Source Information

Lineages, Inc., comp.. Fulton County, Pennsylvania, 1805-1930: St. Paul's Church [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data: Saint Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, McConnellsburg, Fulton County, Pennsylvania; Parish Registers, 1804-1930. McConnellsburg, PA, USA: St. Paul's Church, 1930.

About Fulton County, Pennsylvania, 1805-1930: St. Paul's Church

Fulton County lies on the southern border of Pennsylvania, along the Mason-Dixon Line. This database contains a collection of records from St. Paul's Church in McConnellsburg, which is the county seat of Fulton County. Researchers may find records of baptisms, marriages, and burials for individuals who lived in this area between 1805 and 1930.

Church records rank among the very best genealogical records available worldwide, but they are one of the most under-used sources in American genealogy. Until the advent of vital statistics in the United States—a very late development in most states—church records were the primary source of birth, marriage, and death information. The sheer number of denominations and affiliate churches has made identifying and locating each one's records a time-consuming ordeal for most genealogists. Church records also vary a great deal in content and emphasis according to the basic theology of the religious group that created them.

Early immigrants from England, Scotland, and other European countries brought their religious beliefs, institutions, and customs with them, including the keeping of church books in which to record births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, communion lists, deaths, and burials. Lutheran and Reformed Church records in Pennsylvania rank among the very best church records available.