One hundred thirty-seven years ago this week, on 25 September 1875, Lena Conrad and John Bowers were wed at the St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. Lena Conrad was the eldest child of Nicholas Conrad and Catherine Emminger and my great grandaunt.
I found their marriage record in the Pennsylvania Church and Town Records collection on Ancestry.com. This is a collection from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and includes church, town, and funeral home records from Pennsylvania and surrounding states. I have also found some of my New Jersey ancestors in there.
Like the other St. James Church records I found for my Conrads, this record is in German. At the top of the full image, it says Verheirathet. Â In the online german dictionaries, I have found verheiratet for married, without the ‘h’. Â I don’t know if this was an older spelling or a mistake. Â Notice also in the partial image below it says ‘mit’ before Lena’s name, which means ‘with’.
John and Lena stayed at this church and I have also found baptismal records for some of their children in this collection.