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Readers Add More Tips for Using Church Records

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. ...
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Mary Josephine Baker, about 1929.1
  

31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge


January 5, 2022:   Paternal Grandmother - Mary Josephine Baker (1911-1981)

 

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

I love this photo of Grandma Gilbride as a young lady. I had never seen this photo until this summer, when my cousin lent me her collection of family photos to scan. 

The original is black and white and quite darkened with age, with a silvery tint to it. Luckily, there are many tools available today to restore old photos very easily, and a Facebook acquaintance slightly colorized it and made it easier to see the details, above.

Original scan of photo with HP Scan.2
 

Scanned with Photomyne phone app.3

Grandma's full name was Mary Josephine Baker, but I didn't know about the "Mary" until I was an adult. Her baptismal certificate notes it, and her marriage license lists her as "Mary J. Baker."4

That she was generally known by her middle name might come from the German tradition of baptizing children with two first names: the first a saint's name—typically Anna or Maria for a baby girl—and then a secular name. Following baptism, the second name is the one the child is usually known by. Or it could be she just preferred her middle name!5

What really surprised me was that in many of the photos she is labelled as "Jo." Such a sweet, breezy, youthful name. While she always struck me as reserved as an adult, and in other photos of her in her youth she looks quite shy, the name Jo evokes a girl who could be coaxed into mischief and fun, a girl who was up for an adventure with her siblings or friends—someone I might have chosen as a friend.

Based on the photo above and the charming name of Jo, I can see how she captured Grandpa's heart back in the day.

BONUS photos of Mary Josephine Baker:

Edward Baker (Grandma's brother), Jo and unknown friend.6


Big brother Edward Baker and little Josephine, about 1913.7 


NOTES

1 Photo of Mary Josephine Baker, unknown photographer, about 1929, location unknown; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. Digital image colorized by  R. Wright, 7 July 2021, GAADR, Facebook.

2 Ibid. Scan by N. Casey using HP Scan, 2021.

3 Mary Josephine Baker photo. abt. 1929. Scan by N. Casey using Photomyne phone app, 4 Jan. 2022.

4 For baptism: St. Edward's Church, Cleveland, Ohio, Certificate of Baptism for Mary Josephine Baker, (7 May 1911), prepared 1 June 1973. Private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. Copied from original church register; date of birth 7 May 1911, date of baptism 4 June 1911. For marriage: Cuyahoga County, Oh., Marriage Records 1934 Jan. - 1934 Oct., p. 416, license 20080 issued 7 Sept. 1934, marriage of Joseph J. Gilbride and Mary J. Baker; digital image, "Cuyahoga County, Ohio, U.S., Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1876/images/32365_225762-01037 : accessed 5 Jan. 2021); citing Cuyahoga County Archives, Cleveland.

5 FamilySearch Wiki, (https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Germany_Personal_Names : accessed 5 Jan. 2022). "Germany Personal Names," rev. 19:54, 17 August 2021. "When baptized, children were usually given two or more given names. Which name they actually went by can vary by location and time period. In many areas, however, it was common for the child to be called by the second name." 

6 Photo of Edward Baker, Mary Josephine Baker and unidentified man, unknown photographer, about 1929, location unknown; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. 

7 Photo of Edward Baker and Mary Josephine Baker, unknown photographer, about 1913, location unknown; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. Colorized by N. Casey using Photomyne app, 2022.


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