The records from St. Peter’s begin in the 1860s, when the church was founded. It was the second German Lutheran church in Berlin (Kitchener, Ontario). These registers are particularly useful because Lutheran pastors of the nineteenth century were scrupulous in the way they noted every event. There may be more information available than you realize. For example, burial notices often include the name of the hometown in Germany and even the parents’ names. These burial records are good examples of how every possible record should be examined, even if you do not expect to find anything new. They may surprise you.

St. Peter’s records have been in high demand for years, and that caused some problems in the church office, which has other activities than genealogy on its mind. So the news that the records have been microfilmed and placed in Waterloo Wellington branch library (housed at the Kitchener Public Library) is very welcome.

Researchers can thank the generosity of Richard Woeller of Kitchener for placing these films in the library. Richard has done a great deal of work in the Waterloo Historical Society and knows how valuable church records are for many reasons. The records available begin in 1862 and continue up to 1929. There are baptisms, confirmations, marriages, communicants and burials.

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