The Reformed Church: As Protestantism took hold in Europe, believers in Calvinism were forced to flee Catholic dominated countries. Dutch settlers in New Netherland [New York] established the Dutch Reformed Church in America. New Netherland also saw an influx of other Protestant groups, namely the Huguenots and Walloons. French-speaking settlers would establish French Reformed Churches in their new communities. German Calvinists who did not follow the Lutheran doctrines, established the German Reformed Church.
As the Dutch families moved west, as the Pralls did from Staten Island to Hunterdon Co., New Jersey, they found a shortage of Dutch Churches. Since the Presbyterian Church was also a Calvinist Church, they joined there.
Among the families recorded in the Dutch and French Reformed Churches were the Pralls, Billious, Swarts, Titsoots and Christoffels. Louis DuBois, one of the founders of New Paltz, NY, helped establish the French Reformed Church in that village.
John Wagner and Catherine Laubscher were married in the German Reformed Church in Philadelphia in 1841.
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