This is the official handwritten parish register for St. James Episcopal Church in Goshen, Indiana. It covers the years of 1899-1928. 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 14, for example, we find under the date of June 1, 1899, Emery Eugene Austin, age 41, baptized, confirmed, communicant, and that he died at some point while attending St. James Episcopal Church. While alive he and his wife, Mrs. Meta Frances Austin, age 34, resided at 223 Garden St., in Goshen, Indiana. She also died while a member.
Baptisms start on page 54. These baptismal records can show the day and date of the baptism, place, name of the person baptized, and place and death of birth . The opposite page for each of these baptismal listings shows the parents names, sponsors or witnesses of the baptism, and the signature of the clergyman who performed the rite. On page 60 we find that Dorothy Lucille Whitehead was baptized in the church on 13 April 1906 by Rt. Rev. John Hazen White. The record indicates she had been born on 2 March 1898 to Ben Gordon and Laura (Wadsworth) Whitehead, and that Martin V.. Starr and Mary Butterfield Starr were the sponsors or witnesses to the baptism. Likely these two were considered the Godparents.
Confirmations start on page 134 (image 200) and the first listing shows the confirmation of Emery Eugene Austin (page 134) on Monday, 21 Jun 1899. He was 41 years at the time he was confirmed and his baptism had taken place previously in a Baptist Church. Confirmation is the sacramental rite of confirming your commitment to Christ.
Communicants start on page 146 (image 224) with Caroline Abbott (Mrs. Morton). She was accepted as a church member on Thursday, 1 Jun 1899, and was educated in religion as a Presbyterian. Her marriage was listed in volume 1, p. 186. She removed to the Trinity Church at Winooski, Vermont, on 26 Jun 1899.
Marriages start on page 186 (image 270) and on each record you may find the date, place, names of husband and wife, their future residence, their parents names, clergyman, and witnesses. On 12 Dec 1907 at 117 N. 5th St., Verne E. Lamberson, age 24, of Goshen, Indiana, married Amy Jennette Cook, age 23, also of Goshen. Verne’s parents were Maxwell and Caroline (Fetterhoff) Lamberson and Amy’s parents were Frank M. and Fannie (Tatner) Cook, she deceased. Both sets of parents lived in Goshen. They were married by Rev. L. Roland, Priest, and the marriage was witnessed by Frank M. Cook, Chas. A. Cook, and Henrietta Cook.
Burials start on page 214 (image 322) 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 for Ethel Elizabeth Lambert, age 53, who was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery on Wednesday, 23 Sep 1908, She had resided in Chicago, Illinois and died two days earlier, on 21 Sep 1908. Edward L. Roland officiated the burial.
1899-1928 Register
Index to 1899-1928 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:
Abbott, Adams, Albright, Alderman, Allen, Amsden, Angel, Arthur, Atkins, Austin, Ballinger, Bane, Banta, Barnhart, Bartlemay, Bayard, Beans, Beaumont, Beers, Bell, Bemenderfer, Bender, Berkey, Bivins, Black, Brown, Buchanan, Burnham, Burns, Busse, Butterfield, Carescieu, Case, Chamberlain, Charmley, Child, Clark, Coates, Coggan, Cook, Coppes, Crary, Dausman, Davenport, Davis, Day, Dean, Deardoff, Doro, Dugdale, Dunning, Ednie, Egbert, Elliott, Evans, Evita, Fields, Finney, Foster, Foulks, Freeman, Freshour, Fuller, Garusau, Gorham, Gould, Gowing, Grant, Green, Griffith, Gross, Gutches, Guyer, Hale, Hascall, Hattel, Hawks, Henkel, Herr, Heukel, Higgins, Hildebrand, Hitmer, Holdeman, Hubbell, Hughes, Hyde, Jack, Jackson, Jacobs, James, Johnson, Jones, Kelly, Kessler, Kiefer, King, Klopfenstein, Knapp, Knevels, Knox, Kolb, Latimer, Latta, Layton, Learning, Leas, Lehman, Lesh, Leslie, Letherman, Lowell, Maloney, Markle, Marsh, McClenathan, McCutchan, McGuffey, Michael, Miller, Miskill, Monaghan, Morningstar, Morrice, Morrison, Morton, Mulholland, Murray, Mutschler, Noble, Osborn, Owen, Parke, Perkins, Phillips, Pierce, Plattenberg, Poorman, Purl, Putnam, Raefesny, Rand, Redfield, Richmond, Riley, Rockwell, Rogers, Roland, Romaine, Roy, Russ, Rute, Salisbury, Sanborn, Schaeffer, Scott, Shiveley, Slaughter, Smith, Snyder, Sparklin, Speelman, Spitler, Starr, Stauffer, Steffey, Stemm, Stockton, Stoner, Stout, Stover, Stuart, Swart, Teegarden, Thomas, Tipmore, Tom, Toms, Wagner, Walker, Walsh, Warren, waters, Whitcomb, Whitehead, Williams, Winter, Wise, Worcester, Zartman,