3 More Children in My Family Tree Identified

1910 Federal Census

Since the censuses of 1900 and 1910 asked how many children a woman had (and how many were living), we can tell if we are missing any names in our family tree. If a child was born and died in between censuses, this may be the first hint we have that they existed.

Looking at those two censuses, I was able to see that my Stenglein great-grandparents had a child who must have died young. In another branch of my family tree, these censuses showed that I had three Kiefer cousins I hadn't identified. As I mentioned in a previous post called The Kiefer Children Died Too Young, Peter and Philippina Klein Kiefer had a total of 8 children, but I only knew about five of them.

Since both of these Pittsburgh families were Catholic, I contacted the Diocese of Pittsburgh to see if the volunteer researchers could help. The general public can't access the sacramental records, so I filled out the research request form and patiently waited. While they couldn't provide all of the answers I wanted, I'm grateful for what they did provide:

• A burial record shows that my grandmother, Gertrude Stenglein, had a brother named John (the second brother with their father's name) who died on December 19, 1903, when he was only a day old and was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery on the same day;
• Baptismal records show that Anna Marcella Kiefer, who was the second daughter with this name (the first died two years before this one was born), was baptized on May 15, 1898 at St. Peter's Church on the South Side of Pittsburgh;
• Mary Catherine Kiefer was the name of another of the unidentified children; church baptismal records show she was born on September 11, 1900, and was baptized on September 23 of that same year; 
• The third Kiefer child is still unknown because no baptismal record was found. The death of this third Kiefer child, as well as the deaths of Anna Marcella and Mary Catherine, are unknown because there are no existing burial records for St. Peter's Parish from May 1899 through March 1920.

Church records are an invaluable resource when civil registrations of births and deaths are unavailable. 

Related Posts:

• Include All Information in Research Requests
• Consider Catholic Newspaper Archives

Ontario Baptismal Record of Thomas Baker

Thank you to Lorine of The Olive Tree Genealogy blog for writing about the FamilySearch record collection of "Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923."  It was a good reminder for me to take a look at these records for the only branch of my family tree that seems to have lived in Canada.

My Baker relatives lived in Seneca, Haldimand County, Ontario, from at least 1861 to 1866. The first child was born earlier than that, somewhere in Canada in 1853, but I haven't confirmed that it was in Seneca. I'm not sure why I never browsed these images before but, since the only towns listed under Haldimand are Caledonia, Cayuga, and Dunnville, I wasn't sure if I'd find anything.

I started with Caledonia and saw that one of the record collections for St. Patrick Parish fit the time period for my Bakers: "Baptisms, marriages, burials 1857-1898." On the fourth image, I found a match. Fantastic! Thomas Baker was the brother of my 2nd great-grandmother, Mary Baker. It confirms their parents' names (although I have Arthur instead of Arthurs), and it points me to another possible relative, Mary Arthurs.

Baptismal Record for Thomas Baker, 1857
(CLICK TO VIEW LARGER)

If I'm reading the writing correctly, the record says: "This eight day of October one thousand eight hundred and fifty seven I the undersigned priest have baptised Thomas - born since the first day of February from the lawful marriage of John Baker and of Elisabeth Arthurs of the township of Seneca of the Mission of Indiana, Sponsors were John Goslinn and Mary Arthurs."

This is the only family member I could find in any of the towns listed under Haldimand, but I'll take it. Thank you, Lorine!

Record Browsing Has Benefits

We all may groan when we learn about a new record collection that hasn't been indexed yet. But wait, there are some benefits of having to browse record images:

• Learning an Interesting Detail - When you're forced to browse, you actually look at the image, instead of finding a match from a search and just attaching it to your family tree. This may lead you to see on the page an interesting detail about your ancestor that you may have missed. Even for indexed collections, it's good to get in the habit of opening the image and reviewing it thoroughly.

• Spotting a Different Relative - You might find a familiar name that you weren't looking for. When I searched for my 2nd great-grandfather in the 1890 Census of Union Veterans of the Civil War on FamilySearch and didn't get a match, I decided to browse the pages in case his name was botched. I still haven't found him even though he was alive at the time, but I did find two other distant relatives, including one who I didn't know had served in the Civil War.

• Finding Bonus Material - You never know what you might find attached to the record book. At the beginning of scanned burials records for St. Patrick Parish in Caledonia, Haldimand County, Ontario, the following clipping from 1862 had been pasted: 

Surnames of "the undersigned" at the bottom of this clipping (not included in the cropped image) are Brennan, Brown, Carroll, Collins, Conboy, Cullen, Cunningham, Dalton, Daugherty, Delaney, Donnelly, Downey, Doyle, Duffy, Evoy, Farrell, Hannan, Harris, Hayes, Higgins, Hogan, Hurly, Keating, Kelly, Kennedy, Lamond, Lennon, Madigan, Mangan, Mannix, McCarty, McGill, McGuill, McDonald, Meir, Murphy, Murray, O'Brien, O'Riley, Phillips, Reip, Ryan, Shea, Shehan, Smith, Sullivan, Sweeney, Walsh.

Browsing records is relaxing and fun for me (weird, I know!), and I enjoy reading interesting details about people even though they aren't in my family tree. So don't ignore collections that haven't been indexed or you may miss a great record for one of your ancestors.