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

United States New Jersey Essex County

What is in the Collection?
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.

For help reading the records see the wiki articles:


 * German Word List
 * German Language and Languages

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
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 Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search you will need to know:


 * The ancestor’s name
 * The approximate date of the of the christening or baptism
 * The place where the event took place
 * The names of other family members and their relationships

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒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.

What Do I Do Next?
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.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * 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.
 * 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.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * 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.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation: