Leaves on the Tree

Grace Church, New York, 1850. (Smithsonian Open Access) Several readers commented on last week's post on finding church records , adding tips and insights that are too good not to share. My friend Barbara from Pennsylvania wrote, "Baptismal records often reveal children that were not known. I know this to be true from all the research I've done here in Pennsylvania in Catholic sacramental registers of parishes that existed long before civil records were in place. Those unknown children often died young and were 'forgotten'  because families didn't discuss losing small children, no one recorded the death, cemetery records were not diligently kept, or nothing appeared in the local newspaper. If it weren't for those baptismal records, they truly would be unknown or forgotten."  I was reminded by Barbara's comment that I had found the baptisms of three children I was not aware of previously in my Becker family in Catholic church records from St. ...