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Snippets for Aunt Sharon: The Kellings and the Founding of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church

St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church, Sheffield, Lorain Co., Ohio.   Last fall I wrote about a discovery I made while doing some research for my Aunt Sharon: her great-great-grandfather Bruno Albaugh was one of Lincoln's bodyguards ! I had several other great discoveries about her family that I've been anxious to share. This week's post profiles her Kelling ancestors' connection to a church founding in Ohio. St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church was organized in 1845 by German settlers to Sheffield, Lorain County, Ohio. Among the founding families of the church were my aunt's second great-grandparents, Johan Kelling , and his wife, Katharina Schuber . The book,  History of Lorain County, Ohio , published in 1879, includes these notes on the church founding: “St. Theresa Church (Catholic), organized in 1845 by Rev. Peter Griesh, with the following membership (other member names)… John Kelling and his wife Catharine . At the organization of the church, each member paid o...

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Burial or Cemetery Record


GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Burial or Cemetery Record - January 8th entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.

by Nancy Gilbride Casey


Headstones don't always tell the whole story at a cemetery. Cemetery records can provide important clues to family relationships. 

For example, the headstone at Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton for my 2x great grandfather Michael Gilbride, listed several other names—some which made sense and others which did not. It was clearly a family plot, a fact borne out by the cemetery record shown above.1

The individuals named on the stone include:

Michael Gilbride - Father, noted as born 1853 and died 1908. 

Mary Gilbride - Mother, whose maiden name was Gallagher, was Michael's second wife. Her death year is not engraved on the stone, though her burial is noted as 22 June 1944. 

Anna Gilbride - Michael and Mary's second daughter, tragically died at age 19 after a surgery.

Gerard Gilbride - Michael and Mary's 2-year old grandson who died of convulsions due to toxemia, was the child of their son William Gilbride and his wife Rose McCormick.

Thomas Hart - Mary's second husband, whom she married in 1909 after Michael's death.


Michael and Mary had eight children together, and Mary was essentially a mother to my great grandfather John Joseph Gilbride; his mother Catherine Ryan Gilbride had died in 1881. Four of Michael and Mary's other children are buried in this family plot according to the cemetery record, however, three are not recorded on the stone at all:

  • Joseph Gilbride - born 1891, died 1938
  • Rose Gilbride - born 1886, died 1939
  • Michael Gilbride, Jr. - Born in 1888, Michael was a WWI veteran, and died in 1932. He has a separate headstone, in the same plot, with a military marker. 

 

The cemetery record also reveals an interesting clue which may need follow up:  

The name Gerard - Could Gerard be what the middle initial
of my 4x great grandfather James G. Gilbride stands for? Gerard is not a name that is typical in this family, where Roses, Williams, Annas and Josephs abound.

Various charges for plot, interments and maintenance for the Gilbride family plot, Cathedral Cemetery, Scranton.

 

 NEXT UP: Marriage Record

1 Cathedral Cemetery Office (Scranton, Pennsylvania), plot card for deed 2012, Lot 52, S-C, B-1, Mrs. (Mary M. ) Michael Gilbride, June 1908.


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