Church Records

I don't write much about church records, so here is a post about my use of church records- specifically Catholic church records.

A lot of my Irish Catholic lines moved to Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey in the 1800s.  The church records have been microfilmed and can be ordered through your local Family History Center.  I didn't get to it yet.  I figure I'll need a long sabbatical from my day job to chase all those Irish lines.  I was also hoping that the film would appear as images online so I could view them without leaving home.  In the meantime, you can access some of the information at home through the online New Jersey collection: Births and Christenings, 1660-1980, which is transcribed versions of some of the information you would find if you viewed the actual church record.

I was looking for information on an Irish line and found that the online collection of the Hudson County Genealogical and Historical Society has greatly expanded.  Brian Patrick Molloy has transcribed some of the records for the parish of St. Mary, Star of the Sea, in Bayonne.

I browsed all of the transcribed records and was delighted to see the baptismal entry for my great grandfather, Francis "Frank" O'Donnell.  I already have Frank's 1888 state-issued birth certificate, as well as his 1911 marriage return to Anna Preston.  Anna died in 1921.  I was told that Frank may have remarried.  There are a few ways of looking for a remarriage, but a (transcribed) church record is how I found this remarriage.

Look at the entry for Francis O'Donnell in the New Jersey Collection at FamilySearch.org.

Another researcher has helped me tremendously with German lines by sending me copies of actual church records.  Look at the example below of the information that you can find in the record of baptism.

The baptismal record can contain date of birth, date of baptism, names of parents, addresses.  But wait- there is more!  The sponsors are listed and they are usually related to at least one of the parties.  But that is not all!  The baptismal record can be updated with matrimony records!  Yes- you may find out the name of the spouse and the date of marriage.

As I mentioned, I did not look at the actual church record for Frank O'Donnell.  I viewed the online transcription.

The sponsors are listed!  Rose Kenny was a sister of Patrick O'Donnell and paternal aunt of Frank, the baby being baptized.  The first marriage to Anna Preston is listed, which I had already.  As a bonus, I get a lead on the possible second marriage.  "Sp?" indicated that the transcribed spelling may not be accurate, but that's okay- this is a transcription designed to lead to a closer record.  1940 is the final year of marriage records available at the New Jersey State Archives for me to walk in and copy.  Looking under the Letter O for the groom, which is how New Jersey organized marriage records in this time period, I found the marriage record for Frank O'Donnell to Mary Gertrude Farnan, widow of James Paradine.

Remember that indexes and transcriptions lead you to records and are not sources in their own right (unless there is a remarkable discrepancy, but that's for another post).

The Worthwhile Autosomal DNA Segment Analyzer

I have been using DNA testing as an adjunct to my genealogy research for a few years.  I use an Excel spreadsheet of my own design to keep track of the matches, which includes which DNA cousin matches my close family members and where.  It is time-consuming to manually enter each piece of information and then organize it by chromosome for each family member and note who else matches the DNA relative.

The purpose of organizing the DNA matches is to look for patterns to identify the Most Recent Common Ancestor- the source of the segment of DNA shared by living descendants.

I was delighted to read about DNAGedCom's new tool, the Autosomal DNA Segment Analyzer (thank you Roberta), developed by Don Worth.  (In order to use DNAGedCom you have to test your DNA first.  DNAGedCom is not a testing company.)  For this particular tool, data from FamilyTreeDNA is used.  I previously uploaded results for family members from 23andMe to FamilyTreeDNA.

Above is the table produced for chromosome 13 of my father's DNA test.  The match with the longest shared segment is me, naturally, represented by a black bar the entire length of the chromosome.  We will look at a third cousin whose DNA has been tested.  He and my father share a segment that is about half the length of chromosome 13, which is a lime green line in the above table.  This segment is from one of their shared ancestors, Calvin Cook or Mary Neil, who were the great great grandparents of my father on his mother's side.  Four more people also match this third cousin on this segment, indicated by the lime green box in their ICW column (in common with).  These means that I can collaborate with these four people, compare family trees, and find a link in all four to either Calvin Cook or Mary Neil.

Next view the two people who also match my father in the same area shared by the third cousin.  The are medium blue and maroon bars in the table.  These people do not match the third cousin.  I do not match the third cousin, but I do match these two people.  This indicates that these two people are related on my father's father's side of the family tree and at least the last half of my chromosome 13 came from my paternal grandfather.  From that point backwards, we cannot tell with this information if the matches are from my paternal grandfather's father or from his mother.

The tables for each chromosome show you how your genetic matches cluster together into theoretical branches of your tree.  You need to compare documented family lines to figure out the ancestors.

I would like to point out important features.  These tables were created using information from FamilyTreeDNA.  The names and email addresses of most matches are visible to their other matches (I blocked them here for privacy).  Selecting a match's name pops up a window with additional information, such as surnames and locations, that the match has typed into his/her profile.  This is in stark contrast to matches at 23andMe, most of whom are anonymous and do not respond to requests for contact or genealogical information.

23andMe DNA Relatives/Relative Finder
Anonymous matches with little to no profile information who do not accept contact.

Duryee Bible sold on Ebay

Last year, I wrote about a bible for sale on Ebay with a hefty pricetag of $1200.  The bible contained handwritten notes of dates and names for the Duryee/Mumford family.  The bible was relisted and today sold for only $152.  The lure of the bible was not only the family history information, but the age of the book.

If the purchaser would care to share copies of the family information contained in the bible, we would be most appreciative.

Ebay.com completed auction listing for Duryee family bible
Tip:  when searching for family treasures, try misspellings of "genealogy."

Picture of some of the family information contained in the bible.