The Goshenhoppen Registers, 1741-1819

Description

The Goshenhoppen registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths are the sacramental records of the Catholic mission at Goshenhoppen, now Bally, in Washington Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1741, the year the mission was founded, and extending, with some gaps, to 1819, these include sacraments administered at Goshenhoppen and outlying missions in southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly in the counties of Berks, Bucks, Northampton, Montgomery, Lehigh, and Lebanon, an area containing much of the early Germanic population of the state.

Goshenhoppen’s registers are believed to be not only the oldest extant Catholic church registers in Pennsylvania, but the oldest in existence of the original thirteen colonies! Hence their overriding importance in Pennsylvania-German history and genealogy and the reason for their original publication, between 1886 and 1950, in the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. Taken as a whole, the Goshenhoppen registers contain entries relating to about 4,000 baptisms, marriages, and deaths, with references to about 15,000 individuals. Added to this work for the first time is a complete name index.