4.11 Conewago (Adams County, Penn.), 1815 - 1974

Sub-Series

Scope and Contents

Subseries 4.11 contains the records of the Conewago House in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Materials include House diaries, announcement books, sacramental registers, and financial records. Church records include materials from St. Joseph’s Church and Sacred Heart Church in Hanover and Holy Trinity Church in McSherrystown. The subseries also contains rules for burials, spiritual writings, ephemera, histories, newsclippings, publications, and House diary from the short-lived Paradise House in York County.

In 1741, Jesuit missionaries established a House at Conewago in Adams County, Pennsylvania, a strategic location that allowed them to surround the boundaries between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The residents of this House covered an extensive territory that included the Pennsylvania counties of Adams, York, Lancaster, Cumberland, and Franklin, where they sought to minister to German immigrants as well as smaller communities of French and Irish immigrants. The German-speaking community persisted in this area of Pennsylvania through the nineteenth century, and the priests of Conewago conducted their ministry primarily in German. Unlike the Houses of Southern Maryland, the Conewago House worked closely with secular priests and nuns to build parochial education as early as the 1830s. In 1901, the Jesuits closed the House at Conewago, transferring their pastoral care of the churches and their real estate title to the Diocese of Harrisburg.

For more information, see Background on the House at Conewago andSuperiors of Conewago.

The following churches were served by the Jesuits of Conewago:

- Sacred Heart Church (Hanover, Penn.), 1730-1901 (Seat of Conewago; Alternate Names: Conewago Chapel, Basilica of the Sacred Heart)

- St. Mary of the Assumption (Lancaster, Lancaster County, Penn.), 1741-unknown (Alternate Name: Historic St. Mary’s)

- Brandt’s Chapel (Paradise Township, York County, Penn.), 1831-1843 (Seat of Paradise; Alternate Name: Paradise Church)

- St. Joseph’s Catholic Church (Hanover, Penn.), 1806-approximately 1890 St. Ignatius Church (Orrtanna, Penn.), 1816-1858 (Alternate Names: St. Ignatius Loyola Church, Old Jesuit Mission of Buchanan Valley)

- St. Francis Xavier Church (Gettysburg, Penn.), 1816-1858

- St. Aloysius Church (Littlestown, Penn.), 1840-1884

- Holy Trinity Church (McSherrystown, Penn.), 1890-1901 (Succeeded by Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in McSherrystown, Penn.)

- St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception (New Oxford, Penn.), 1852-1891 (Succeeded by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in New Oxford, Penn.)

If these churches are active, sacramental records may be available to genealogists by consulting the churches or their successors directly. Researchers also should consult the Archdiocese of Washington.

**Please note: the finding aid contains Scope and Contents notes for each folder. This folder-level description has been imported from an older finding aid. Researchers may encounter outdated or potentially offensive terminology and occasional inaccuracies. If you would like to notify Special Collections of any issues that need correcting, please contact us.**

Conditions Governing Access

Most materials dated 1900 and later have not been digitized. Materials dating 1900-1939 are available for research use at the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. All materials dated 1940 and later are restricted.

Provenance

Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject. Materials in this subseries are from the original MPA placed on deposit at Georgetown in the 1970s, the MPA Addenda, and the Maryland Province Collection.

Dates

1815 - 1974

Conditions Governing Access

The Maryland Province Archives is on deposit at Georgetown University and is the property of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. Access to the Archives is governed by the Maryland Province. As stewards of the Archives, the Georgetown University Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections is responsible for managing access to the material based on policies set forth by the Maryland Province.

The Maryland Province Archives represents a crucial primary source for the study of the Society of Jesus from its arrival in the English colonies in 1634 through its expansion along the eastern seaboard, and, more broadly, for the study of Catholicism in America; the history and development of Georgetown University; and of particular significance and interest at the current time the Jesuits’ and Georgetown University’s connection to slavery, most notably the documentation of the 1838 sale of 272 slaves by the Maryland Province, proceeds of which benefited Georgetown College (now Georgetown University). The Georgetown Slavery Archive, a project initiated by the Archives Subgroup of the University’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, currently is digitizing and making available online relevant documents from the Maryland Province Archives and elsewhere.

Georgetown University Library and the Maryland Province are committed to providing access to the Maryland Province Archives to scholars, the public and especially to descendants of the Georgetown 272. To date, 71 linear feet of records of the Maryland Province, housed in 136 manuscript boxes, are processed and available for research. Descriptions of this material are available in this finding aid. Researchers may view these materials in the Reading Room of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. General policies for using Special Collections can be found here.

Access to the Archives is governed by the Maryland Province and is subject to all Library and Special Collections policies and procedures in addition to the specific guidelines below. These guidelines are a summary of access policies -- the Archives may include materials that fall outside the scope of these general guidelines. For information on access to specific materials, please contact the Special Collections staff.

Guidelines:

1. All Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring before January 1, 1940, shall be open for review unless otherwise restricted, subject to Library policies and procedures.

2. All unpublished Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring on or after January 1, 1940, shall be open for review upon request subject to a decision by the Provincial or someone designated by the Provincial.

3. Researchers may quote from the materials.

4. Researchers may take their own photographs of the material for scholarly and research purposes. Allowing photographs is not an authorization to publish or to deposit the material in another library or archive.

5. Written permission from the Maryland Province is required for the publication of substantive portions of any material or publication-quality reproductions of any material.

6. Material not yet processed is not available to researchers; permission will not be granted to access any unprocessed material.

7. Audiovisual, microfilm and other material in the Archives, the original of which is held in another archive, may be consulted and transcribed only. Written permission from the archive holding the original material is required for any duplication, reproduction, or publication of that material.

8. Use the Permission Request Form to request permission (i) to access any restricted processed material or (ii) to publish reproductions or quote substantive portions of the material. Send the completed form by email to the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (speccoll@georgetown.edu).

Extent

From the Collection: 292 boxes (292 total boxes, plus 14 card catalog drawers (201 regular boxes, 25 oversized boxes, 53 restricted regular boxes, 13 restricted oversized boxes, 14 card catalog drawers))