New York, New York City, Saint Peter's Lutheran Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
The collection consists of images of births and christenings, deaths and funerals, and marriages for the years 1862 to 1955.

Church records in the United States began in the early 1600s. They can be found in the churches, church archives, or university archives. They normally include records of christenings, marriages, and deaths. Churches kept records to determine who were members of their sect and to track the vital events in their member's lives. Church records are considered a primary source. They are usually reliable because they are kept by the priest or a clerk appointed by the priest, who usually recorded an event at or very near the time it occurred.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism
 * Full name of person being baptized
 * Child's gender
 * Baptism date
 * Birth date
 * Name of father
 * Place of baptism
 * Name of mother

Death or funeral
 * Name and residence of deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Cause of death
 * Age and place of birth (sometimes, birth date)
 * Date and place of funeral services
 * Burial information
 * Names of survivors

Marriage
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Name and residence of groom
 * Groom's birth date and place of birth
 * Name of groom's father and his birthplace
 * Maiden name of groom's mother and birthplace
 * Name and residence of bride
 * Bride's birth date and place of birth
 * Name of bride's father and his birthplace
 * Maiden name of bride's mother and birthplace
 * Names of witnesses and their residence

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The ancestor’s name
 * The approximate date of the event, such as the christening or baptism

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

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 the Person 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 the Person 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
 * Consult the New York Record Finder to find other records

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in the state of New York.
 * New York Guided Research
 * New York Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step New York Research, 1880-Present

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Lutheran church records (New York, New York), 1785-1925
 * Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church records, 1917-1954
 * Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church records, 1899-1912
 * Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew Church records, 1870-1958
 * Trinity Church Association, Church records, 1859-1871
 * Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish, Church Records, 1840-1944
 * Christ Lutheran Church records, 1752-1814
 * Trinity Lutheran Church records, 1704-1753
 * Dingman Versteeg, trans., Records from the church books of the German Lutheran Congregation at New York, 1704-1807
 * Trinity Lutheran Church records, 1704-1807
 * New York, New York City, Saint Peter's Lutheran Church records, 1862-1955

FamilySearch Historical Records

 * New York, Church Records, 1660-1954

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration.  Inventory of the church archives in New York City : Lutheran. New York, New York : Historical Records Survey, 1940
 * Historical Records Survey, Service Division, Work Projects Administration. Guide to vital statistics records of churches in New York state, exclusive of New York City. 2 volumes. Albany, New York : Historical Records Survey (New York), 1942

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.