As a schoolmaster, John Conrad Gilbert also wrote wills, made Fraktur and read sermons. He was born in Hoffenheim, Germany, to Johann Georg Gilbert and Anna Elisabeth Gruber. The family immigrated in 1750 and settled in Douglas Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Conrad Gilbert married Anna Elisabetha Steltz in 1757 and they raised 13 children. He was a schoolmaster with Zion Lutheran Church in Brunswick Township in 1778. From 1779-1783 he kept the parish records at Altalaha Lutheran Church in Tulpehocken Township, Berks County. He kept the records for Christ, Little Tulpehocken Church from 1783-1793. In 1800 he was in Braunschweig Township, now Schuylkill County.
