Hello subscribers, For the last six months or so, the number of subscribers to LUTHERAN-ROOTS has remained rather steady, around 165-170 people give or take a few. With some recent "word of e-mail" publicity, we have now grown to 192 subscribers as of just a few minutes ago. I invite all subscribers, but particularly our newest subscribers, to post to the list one or more of the following kinds of messages: 1) Church records that you have easy access to and are willing to do lookups from 2) Church records that you don't have easy access to and would like to inquire about 3) Names that you are researching when you know that they were Lutherans, but you don't know the church 4) Areas/churches that you do know about, but you don't necessarily know the names of individuals to search for 5) Your "most wanted" piece of information, as long as it relates to Lutherans 6) Successful searches where you obtained access to the records you were seeking; maybe you can help somebody else do the same These are just some suggestions to get you going. Now, the main reason for this message. I have been kicking around the idea of putting together a directory of Lutheran churches unlike any other directory that currently exists. I would like your help to plan this project. I have some webspace available to me on the Rootsweb freepages server, and would like to create the directory there since there is no limit to the space available. I would like to create a directory that of course includes some kind of arrangement where people can find individual church entries, such as geographic or alphabetic (or both). But the biggest part of this proposed project would be to create a separate webpage for each Lutheran church, with a number of possible items to potentially include: -- historical timeline of the church; when founded, founders, ministers over the years, synodical membership, etc. -- stable contact information for the church, such as mailing address, street address if different, phone number, etc. (or just link to an entry in one of the other existing directories that shows this information) -- where to find the records, if known; perhaps by historical time period if/when necessary -- if this church has records of other churches, make a note of that as well -- information on any associated cemeteries -- a photo or photos if available -- perhaps a map and/or driving instructions that indicate location -- any good links to information about the church, such as the church webpage, webpages that include vital records for the church, etc. -- complete citations for any books or articles in print that contain records of this church -- contact information for researchers who do know something about this church -- if nobody is familiar with the church, then contact information for people who don't know anything about this church, but would like to I say that this is a planning project for now because I can't reasonably do anything other than think about it until the Spring semester ends in the middle of May. Here's where you can help: a) What other items of information should be included on each page -- i.e. what should the "template" look like? b) What of the items already mentioned should be excluded, and why? c) If you have any experience building webpages and could offer your assistance to help create the pages, once a template/format is determined, please let me know d) If you could serve as the "resident expert" for a particular church or group of churches -- i.e. provide the info that goes onto the webpage for that church or group of churches For now, I would like to concentrate the project on the U.S., but if someone would like to start a parallel project for another country, by all means let me know. As an aid to starting this project, I have grabbed from the USGS GNIS server the names and locations of all Lutheran churches and cemeteries registered in their database; or at least the ones that include the term "Lutheran" in the title. What other key terms should I search for if the church names don't include the word "Lutheran"? Perhaps "Evangelical", or "Reformed", etc.? Any thoughts on this? -- Mary Taffet List Administrator for LUTHERAN-ROOTS mdtaffet@syr.edu

I am looking for records which substantiate that Lydia Dornheim was baptized by Rev. John H. Heim in Nov of 1817. He was the pastor of Dreisbach Lutheran Church, Union County, PA. Does anyone have any ideas where these records are? Thanks, John Dornheim

John, Regarding Dreisbach, check out the following pages: 1) http://home.ptd.net/~bkunkel/blib.htm This mentions church records for Dreisbach that go up to 1822. 2) http://home.cwnet.com/dynasty/HOOVOL72.HTM This mentions someone who was baptized there; perhaps they will know how to find the records. 3) http://www.firstct.com/fv/PA.html This is a service that sells microfiche, but they provide the title of a book that contains these records -- called "Early Pennsylvania Births - 1675-1875" by Dr. Charles A. Fisher, published in 1947. I hope this helps. -- Mary John Dornheim wrote: > > I am looking for records which substantiate that Lydia Dornheim was > baptized by Rev. John H. Heim in Nov of 1817. He was the pastor of > Dreisbach Lutheran Church, Union County, PA. > > Does anyone have any ideas where these records are? > > Thanks, > > John Dornheim