York County Births Desenberg-Grob 72-143

Title to York County land was officially secured from the Indians in 1736. Settlement in York County commenced about the same time at the urging of the Penn family as they had an interest in strengthing their claim to land along the southern boundary of the colony-land that was also claimed by Maryland. While the majority of early settlers of York County were Germans, numbers of English and Scotch-Irish settlers crossed the Susquehanna and settled here. Early churches in York County reflect these pattems-congregations representing many denominations can be found here including Quakers, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Mennonites, and German Baptist Brethren, but the two denominations who dominated the early religious life of the county were the German Reformed and Lutherans.