Thursday, September 2, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Baptismal Records

I had been looking for the Baptismal records of my Connery grandparent's children but could only find the records for the oldest three.  I knew what churches they attended and checked the Family History Library for films of the records.  I perused all of the films of the records of St Mel Catholic Church in Chicago and found only Communion and Confirmation records.  Where were the Baptismal records?

Then I remembered a blog I had read about using the key word search.  There it was!  A LDS film with the Baptisms listed.  I had forgotten that at one time the parish was known as St Mel Holy Ghost Parish.  The film I needed was titled Catholic Church. Holy Ghost (Chicago, Illinois).

Once I ordered and received the correct film, I had no trouble finding the Baptismal records of 5 of my mother's siblings.  The records gave name, birth date, baptismal date, parents, Godparents, and address of the child.  The Godparents were usually related to the child and thus could help to determine other family members.

It was truly a treasure that I remembered Holy Ghost Parish!

2 comments:

  1. Of course, growing up in that parish, I KNEW it was St. Mel-Holy Ghost Parish but hardly anyone ever used the second name. The auxiliary Holy Ghost part was south on Kildare at about Jackson, I think. We went there for Brownie meetings.

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  2. But did you tell me? Girl Scouts RULE - my Junior troop begins meeting next week.

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