This is the official handwritten parish register for St. James Episcopal Church in Goshen, Indiana. It covers the years of 1860-1892. This parish register contains the congregation members in no particular order listed as families, as well as the baptisms, confirmations, communicants, marriages, and burials.
The register starts with a listing of family groups in what appears as random order, but likely corresponds with when they integrated into the church. The column for B.C.C. stands for Baptized, Confirmed, Communicant. On page 10, for example, we find G. F. Wadleigh, a blank line, presumably for his wife, and John and Geo. F. Both G.F. and his wife have BCC in the Baptized, Confirmed, Communicant column indicating that they had completed all three of those sacramental rites. The two sons were both baptized, as indicated by only a B. In the column of residence you will see that it indicates they removed to Cleveland. Use the BCC column as a hint to try and find these additional church records.
This register is of importance because the baptisms, while often occurring decades after birth, may show the date and location for the birth of the individual being baptized. For example, Louise J. Horton, an adult when baptized on 26 May 1868 at St. James Church, was born 18 Nov 1825 (page 50). These same baptisms are spread over two pages which are scanned individually. This may cause confusion, but you need to view the second page as it shows additional information such as the name of parents and sponsors or witnesses. In the same listing for Louise J. Horton, we find her parents, Henry and Sophie Day, and the sponsors/witnesses, Pauline Warren (page 51).
Confirmations start on page 82 (image 132) and the first listing shows the confirmation of Maria T. Graham on 24 Feb 1861 (page 82). These records are shown on only one page. Confirmation is the sacramental rite of confirming your commitment to Christ.
Communicants start on page 90 with Anna M. Bissell, and like the baptisms, these records are shown on two opposing pages. Communicants are members of a particular church. The first in this book is for Anna M. Russell, who was a member of the church prior to 1861. She was removed (that’s the R in the column of C.A.R.) because she “Died May 18th, 1880, and buried in the Cemetery at Goshen” (pages 90 + 91).
Marriages start on page 106 (image 176) and you can find the date, place, names of husband and wife, their future residence, clergyman, and witnesses; in later years they also include the parents names. On 8 Jun 1870, at the residence of L. Thomas, Wm. E. Pooley and Catherine Richmond were married by J. E. Wildman. They would reside in Goshen.
Burials start on page 118 (image 198) where the date of burial, name of deceased, age, last residence, date of death, cause of death, place of burial and the clergyman who presided over the burial are all recorded. An example would be the listing (XXXV) for George Howell, who was buried in the Goshen Cemetery on 5 Mar 1866. George had died two days prior on 3 Mar 1866 from consumption and was aged 57 at his death. He had been baptized, confirmed, and was a communicant of the St. James Episcopal Church in Goshen.
1860-1892 Register
Index to 1860-1892 Register
There is an index at the back of the book with specific instructions for its usage. The index starts on image 218.
- Where no Roman numeral is prefixed the pages are to this volume. The Roman numerals refer to the two forever volumes of the register.
- The maiden names of married women are entered as cross-references, and their baptism and confirmation are placed under their married name.
- Abbreviations are noted on the pages marked by their initial letter. Thus for “L” see index page L.
Surnames Mentioned:
Abbot, Abbott, Adams, Adler, Albright, Alderman, Allen, Angell, Arthur, Austin, Bailey, Baldwin, Bamberger, Bane, Barron, Beach, Beane, Beaumont, Beers, Bender, Bennett, Berringer, Berry, Billinger, Bishop, Bissell, Bivins, Bottenfelt, Boxer, Bracken, Brewster, Brown, Bryan, Bryant, Bubry, Buel, Burnham, Burns, Busse, Butterfield, Buty, Carmeau, Carpenter, Case, Chamberlain, Charmley, Child, Church, Clapsdale, Clark, Clinton, Cole, Collier, Collins, Connelly, Cook, Cowdery, Coxe, Cranston, Creager, Creighton, Crife, Culver, Currier, Curtis, Davenport, Davis, Dawson, Day, De Freese, Dean, Deardoff, Dickenson, Dodge, Domisan, Donnivan, Doolittle, Dugdale, Dunning, Dyson, Eagleston, Earle, Edwards, Egbert, Elwood, Epard, Essey, Evans, Ewen, Ewings, Faustt, Fellows, Fergus, Ferguson, Ferris, Fessor, Fetters, Finney, Fitzpatrick, Flory, Foljamb, Foote, Forgus, Foster, Freshour, Fuller, Fussey, Galatine, Galbreth, Geary, Gillis, Gilmore, Glover, Goff, Gould, Gove, Graham, Grant, Gray, Greenwood, Grout, Guffey, Gulliver, Hale, Hallock, Hamman, Hanan, Harbach, Harper, Harris, Hascall, Hawks, Hayes, Henderson, Henkel, Herr, Hibbard, Hilbrush, Hildebrand, Hoffman, Holman, Horming, Horton, Howell, Hubbell, Hufner, Hughes, Hyde, Jack, Jackson, Jacobs, Jaques, Jenks, Jennings, Johnson, Jones, Kloffenstein, Knapp, Knevels, Knofflock, Knox, Komanz, Lambert, Lane, Lansing, Lathrop, Latimer, Latta, Laurence, Lea, Lincoln, Lush, Maloney, Manahan, Mann, Marsh, Marshall, Martin, Mather, Mattison, McCarter, McDonough, McGuffin, McKenzie, McLaren, Mead, Miller, Miskill, Monaghan, Morgan, Morrice, Morton, Mosier, Moyer, Mulholland, Munson, Murray, Mynes, Neese, Nisirander, Norton, Oblinger, Parrott, Parsons, Patterson, Peacock, Pembroke, Pendergrass, Perkins, Petrie, Phelps, Pierce, Pitcher, Platt, Plattenberg, Pndergrass, Pollard, Pontious, Pooley, poorman, Powers, Priesler, Pulford, Raymond, Redfield, Reed, Richmond, Robins, Rockwell, Romaine, Rosevelt, Russ, Salisbury, Salreakercross, Sample, Sanborn, Schultz, Scott, Seely, Shellenberger, Sherman, Sherwood, Shipley, Shultz, Slaughter, Smith, Snyder, Sparklin, Speelman, Spencer, Sperry, Stanley, Starr, Stevens, Stewart, Stigers, Stilson, Stimson, Stinson, Stonex, Stuart, Surman, Teel, Thomas, Tillefaugh, Truesdale, Tyler, Upson, Wadleigh, Warren, Weir, Wheeler, Whitaker, Whitcomb, White, Whitmer, Wickham, Wiest, Wildman, Willard, Willey, Williams, Wilson, Winters, Wmerson, Wood, Worcester, Wright, Wyllie, Young, and Zettlemeyer.