General:

Source - Rodewald, Alfred W. et al, Descending Love, Ascending Praise, 1840-1990: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Concordia, Mo., Concordia, Mo., St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1990

Pages of the source were scanned and converted using Optical Character Recognition software.  While manually proofed, there may still be some conversion errors.

Typical problems are changing 'nn' to 'rm', 'm' to 'rn', 'rn' to 'm', 'hn' to 'lm', 'run' to 'um' or 'nm', 'n' to 'rr', 'e' to 'c'.  Other occasional dropped or stray characters may exist.

No attempt was made to correct apparent spelling errors, which may either be recording errors or transcription errors in the records.  Example 'Dorathea" rather than 'Dorothea'.

Names left blank, with '?" or dashes are entered as 'UNK'.

Incomplete names are ended with '???'.

The day and month of dates that were not indicated or recorded as '?' are left blank but with the year entered corresponding to the block in which the event is recorded.

Baptisms:

While these dates do not indicated date of birth, because of the general practice of infant baptism, the birth date may be within weeks or months of the date entered but cannot be assumed.

Exceptions are those specifically noted as 'Adult' or females indicated as 'Mrs.'.  Other cases may be when multiple members of the same family are baptized on the same date.  (Multiple births were not typically recorded as such.)

Several cases noted as 'c/o' are assumed to be foster children with the last name of the adult entered in parentheses.

Confirmations:

Confirmation dates might be used as a general guide for age.

In the earlier years, children were confirmed at the end of the seventh grade until an eighth grade was added in 1925.

After that time, children were normally confirmed at the end of the eight grade.

The exceptions would be those that are specifically identified as adults or married (e.g. 'nee' in the comments); however, all adults may not be identified.

Marriages:

The last name of females whose maiden name was not recorded are entered as the husband's name in parentheses.

In cases that appear to be second marriages, the surname entered for the female is assumed to be that of the previous marriage.  The maiden name in entered in the comments if indicated in the records.

Deaths:

Stillborn babies, i.e. with no given name, are entered as '(Stillborn)' when indicated.

The last name entered for married females is assumed to be the surname at the time of death.

Maiden names of females are entered when indicated by 'nee'.

Beginning in the early 1900's, the practice of recording a wife's maiden name as her middle name was started.  When the middle name corresponds to a common surname, it is entered as the maiden name.

If a woman was only identified as 'Wife of', some guesses were made at the given name based on the marriage records.  Further attempts might be made from Census records or other marriage records.