Hi Tim: You raise two very interesting points, one of which has plaqued my research for years. The microfilmed burial records for First German United Evangelical Church begin as you pointed out in June 1864. One of my ancestors, Franz Braun was buried from First German on 25 May 1864. I've been seeking his home town in Germany for many years. Considering the pattern of other entries in the church registers, that village should be in his burial record. I've often cynically thought he could have hung on for at least another week ... I do not know if those earlier burial records were simply missed when the microfilming was done, or they no longer exist. I assume, since the baptismal and marriage records are complete, at one time there had to be an earlier burial register as well. I can tell you that some years before the microfilming of this collection, I visited the church and was given unlimited access to the original records. I suppose I could have missed it, but my notes don't have any burial entries before June 1864. For years, I've been meaning to go back to the church and try to sort this out, but I've never done so. As far as the cemetery, I know much less about this. It still exists and is well cared for. There is a caretakers cottage on the grounds but I've never spoken with anyone there. The cemetery records were not at the church when I visited it. Jane Wilson's Quiet Baltimoreans mentions a Bosse Cemetery associated with First German United Evangelical Church from 1850 to 1877 that was located in Highlandtown on East Avenue and Dillon Streets but she doesn't reference this at all. I've never heard of it. Dillon Street in Highlandtown is where Zion German United Evangelical Church, a filial congregation of First German is located. Maybe it was the same ground or at least nearby. Wilson also states that those buried in Bosse were re-interred into the new cemetery on O'Donnel. Last year when I was reading through Der Deutsche Correspondent covering the 1870s and 1880s, I remember reading an article that detailed the dedication service of the First German United Cemetery. I recall that there were several choirs from different German churches that sang and there were several speeches. I do not recall whether it mentioned a previously existing cemetery and unfortunately, I can't find a copy of the article in my files just now. I suspect that we could resolve the question of the burial register by visiting the church. Maybe a visit to the cemetery to talk to the caretaker might help you with the other issue. Gary 17 November 2006 Baltimore http://home.att.net/~g.ruppert Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:44:19 -0500 From: "Endres, Timothy J." <Tim.Endres@jhuapl.edu> Subject: [MD-BALTIMORECITY] Schwartz cemetery and church records To: <MD-BALTIMORECITY@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <79C724060977164B9F92367BE65372C705F97326@aplesliberty.dom1.jhuapl.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I noticed that the microfilimed church death records for the First German United Evangelical Church begin in June 1864. The marriages records go back to 1850. Looking at the table of contents for the Md Archives microfilm of the records (M1549-2), it looks as if pages 88-127 of the church are not on the microfilm. Perhaps these contain the death records from 1850 through May 1864. Anyone know if those pages are available anywhere else? Also, from Gary Ruppert's post about the associated cemetery, "it's still located where it has always been on O'Donnell Street". That seems reasonable to me from what I've seen and from the notes on the history of the First German United Evangelical Church, which are on the microfilm preceding the church's records. However, the The Very Quiet Baltimoreans book states the present cemetery was established in 1877, and had a precursor cemetery at East and Dillon streets from 1850-1877, unless I am misunderstanding things. I am interested in these matters because an ancestor, Frederick Endres, may have died and been buried from this church around May 1864, and the facts of his birth, life, death and burial have been maddeningly elusive. Facts of his birth and some of his life we have finally scraped together, but death and burial continue to confound us. Tim Endres