Schwenkfelders Church in the United States

United States Church Records  Schwenkfelders Church Records

Online Records

 * The genealogical record of the Schwenkfelder families : seekers of religious liberty who fled from Silesia to Saxony and thence to Pennsylvania in the years 1731 to 1737
 * Genealogical record of the descendants of the Schwenkfelders, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1733, 1734, 1736 & 1737 : from the German of the Rev. Balthasar Heebner, and from other sources, e-book
 * Selections from the genealogical record of the Schwenkfelder families
 * Shultz of Augusta County, Virginia : being a supplement to the material recorded in The genealogical record of the Schwenkfelder families, edited by Samuel K. Brecht, 1923

History
The Schwenkfelder Church (About this soundlisten (help·info)) is a small American Christian body rooted in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation teachings of Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig (1489–1561). Though followers have held the teachings of Schwenkfeld since the 16th century, the Schwenkfelder Church did not come into existence until the 20th century, due in large part to Schwenkfeld's emphasis on inner spirituality over outward form. He also labored for a fellowship of all believers and one church.

Originally calling themselves Confessors of the Glory of Christ, the group later became known as Schwenkfelders. These Christians often suffered persecution like slavery, prison and fines at the hands of the government and state churches in Europe. Most of them lived in southern Germany and Lower Silesia.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the remaining Schwenkfelders lived around Harpersdorf in the Dutchy of Silesia, which was part of the Bohemian Crown. As the persecution intensified around 1719–1725, they were given refuge in 1726 by Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Saxony. When the Elector of Saxony died in 1733, Jesuits sought the new ruler to return the Schwenkfelders to Harpersdorf. With their freedom in jeopardy, they decided to look to the New World.

A group came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1731, and several migrations continued until 1737. The largest group, 180 Schwenkfelders, arrived in 1734. In 1782, the Society of Schwenkfelders was formed, and in 1909 the Schwenkfelder Church' was incorporated. Though the Schwenkfelders thereafter remained largely confined to Pennsylvania, a small number later emigrated to Waterloo County in Ontario, Canada. The Schwenkfelder Church has remained small: as of 2009 there are five congregations with about 2,500 members in southeastern Pennsylvania. All of these bodies are within a fifty-mile radius of Philadelphia: two in the city itself, and one each in East Norriton Township, Palm, and Worcester. The Society of the Descendants of the Schwenkfeldian Exiles is a related lineage society. Source: Wikipedia