Our research library has copies of church records from many local Lutheran churches which are often used by our visitors to study their family histories.  We are excited that we will soon also have the church records of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim, Missouri, about twenty miles away from Altenburg.

The majority of the work required to make this possible is being done by Sue Sewing from Knoxville, Tennessee  and our own Lynn Degenhardt.  They were both in the museum today to work on this project.

The cover page for these records is shown below.

The town of Friedheim was originally called Disson.  Another town about six miles from there was a town that was once called Sudheim.  It is now called Kurreville.  The first pastor was a brand new graduate of Concordia Seminary in Altenburg, Missouri by the name of Franz Julius Biltz.  It is likely that the writing above was that of Rev. Biltz.  Later in his life, Rev. Biltz became president of the Western District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  He spent most of his career as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Concordia, Missouri.  Here is a photo of Rev. Biltz which was taken when he was a pastor in Dissen.  He is pictured with his daughter, Clara.

The Friedheim records will enhance our research library.  It will enable our patrons to find even more information than before.  Now if we can only get these records translated and indexed.