Dear Steve, Being an Old School or Primitive Baptist myself (since age 7, in 1959), I must take exception to your remark that our beliefs are too radical to survive in the 20th century. :-) True, you are right - the vast majority of people today believe God is a failure and cannot or will not do anything without their help, so they must work at things the Bible does not mention, and pay tele-evangelists large amounts of money - or else heaven will not be populated. But what we see as a result of all of this is not more true Christianity but far less, today, than in former times. However, the reason I am replying to your message is to say, that every Old School or Primitive Baptist church I have ever heard of did keep records. In cases where the church has ceased to exist, the records may have been destroyed by someone, but I have never heard of a single case where records were not kept. The records would give minutes of the business meetings and actions of the church, lists of members, when they were received and baptized, etc. They seldom give the dates of people's birth, marriages, children's names, etc., but sometimes do give the dates of death. I didn't know until last night that the church building of the Springfield church is still standing. Is the building of Trough Creek also still standing? Perhaps your father's relative's family would know where the records of Trough Creek are. They would contain names of many very early pioneers who were among the first white settlers. Many courageous and godly (but not formally educated in seminaries) Baptist Elders came and preached in various places of Pennsylvania when it was a wilderness inhabited by the red man. Sincerely, Elder Robert Webb Primitive Baptist Library http://www.carthage.lib.il.us/community/churches/primbap/pbl.html On Fri, 21 Feb 2003 23:03:30 -0500 ayeh@pennswoods.net (kemp) writes: > from Steve Kemp, Huntingdon. >No, Old School Baptist is or was the > name of > a Christian denomination, just as Southern Baptist, etc. Such > designations > are group names and then there are the individual congregations, as > member > churches, as you already were told, several were here in this county > in the > 19th century. Browns belonged at Springfield Township. > > A reference library would have an encyclopedia or reference work on > Christian sects and that might help you understand the beliefs and > practices of the Old School Baptists. > > One of my father's first cousins (born 1909, still living) is or was > the > last member at Trough Creek Baptist. Her doctrine as I got it from > her was > to read the Bible and let the Spirit lead you. Elders or brothers > did their > preaching, not formally educated people. They forbade the use of > revivals, > Sunday School, active evangelism, because they believed that only > God > should lead people to faith with kind of a one-on-one conversion, > just you > and God. Clearly it was too radical a position for the denomination > to take > and survive in the 20th century, for all the churches in the county > changed > to a more standard type of Baptist or just ceased to exist. Other > names I > have heard them called are Primitive Baptist and Hard-Shell Baptist, > but > these may be distinct groups that exist elsewhere. > > I believe that part of their primitive Christian culture was an > aversion to > anything not commanded in the New Testament so that they never > maintained > any church records apart from membership lists and financial > records. No > records of baptisms, marriages and deaths were ever made by this > denomination so far as I know. If anyone has heard different, put up > a > message. > Steve Kemp > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > records, go to: > =571&sourceid=1237 > > > ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com