There are 4 sources for church records that I am aware of: Faggs Manor Presbyterian
Church, the Presbyterian Archives, Chester County Historical
Society, and the LDS.
For those of you in a hurry (and who is not?), CCHS has a fairly good set of records, is probably the quickest, and is probably the least expensive. You can get a cemetery map and copies of many original records quickly.
The church has a map of the cemetery, which I have scanned and provided elsewhere on this site. You can obtain you own copy from them at the address below. If you send a letter identifying the Surname, along with a SASE, you will most likely get a photocopy of any burial records that they may have. Be patient.
The church also sells a book titled "A History of the Faggs Manor United Presbyterian Church 1730 - 1980" for $5 plus postage. It lists all of the church pastors and the years that they were with the church. There aren't a lot of parishioners listed, but there are some.
Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church
Church St. & Faggs Manor Rd.
Cochranville, PA 19330
Presbyterian Archives
425 Lombard St
Philadelphia, PA
1-215-627-1852
I phoned them and they sent me a letter with their holdings. It appears that they have 2 major holdings, a 4 volume set of original records and a microfilm of other items.
Volume 1:
Membership 1804 - 1833
Baptisms 1804 - 1833
Marriages 1813 - 1829
Volume 2:
Membership 1861 - 1894
Baptisms 1873 - 1905
Marriages 1860 - 1901
Volume 3:
Membership 1862 - 1941
Baptisms 1901 - 1941
Marriages 1901 - 1915
Volume 4:
Membership 1865 - 1952
Baptisms 1921 - 1949
Marriages 1928 - 1949
Microfilm:
Session minutes and registers
Dismission certificates
Receipts
The Presbyterian Archives are open from 8:30 to 4:30 Monday thru Friday. If you can not visit, they do have local genealogists they work with. You should write to them if this were an option you would like to pursue. They do not offer any research capabilities, either you must do it or you must hire someone :(
The CCHS has the cemetery map as well as membership, baptismal, and death records. I paid a reasearcher to go to the Presbyterian Archives and all of what he found, the CCHS had as well. It cost me whole lot less from CCHS and I got a photo copy of the original records.
I also visited my local LDS and looked in the Locality index for Chester County. There are a number of items, but one of particular interest. It looks like it may be a partial microfilming of the aforementioned records. The reason I say partial is that the LDS description and the PA descriptions differ slightly as you will see.
Author:
The records are listed under the New Londonderry Presbyterian Church (Faggs Manor)
Title:
Church Records, 1740 - 1890
Contents (abbreviated):
Marriages 1790 - 1793
Baptisms 1781 - 1803
Day book (communicants, admissions, deaths) 1781 - 1793
Evidently, this series of records has been re-filmed several times and the latest was done in 1993, the film number is 1902416. I viewed this film and at the very beginning are the FM records. The remainder of the film contains information from the Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church. The handwriting is fairly legible, although parts are difficult to read.
There is another film mentioned that contains the following:
Baptisms 1859 - 1872
Dismissions 1859 - 1872
Session Minutes (Admission by certificate, dismissals, communicants, baptisms, members,
marriages) 1804 - 1833
Other "stuff" such as collections, etc. 1881 - 1890
Robin Petersen, a fellow Chester County Genealogist, mentioned some LDS films as well. I have been through one of them and I will try to identify the contents as I dig through them, or get further info from the LDS.
I hope this is of value to you, if so, let me know, [email protected]
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