St. John's Lutheran Church (Findlay, Ohio) records

The collection of the St. John's Lutheran Church contains two volumes of record books which document church membership for the period from 1858 to 1930 and one minute book documenting the membership and activity of the Mission Society for the period 1908 to 1918.

The first record book volume, dating from 1858 to 1897 and written entirely in German, contains information on communicants, confirmations, baptisms, marriages, and burials.

The second record book contains information which is partly written in German and partly written in English. The first section of this volume is a family register which documents church membership in great detail. Written in German with an index to family surnames, the register was recorded in alphabetical order by the male head of each household. Entries were made for husband, wife, and children. Information recorded on each person lists the date and place of birth, date of baptism, date of confirmation, date of local residency, date of marriage, and date of death. Oftentimes, the husband's occupation is also included. If a second marriage occurred, further entries were made under the husband's name for the second wife and the children of that marriage. If a family or family member moved, the place name to where they relocated was also recorded. The next section consists of loose pages which were inserted into the record book. These pages, written in German, comprise a registry of baptisms for the period 1866 to 1883. The remainder of the book documents membership for the period from 1897 to 1930. Written in English, these sections consist of registries listing baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, and communicants.

The Minute Book is written entirely in English and documents the work of the women's Mission Society between 1908 and 1918. This volume describes the monthly activity which took place during each Society Meeting and also contains an annual list of members and the amounts paid as monthly tithes by each member.