"Franz Henrich Hildebrand relinquished the family name Hildebrand in favor of the family name Brinkman ... [when he] was married on October 9, 1795 to Anna Maria Luise Brinkmanns." His son Otto Henrich Wilhelm (later William) Brinkmann (1979-1873) emigrated from Häver, near Kirchlengern, Westphalia, Germany to Lancaster, Pennsylvania between 1829 and 1837. Descendants and relatives lived in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

This is the second volume of Pennsylvania German Church Records, a three-volume series which gives the genealogist access to all of the church records ever published in the Proceedings and Addresses of the Pennsylvania German Society .

How did a mid-eighteenth-century group, the so-called Pennsylvania Germans, build their cultural identity in the face of ethnic stereotyping, nostalgic ideals, and the views imposed by outside contemporaries? Numerous forces create a group's identity, including the views of outsiders, insiders, and the shaping pressure of religious beliefs, but to understand the process better, we must look to clues from material culture. Cynthia Falk explores the relationship between ethnicity and the buildings, personal belongings, and other cultural artifacts of early Pennsylvania German immigrants and their descendants. Such material culture has been the basis of stereotyping Pennsylvania Germans almost since their arrival. Falk warns us against the typical scholarly overemphasis on Pennsylvania Germans' assimilation into an English way of life. Rather, she demonstrates that more than anything, socioeconomic status and religious affiliation influenced the character of the material culture of Pennsylvania Germans. Her work also shows how early Pennsylvania Germans defined their own identities.