Records of the Moravians in North Carolina
edited by Adelaide L. Fries and others

THE SEARCH FOR LAND

[The records of the Moravians in North Carolina fall into certain well-defined divisions. There are the Daily Diaries, kept by the leading minister in each congregation, and giving a careful outline of all the Church services, together with such notes as to the daily life of town, State and Nation as seemed to him of sufficient importance for permanent record. There are the Memorabilia, or summaries of the notable events of the year, prepared by the minister for the closing Church service of each December. There are the Minutes of the various Church Boards, and Congregation Councils; there are the Account Books of Bethabara, of Salem, and of Wachovia as a whole. There are the Church Registers, with their lists of births and baptisms, of marriages, of deaths and burials. There are the “Wochen,” “Beilagen,” and “Gemein Nachrichten,” the manuscript forerunners of the Church papers of today. There are the Memoirs, or brief biographies, read at the funerals of members. There are the books and papers of many kinds that would naturally accumulate in the hands of a careful, intelligent, history-loving ministry.

The first Church Register of Wachovia bears the inscription on the title page:

KIRCHEN-BUCH
oder
MEMORABILIA
des ersten Settlements der
BRUEDER-KIRCHE
UNITAS FRATRUM (John 17.)
in der Wachau or Dobbs Parish
in the Province NORTH CAROLINA
at
BETHABARA

CHURCH BOOK or
MEMORABILIA
of the first Settlements of the
BRETHREN’S CHURCH
UNITAS FRATRUM (John 17.)
in the Wachau or Dobbs Parish
in the Province NORTH CAROLINA
at
BETHABARA

The Registers proper begin on page 117, the first part of the book being reserved for a list of the Moravians arriving in Wachovia as settlers or as visitors, and for the Memorabilia of forty-five years. Prefacing the Memorabilia there is an outline of the history of the Unitas Fratrum and of the causes that led to the North Carolina settlement, which is particularly interesting as showing the point of view of the men who were participants in the movement. Its translation follows.]