There is not one "Lutheran Church." It would be almost impossibe to determine what the actual denominational affiliation of a special church would be without checking with its staff. So in most cases, you will need to contact the church and ask who holds their records. Lutheran churches are especially confusing. The Lutheran denominationas - as well as the Reformed - originally were differentiated by nationality. About 15 years ago most of the liberal Lutheran denominations merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The conservative ones - such as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod - are still separate. I would bet that a "Evangelical and REformed Church" was started by immigrants who came from Germany in the mid- or late 1800s. In the early 1800s, the German Lutheran and Reformed church basically merged and many took that name. >From: "catherine r. buck" <buckr@mindspring.com> >Reply-To: PAMONTGO-L@rootsweb.com >To: PAMONTGO-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [PAMONTGO-L] church denomination differences >Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 16:43:38 -0500 > >Can somenone explain to me what is the difference between "Lutheran >Church", >"Evangelical Lutheran Church", "Evangelical and Reformed Church" . Not >the theology, but are they each different denominations from the other two? > >And the same question is applied to the varieties of German Reformed ; >Dutch >Reformed, etc. type churches. and denominations. > >Would they each have a central depository for records? > >It would help my [and everyone else] search for birth, baptismal, marriage, >burial, cemetery records. > >Does the Presbyterian Church in America hold the records or -- does each >church congregation hold its own records? > > > > >==== PAMONTGO Mailing List ==== >List owner ndwilson@swbell.net > >============================== >Personalized Mailing Lists: never miss a connection again. >http://pml.rootsweb.com/ >Brought to you by RootsWeb.com. > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com