a discovery on one of my non-German lines while using the records. A relative of my great-grandmother Neill was Maria Luft, daughter of John Luft and Martha Rampley. The Lufts were German, but the Rampleys (from whom I descend) definitely were not. When Maria married a member of the Tioga church in the 1880s, she was baptized. The entry includes the name of her parents, including her mother Martha Rambleu. I've encountered many variations on the Rampley name, but this is a new one. It goes to show that how names get "converted" depends upon who is doing the "converting."

It was also important to follow the format of the entries. It seemed like each minister had his own format. I found it particularly helpful to look at more than just the one desired entry on each page. There was a time where all the baptismal entries listed the entries in the following format:

Surname
child/born/date/father's first name/father's middle name/ mother's first name/mother's middle name/mother's maiden name/Godparents

Analyzing the format of the entries was extremely important. There was one entry where the father's middle name was also a name that could be used as a surname. One researcher assumed that the father's complete name was listed within the text of the entry and concluded that the child was born out of wedlock.

However, when I used these records, I looked first at those children for whom I already knew the information from other independent sources. This allowed me to determine the format of the entry (as shown above) and then apply this to children where I did not know the information. There are times when it helps to know some of what you expect to find in the records. It makes it easier to figure out some of what you do not know.

In this case, if I only wanted one entry from all the baptisms, it might have been a good idea to copy the entire page on which it appeared and perhaps an additional page. If I could not have figured out the records, I could have showed both pages to someone familiar with German church records during this period and they would have had an easier time making a judgement. It can be difficult to analyze an entry when there is just one to look at.

Church records can be a wonderful source and should be included as a part of every research plan. Unfortunately, not all denominations kept excellent records, not all records are extant, and not all records are this detailed. Again, you never know until you look.

Good Luck.

Bibliography
The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy revised. Edited by Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking. Chapter 6, "Research in Church Records," by Richard W. Dougherty.

Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry Magazine and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at: mneill@asc.csc.cc.il.us or visit his Web site.