Communion Register – Genealogy Tool

Immanuel Lutheran Church in Cass Lake, Minnesota retains all of their original record books. The first volume/register provides a history of the church by listing members, baptisms, confirmands, marriages, communicants, deaths and pastoral sermon topics.

Lutherans believe that there are two sacraments, rites that are commanded by God: baptism and communion.¹The Augsburg Confession of 1530 outlined the doctrinal difference between the church at Rome and the Reformed faith. Holy Communion is also known as the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of the Altar.

Can the sacrament of communion help a family historian?

Genealogy Tool

Each individual communicant derived his/her own spiritual benefit from partaking in the sacrament of communion. For genealogists, the record of exactly when and where an  ancestor participated in anything provides a point on the family timeline.

Therefore, a church’s communion record not only gives insight to an individual’s spiritual life, but it also documents that person’s whereabouts at a very specific moment.

Communion at Immanuel Lutheran Church

The pastors at Immanuel Lutheran Church did not record their communicants every week. Perhaps because they served multiple locations.

In 1900, Rev. Bouman preached at five parishes and taught at one school He only served Cass Lake every second Friday.²Immanuel Lutheran Congregation. History. Self-published: Cass Lake MN, 1932. Page 3. Karrie Blees owned a digital copy 30 March 2023.

The Communicanten register lists only a handful of communion dates for each year.

Immanuel Lutheran Church Communicanten [Communicants] 1900-1906. The first family listed is church founder, Julius Neils.

Reading across the top of the page, the German column-headings are:

• Familienname: Surname
• Vorname: First name
• Für das Jahr: For the Year 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
• Some early dates are abbreviated in the European style of day/month, 12/1/1902 = 12 January 1902

Immanuel Lutheran Church Communicants 1904-1906, page 169

Immanuel Lutheran Church Communicants 1909-1914, page 174

The first time that the pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church listed these members of the Kot and Arndt families as Communicants:

• Christian Moritz (1863-1951) on 14 May 1905
• Edward Schönborn (1884-1927), his wife Anna (Arndt) (1885-1918) and his father August Schönborn ( -1931) on 8 July 1906
• Ernstine Fr[au] (Kot) Moritz (1862-1939) and her sons Robert (1886-1942) and Karl (1890-1986) on 8 July 1906
• Frau (Amelia) August Schönborn (1856-1918) and her children Adam (1893-1959) and Pauline (1895-1969) on 4 November 1909
• Gottfried Arndt (1858-1920) and his son Edward (1889-1936) on  9 January 1910
• Pauline, Frau Arndt (Kot) (1860-1930) on 18 December 1910
• Emmanuel Arndt (1895-1943) on 8 April 1914 Karfreitag [Good Friday]
• Joh. Eichberg (1871-1924) on 27 March 1910 Ostern [Easter]
• Constantin. Nürnberg (1889-1955) on 27 March 1910 Ostern [Easter]
• Helene (Arndt) Fr[au] Eichberg (1881-1943) 18 December 1910
• Bertha Nürnberg geb. [born] Arndt (1893-1970) on 2 July 1911

Timeline – Moritz and Schönborn

As previously discussed in the Coming to Cass Lake post, Christian Moritz and his niece’s husband, Edward Schönborn, lived in Cass Lake at the time of the state census: June 12, 1905.³ 1905 Minnesota state census, Cass County, population schedule, Town of Cass Lake, page 10, District 13, June 12, 1905 for Chris Moritz line 61 and Edward Schoen line 67.

The Communion record places Christian Moritz in Cass Lake a month earlier, on May 14, 1905.

Christian’s wife, Ernstine (Kot), and their older sons’ earliest communion registration was on July 8, 1906.

Edward Schönborn also lived in Cass Lake at the time of the 1905 census. However, he was not a registered Communicant at Immanuel Lutheran Church until the next year. Edward’s father, August Schönborn, immigrated to the United States and landed in New York on March 28, 1906. He listed his destination: his son at Cass Lake, Minnesota. The church register lists the Edward, his wife (Anna Arndt) and his father partaking of communion on July 8, 1906.

Christian Moritz and his family left Cass Lake, Minnesota and relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. The last time they took communion at Immanuel Lutheran Church was on the 4th Sunday after Trinity 1923: June 24th.

Moritz, Christian, Ernestine and Linda nach Cleveland, Ohio, gezogen. [moved to Cleveland, Ohio.]⁴Immanuel Lutheran Church, Cass Lake, Minnesota. Kirchenbuch 1, Communicants page 190.

Timeline – Arndt and Nörenberg

1910: Gottfried Arndt and his son Edward are listed as communicants about six months after immigrating.⁵“Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2QS2-ZMQ : 23 February 2021), Godfrey Arnd, May 1909; citing Immigration, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, T-4760, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. S. S. Corsican, page Steerage B, line 27.

Gottfried’s wife, Pauline (Kot) and their daughter Helene (Arndt) Eichberg take communion on the 4th Sunday of Advent 1910: December 18. Less than six months earlier, they immigrated to the United States.⁶NARA microfilm Port of Quebec and Montreal arriving July 21, 1910. S. S. Corsican sailing from Liverpool on July 14, 1910. Paulina Arendt, Line 13.

Constantin Nörenberg landed in New York City on January 26, 1909.⁷NARA film 715, roll 1190; Passenger and Crews Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1919; SS Pennsylvania sailing from Hamburg Germany to New York, January 26, 1909; Ship’s Manifest (list 3, line 4) enumerates Nirenberg, Konstantin. His first registered communion at Immanuel Lutheran Church is Easter of 1910. Therefore, Constantin arrived in Cass Lake prior to March 27, 1910.

Final Thoughts

For all of these ancestors, the Communion Register provides another, confirming, point on their timelines. For members of the extended Kot/Arndt families, their church attendance coincides with other, known dates for their arrival in Cass Lake.

Constantin Nörenberg was in Cass Lake at the time of the 1910 census. With the added information from the Communion Register, we know that he was in Cass Lake by March of 1910.

Because Immanuel Lutheran Church was a German-speaking congregation and school, immigrant parishioners likely felt comfort worshipping with family and friends that spoke their language.

SOURCES

• 1
  The Augsburg Confession of 1530 outlined the doctrinal difference between the church at Rome and the Reformed faith.
• 2
  Immanuel Lutheran Congregation. History. Self-published: Cass Lake MN, 1932. Page 3. Karrie Blees owned a digital copy 30 March 2023.
• 3
  1905 Minnesota state census, Cass County, population schedule, Town of Cass Lake, page 10, District 13, June 12, 1905 for Chris Moritz line 61 and Edward Schoen line 67.
• 4
  Immanuel Lutheran Church, Cass Lake, Minnesota. Kirchenbuch 1, Communicants page 190.
• 5
  “Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2QS2-ZMQ : 23 February 2021), Godfrey Arnd, May 1909; citing Immigration, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, T-4760, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. S. S. Corsican, page Steerage B, line 27.
• 6
  NARA microfilm Port of Quebec and Montreal arriving July 21, 1910. S. S. Corsican sailing from Liverpool on July 14, 1910. Paulina Arendt, Line 13.
• 7
  NARA film 715, roll 1190; Passenger and Crews Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1919; SS Pennsylvania sailing from Hamburg Germany to New York, January 26, 1909; Ship’s Manifest (list 3, line 4) enumerates Nirenberg, Konstantin.