Books by William J Hinke

The remains of ancient societies often require decades to unearth, but much longer to interpret and understand. The methods of archaeology have progressed dramatically in recent years. Archaeologists have continuously refined their tools, methods, and techniques. Today archaeology is characterized by pottery identification, classification, and cataloging; disciplined excavation of squares; use of sophisticated electronics, such as GPS, infrared, and computer-aided design; and the integration of multiple methodologies, such as epigraphy, art history, physical anthropology, paleobotany, and climatology. The interpretation of ancient Near Eastern history and cultures has also progressed. An increasing number of documents has been unearthed. The vast document collections from Tel el-Amarna, Nippur, Mari, Nuzi, Ebla, Ugarit, and the Dead Sea caves are just some of the more spectacular examples. These provide an enormous amount of detail about royal administrations, business transactions, land tenure systems, taxes, political propaganda, mythologies, marriage practices, and much more. And things that sometimes seem unique about one culture at first look often fit into larger patterns of relationship when the surrounding cultures are better understood.> K. C. HANSON Series Editor

From the Introduction: The registers of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Frederick constitute a major source of vital records of that area in the 18th century. The original and a translation by E. W. Reinecke, in 1861, are held by the State Archives, Annapolis. A later translation was made by William J. Hinke in 1941, from which this book is primarily based. (Microfilm copies of the Hinke translation may be obtained from the Historical Society of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, Philip Schaff Library, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.) Reinecke claimed to have devoted painstaken hours in the careful interpretation of these records, sometimes several hours on a single name. A brief screening of the original seems to bear this out. Nevertheless his translation is incomplete on two counts. He omits the names of the few black persons, freed blacks and slaves, contained in the original registers and he does not include the names of the god parents. In making the translations, Reinecke rearranged them in alphabetical groupings, losing the original sequence of entries. Thus it appears that the Hinke translation is to be preferred. Included in the Reinecke translation are death records that he found in loose papers, not included in the Hinke translation, and are included here. (These deaths records were also published in Western Maryland Genealogy, vol. 2, no. 4 Oct. 1986).This useful resource includes baptism records, marriage records, death records, a full-name index, and "an index to negroes for whom only single names are given. (Those blacks with surnames are included in the regular index)." Over 8,000 names are contained herein.