Submit Information

CLICK HERE to view a great example of a son's submission of information about his mother. [Published with permission.]

**To submit information and photographs, and give (or loan) other items to the Project archives, please...**

Go to Section A if your name is on the “List of Deaconesses.”

Go to Section B if you know or have known a woman whose name is on the “List of Deaconesses."

Section A - YOUR name is on the "List of Deaconesses"

Thank you for your willingness to participate in the Deaconess Biographies Project by providing accurate information about yourself and your diaconal service! Please read all three parts of this section [Part 1: Autobiographical Sketch; Part 2: Photographs; Part 3: Other Artifacts] to examine the ways in which you can help. Any and all that you can do will be greatly appreciated.

Part 1. Autobiographical Sketch

Please complete the Autobiographical Sketch, either by printing the questions (to be submitted to the Project Director via U.S. mail or email), OR by answering the questions in the online response box provided for you here.

Download Autobiographical Questions

Answer questions in the following online text boxes.

Thank you for your participation in this exciting project!

Autobiographical Information

Name:
Address:
Email address
Phone number
Date and place of birth
Date and place of baptism
Date and place of confirmation
Your parents

The purpose of questions 9-20 is to help you create as complete as possible a personal recollection of your life and service in the Church. Your answers may be as short or as long as you wish. [Each answer box can hold up to 50 pages of text!] If you need to complete your answers over a period of time, please “send” as much as you complete at each sitting and the Project Manager will add it to material already received. You may also wish to save your answers in a document on your own computer.
Ancestry. Information could include the details of parents, references to grandparents, earlier generations, and ethnic background that may be known. Episodes from home life, customs and practices with references to marriages, baptisms, confirmations, funerals and worship life, etc., are often useful.
Early Youth and Primary Education: Information could include references to the geographical location and places of residence of the family; pastime and recreational activities; school teachers; courses of study; techniques used in the classroom; languages employed; family responsibilities; books and literature; transportation modes; friends; the influence of pastors, teachers', and deaconesses. Also recount how you came to decide to serve the Lord as a church worker.
Young Adulthood: Information could include reference to preparatory education, college, field work, internship, or graduate education. A description of the colleges attended, instructors, courses taken, the physical aspects of the schools, recreational activities, characterizations of instructors and classmates, impressions, reminiscences and incidents that impressed you. Travel engaged in during this time, influential literature, etc., may be helpful.
Places of Service within the LCMS: List all congregations, institutions, and mission endeavors you have served within The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod or the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, along with dates of service.
Other Places of Service: If you have worked in congregations, institutions, or mission endeavors of church bodies other than the LCMS, list all places of employment, along with dates of service. Information about secular employment before, during, or after deaconess service is also useful. If none please enter "n/a"
Synodical Membership: List dates of membership in Synods or denominations, including current membership [Example A. Always member of LCMS; Example B: Birth to 1967 No church home; 1967-1979 LCMS; 1979-1985 Lutheran Church of America; 1985 to present LCMS.]
Professional Life: Information could include consecration, commissioning, and installation events; practices of calls; congregational life; concerns of the people served; customs and practices prevailing in the various parishes, institutions, and missions; deaconess conferences; salaries, cost of living; names of pastors or other individuals who were in team ministry with you; descriptions of physical settings in which you worked; anniversaries observed; retirement date and celebration.
Secular and Ecclesiastical Offices: Information could include services rendered on committees and boards, both secular and religious; length of time served; objectives and purposes of such boards and committees; reminiscences of deaconesses conferences; reminiscences of district or synodical conventions; administrative practices; books, pamphlets, tracts and periodical articles you may have produced; relationships with other deaconesses, pastors, teachers and local contacts with the community; evaluations of people in leadership positions; theological aspects, etc.
In Retrospect: Information could include anecdotal glimpses into past decades, highlighting and pinpointing certain experiences; comments on the contemporary situation; words of wisdom for posterity, especially analyses of either past or major current events and movements within the church in the community; comments on language transitions, racial matters, the advances of technology, war and peace, etc.
Family: Give date(s) and place(s) of marriage and to whom. Information could also include how you met, courtship; your children, their schooling and their careers; comments on family life and related matters, perhaps with respect to family worship, and with respect to balancing family needs or priorities and your deaconess; vocation the goals of the children for the future; the life and career of your spouse; housing arrangements; and whatever else is important to you on this subject.
Any other Thoughts or Comments: Information could include thoughts or insights on any topic related to diaconal service in the church, community, or world.
Other Sources: Please provide current contact details for other people who might also be able to provide biographical information about women whose names are on the “List of Deaconesses.”

This form is an edited version of Service Bulletin #3b, copyright © 1998 Concordia Historical Institute, 801 DeMun Ave., St. Louis, Missouri, 63105.
Before hitting the "submit answers" button, please type the letters you seen in the image below.

Part 2. Photographs

All photographs of deaconesses or photographs related to diaconal work are welcome - regardless of their size or age, or whether they are in color or black-and-white. If you prefer to loan your photos to the Project, we would be happy to copy the photos and return them to you within a short time.

Your photographs may be submitted in two ways:

1) by email to cheryl@deaconessbio.org

2) by mail to Deaconess Biographies Project, 782 15th Street, Oakmont, PA 15139

Whether you submit photos by email or mail, please include a separate document with as much information as possible about each photo (e.g., the names of all people in the photo; when, where, and on what occasion the photo was taken)

Part 3. Other Artifacts

Any other artifacts related to you and your diaconal work are welcome. If you are not yet ready to "part" with certain items, we are able to make copies of any paper-based artifacts. The list of artifacts that we hope to receve includes:

Videos, CDs, DVDs, or tape recordings of special events (e.g., commissioning, installation, anniversaries)
Worship bulletins and sermons (e.g., baptism, confirmation, consecration, commissioning, installation, retirement, marriage)
Deaconess Diplomas and Baptism or Confirmation certificates
Newspaper or magazine articles about you or your work in the church or community
Material written by you (e.g., diaries, letters, wills, speeches, printed articles, books, music, poetry, etc.)
Old uniforms and deaconess crosses
Antiquarian books related to deaconess work
Any other physical artifacts that are significant to you in relation to your diaconal work (e.g., a toy that you always took to visit sick children; awards; gifts from those who employed you as a deaconess)

Section B - YOU KNOW OR HAVE KNOWN a woman whose name is on the “List of Deaconesses."

Thank you for your willingness to participate in the Deaconess Biographies Project by providing information about someone that you know or have known, whose name is on the "List of Deaconesses!" Please read all three parts of this section [Part 1: Biographical Information; Part 2: Photographs; Part 3: Other Artifacts] to examine the ways in which you can help. Any and all that you can do will be greatly appreciated.

Part 1. Biographical Information

Please complete the Biographical Sketch, either by printing the questions (to be submitted to the Project Director via U.S. mail or email), OR by answering the questions in the online response box provided for you here.

Download Biographical Questions

Answer questions in the following online text boxes.

Biographical Information

You may want to add material not requested in these questions, or perhaps include less material when answers are unknown or questions do not apply to a particular deaconess. Our aim is to acquire as much accurate information as possible about the life and service of each deaconess.

If you can provide information about more than one deaconess, please complete the response box and submit separately for each woman.

Thank you for your participation in this exciting project!

Your Name:
Your Address:
Your Email address
Your Phone number
Name of Deaconess (including any nicknames)
Your relationship to the deaconess
Any known addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers at which she lives or lived
Date and place of birth
Date and place of death
Parents (and occupations if known) and siblings
Immigration date and place of origin
Date and place of baptism
Date and place of confirmation
Date(s) and place(s) of marriage; name, occupation, birth and death dates for spouse(s)
Names of children (include married names for daughters)
Places and dates of deaconess training, internship, field work placements
Elementary and Secondary education; college or other higher education; degrees or qualifications received
Date and place of consecration/commissioning
All known places of service such as parish, institution, or mission endeavors in the LCMS or Synodical Conference; position or nature of work; dates of service; full-time or part-time
All known places of service in synods other than the LCMS or the Synodical Conference; position or nature of work; dates of service; full-time or part-time. If none please enter "n/a"
List dates (or approximate years) of membership in the LCMS or other synods or denominations
Retirement/resignation place and dates

Boxes 23-29 provide ideas for any other accurate information you might be able to submit. Your answers may be as short or as long as you wish.
Ancestry. Information could include the details of parents, references to grandparents, earlier generations, and ethnic background that may be known. Episodes from home life, customs and practices with references to marriages, baptisms, confirmations, funerals and worship life, etc., are often useful.
Early Youth and Primary Education: Information could include anything the deaconess shared with you in regard to the geographical location and places of residence of the family; pastime and recreational activities; school teachers; courses of study; languages employed; family responsibilities; books and literature; transportation modes; friends; the influence of pastors, teachers', and deaconesses. A recounting of how the deaconess came to decide to serve the Lord as a church worker.
Young Adulthood: Information could include anything the deaconess shared with you regarding her preparatory education, college, field work, internship, or graduate education. A description of the colleges attended, instructors, courses taken, the physical aspects of the schools, recreational activities, characterizations of instructors and classmates, impressions, reminiscences and incidents that impressed her. Travel engaged in during this time, influential literature, etc.
Professional Life: Information could include consecration, commissioning, and installation events; practices of calls; congregational life; concerns of the people served; customs and practices prevailing in the various parishes, institutions, and missions; deaconess conferences; salaries, cost of living; names of pastors or other individuals who were in team ministry with deaconess; descriptions of physical settings in which she worked. Any interesting anecdotes that typify the life and service of the deaconess.
Secular and Ecclesiastical Offices: Information could include services rendered on committees and boards, both secular and religious; length of time served; objectives and purposes of such boards and committees; any known reminiscences of deaconesses conferences and district or synodical conventions; administrative practices; books, pamphlets, tracts and periodical articles she may have produced; relationships with other deaconesses, pastors, teachers and local contacts with the community
General Comments: Anything else you may wish to share about the deaconess (perhaps relating to her strengths, life goals, theology, her view of diaconal service in the Church and world).
Other Sources: Please provide current contact details for other people who might also be able to provide biographical information about women whose names are on the “List of Deaconesses.”

These questions have been adapted from Service Bulletins #3a and #3b, copyright © 1998 Concordia Historical Institute, 801 DeMun Ave., St. Louis, Missouri, 63105.

Before hitting the "submit answers" button, please type the letters you seen in the image below.

Part 2. Photographs

All photographs of deaconesses or photographs related to diaconal work are welcomed - regardless of their size or age, or whether they are in color or black-and-white. If you prefer to loan your photos to the Project, we would be happy to copy the photos and return them to you within a short time.

Your photographs may be submitted in two ways:

1) by email to cheryl@deaconessbio.org

2) by mail to Deaconess Biographies Project, 782 15th Street, Oakmont, PA 15139

Part 3. Other Artifacts

Any other artifacts related to the diaconal work of deaconesses you know or have known are welcome. If you are not yet ready to "part" with certain items, we are able to make copies of any paper-based artifacts. The list of artifacts that we hope to receve includes:

Videos, CDs, DVDs, or tape recordings of special events (e.g., commissioning, installation, anniversaries)
Worship bulletins and sermons (e.g., baptism, confirmation, consecration, commissioning, installation, retirement, marriage)
Deaconess Diplomas and Baptism or Confirmation certificates
Newspaper or magazine articles about the deaconess or her work in the church or community
Material written by the deaconess (e.g., diaries, letters, wills, speeches, printed articles, books, music, poetry, etc.)
Old uniforms and deaconess crosses
Antiquarian books related to deaconess work
Any other physical artifacts that you know were significant to the deaconess in her diaconal work (e.g., a toy that she always took to visit sick children; awards; gifts from those who employed her as a deaconess)

LCMS Deaconess Biographies Project

Submit Information

To submit information and photographs, and give (or loan) other items to the Project archives, please...

Section A - YOUR name is on the "List of Deaconesses"

Section B - YOU KNOW OR HAVE KNOWN a woman whose name is on the “List of Deaconesses."

**To submit information and photographs, and give (or loan) other items to the Project archives, please...**