Using Church Records: A Cautionary Tale

I have long been confused by the fact my great-grandfather's youngest sister, Mary O'Hara, was missing from the 1910 census and missing from the baptismal register at the church where she should have been baptized. I eventually found a birth record for her, but these omissions still troubled me. It's one thing for a child here or there to be misnamed, misrecorded, or passed over, whether by the census taker, the parish priest, or the family legend, but for the same child to be missed in every case made me wonder.

I had contacted the Catholic Church nearest the O'Hara family home to try to find the family's sacramental records, and was rewarded with only one: Mary's older sister Malinda was baptized in April 1905. They couldn't find any of the others.

I contacted the same Catholic Church, on a different occasion, to request sacramental records for my Quinn family, who also lived nearby, and was told that, despite a search, there were no sacramental records for any of them. "Must have attended a different parish," I thought. "They don't call Brooklyn the 'Borough of Churches' for nothing." But during a recent visit to my great-uncle's home, he was able to show me a copy of the baptismal certificate of my great-grandmother, Molly Quinn. She was baptized March 28, 1897 at that very church.

Baptismal Certificate
Anna Mary Quinn
28 March 1897

The certificate that I saw was dated 1923, so it's not a question of the baptism never having been recorded. (This certificate was acquired in preparation for her wedding.) But Molly was baptized not Mary Quinn but Anna Mary Quinn, so the person searching the records must have missed it. It's not unreasonable that a parish secretary, whose job has nothing to do with genealogy, doesn't check each record for middle names and mothers' maiden names, but looks for Mary Quinn when asked to look for Mary Quinn.

Using second-hand church records that are closed to the public is a dicey proposition, but I think we have to do it anyway. There are other avenues for some of the information on some of the records (parents' names are on birth certificates, but in NYC births were only unreliably registered prior to about 1900), but others - like godparents - are exclusively available from baptismal records. What is essential to understand - and what I didn't realize before - is that they can be positive evidence when they're found (Malinda O'Hara's godmother was Malinda McGlone, as recorded on her baptismal certificate), but never negative evidence when they're not (The lack of a baptismal record for Mary O'Hara suggests that the O'Haras moved or changed parishes between 1905 and 1908).

What is your experience with contacting churches for records not available for public use?

My Missing Mary: She Lived

I first mentioned her in a post a couple of months ago. My great-grandfather's sister, Mary O'Hara. She should have been born and baptized around 1908, but her baptismal record isn't found at the church where her sister was baptized a few years earlier. She should have been recorded on the 1910 US Federal Census, but she's missing from the enumeration of her family. She died in 1911, at the age of 3, and I have her death certificate. It had been the only proof I could find of her life.

How sad, how painful, for little Mary's life to be defined by her death. She lived nearly three years before the illness that ended her too-short life. And yet I had no birth certificate, no baptismal certificate, and, bafflingly, no census record.

Mary's sister Malinda also died young, but Malinda's baptismal certificate was easily found at the church that was most logical, given where they lived. Malinda's birth record jumped out at me from indexes, due to her unusual name, and I was able to order the certificate. Malinda is enumerated on both the 1905 NYS and 1910 Federal Census records. Malinda had a life. It was 6 short years, but it was well-documented and that means something. Only Mary was missing.

Mary O'Haras are a dime a dozen in early 20th-century Irish Brooklyn, but I finally felt compelled to begin at the beginning and order the birth record of every Mary O'Hara who could have been mine. I needed to know that Mary had not merely died, but had lived. It meant ordering the records of a number of other Marys, but I finally ended up with the correct one.

Mary Agnes O'Hara Birth Certificate, 4 Nov 1908

Mary Agnes O'Hara was born on 22 October 1908. Her parents were John O'Hara, stableman, and Mary King. They lived at 527 Baltic St., in the same home where most of them would be enumerated 2 years later in 1910. Mary King O'Hara's 4 previous children were my great-grandfather John Joseph, Eugene William, Patrick, and Malinda. Mary was just a month shy of her 3rd birthday when she died on 20 September 1911.

I know now at least a little bit about Mary O'Hara. I can guess that Mrs. Ward (549 Warren St.) was the midwife who delivered her. I know where the family lived when she was born. (The same place they'd lived when Malinda was born, shedding no light on why they weren't baptized at the same church.) I know her middle name was Agnes.

I know, in some brief way, that she did more than just die - that she lived.

My Missing Mary

I am having the hardest time figuring out what's going on with my O'Hara family in the first decade of the 1900s, after they returned from a brief sojourn in their Irish homeland. The family consisted of parents John O'Hara and Mary E. King, and children John J., Eugene W., Patrick, Malinda, and Mary.

In 1900, they're enumerated in Brooklyn, at 253 Clinton Ave. (John, Mary E., John J., Eugene)
In 1901, their son Patrick was born, on 15 Dec., at Castle St., Castlebar Co. Mayo, Ireland.
On 1 May 1902, they arrived back in NYC.  (John, Mary, John, Eugene, Patrick)
On 6 April 1905, their daughter Malinda was born in Brooklyn and, 10 days later, baptized at St. Augustine's Catholic Church.
In June 1905, they were enumerated at 586 Baltic St. (John, Mary, John, Eugene, Pacey, Malina)
In April 1910, they were enumerated at 527 Baltic St. (John, Mary, John Jr., Eugene, Patrick, Melinda)
On 29 Oct 1910, Malinda died at home, at 527 Baltic St., age 5 1/2.
On 20 September 1911, their daughter Mary died at home, at 527 Baltic St., age 3.

Who?

Mary O'Hara existed according to both family lore and her death certificate. Both put her at 3 years of age at her death in 1911. And yet there's no evidence of her life. She's not a between-the-censuses baby. She was alive - she was about 2 - in 1910. But she's missing from the one census that should be a record of her. And although the O'Hara family lived in the same 2-block stretch of Baltic St. from 1905 through 1911, she was not baptized at St. Augustine's Church (116 6th Ave.), the nearby church where her sister had been baptized a few years earlier. I haven't been able to get a response from any of the other Catholic churches that I've contacted in the neighborhood. If they were switching churches, there must have been something going on, some story behind it. (I attend Mass at a few different local churches, depending on my schedule, but I can't imagine celebrating my family's important sacraments all over the place willy-nilly - not without a good reason.)

I have a baptismal certificate for Malinda, and death certificates for both girls. I've just requested a birth certificate for Malinda, and I've requested one for a Mary O'Hara. (There are a good half a dozen other Mary O'Haras born in Brooklyn between 1907 and 1909 who could be my missing Mary, and if this one's not right, I'll be requesting the rest of them next.)

There are lots of between-the-censuses babies in my family tree, and each of them has a sad story. But I can't get Mary out of my mind. Because she's not. Because she should be there, and she's missing. And it make me so curious - where is she? - at the same time that it makes me so sad. I hate that there's no record of this little girl except her death, especially when there definitely should be.

1905 NYS Census - O'Hara Family

This is the 1905 New York State Census record of the O'Hara family. They're living at 586 Baltic St., only about a block and a half from where they lived at 527 Baltic St. in 1910. In the interim, however, they probably lived somewhere else entirely, as the church they attended in that neighborhood, St. Augustine's in Park Slope, has the 1905 record of their daughter Malinda's baptism, but not what should have been the c. 1908 record of their daughter Mary's baptism. Neither girl lived long enough to celebrate any of the other sacraments.

In 1905, the family is listed as John, 30; Mary, 29; John, 8; Eugene, 6; Pacey, 3; and Malina, 2 mos. Malina should be Malinda, and Pacey should be Patrick, although for all I know he may have been called Pacey. Both parents were born in Ireland, while all the kids are listed as American-born, though Patrick was actually born in Ireland in 1902. The family had moved back to Ireland and lived there between 1900 and 1902. In the column "number of years in the United States," John has answered 17 and Mary 16. I wonder if that's given as "number of years since immigration," or if it's been adjusted for the ~2 years they had spent in Ireland since they immigrated. If the former, they immigrated in 1888 and 1889, respectively. If the latter, it may have been more like 1890 and 1891. All are citizens. (I've yet to attempt to wade through the astronomical numbers of John O'Haras in Brooklyn at the turn of the century to find John O'Hara's naturalization papers.)

John is a stableman, and Mary does house work. John Jr. (my great-grandfather, AKA Grandpa JJ) and Eugene are "at school," but neither "Pacey," nor Malinda is.

September 20, 1911 - Mary O'Hara's Death Certificate

The City of New York
Health Department

STATE OF NEW YORK
CERTIFICATE AND RECORD OF DEATH
of
Mary O’Hara

No. of Certificate: 18214

Sex: Female
Color: White
Age: 3 yrs

Single, Widowed, Married, or Divorced: [blank]
Occupation: [blank]
Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY

How long in US (if of foreign birth): [blank]
How long resident in City of New York: Life

Place of Death: 527 Baltic St.
Character of Premises: Tenement

Father’s Name: John J. O’Hara
Father’s Birthplace: Ireland
Mother’s Maiden Name: Mary King
Mother’s Birthplace: Ireland

I hereby certify that I attended the deceased from Sept. 13^th 1911 to Sept 19^th 1911, that I last saw her alive on the 19^th day of Sept 1911, that she died on the 20^th day of Sept. 1911, about 5 o’clock AM, and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the cause of her death was as follows:
Acute Fobar Pneumonitis
Cardiac Asthemia

Witness my hand this 20^th day of Sept. 1911
(Signature) W.V. Dee MD
(Residence) 290 Bridge St.

Place of Burial Holy Cross
Date of Burial Sept 221 1911

Undertaker F Harper Co. Ed F Higgins
Place of Business 163 Court St.

The above is the death certificate of Grandpa JJ's other sister, Mary O'Hara. She died in 1911, not a year after the death of her older sister Malinda. Like Malinda, she died at their home, 527 Baltic St. Pneumonitis appears to be lung inflammation, and asthemia is something about "weakness." This death certificate is the only record I've been able to find that Mary ever lived. Poor girl. Her death must have been particularly difficult on her parents, given that it was so soon after the death of their other daughter.

1910 Census - O'Haras at 527 Baltic St.

This is the 1910 Census of the O'Hara living at 527 Baltic St. They're the last family on the page. Since we've last seen them, we know they've returned to Ireland and then come back again. We know this through family stories - Grandpa JJ telling us that he got teased for his Irish accent when he got back, and that his last memory of Ireland was being sent up the hill to the post office to mail a letter. We also know that Patrick was born there, though that is (incorrectly) not evident on this census.

The family is listed as John, 41; Mary, 35 (she's only aged about 8 years in the last 10); John Jr., 13; Eugene, whose age is hard to read, but who should be about 11; Patrick, 8; and Malinda, 6. There are also "boarders," John and Martin King, though I'm nearly certain that these are Mary's brothers.

The younger sister Mary is not on this census. I plan to post her death certificate next; I know this girl existed. Why isn't she on the census now? She should be about 2, and won't die (of Pneumonia) for another year. Her baptismal record also wasn't on file at St. Augustine's which it should have been, since she was born while they were living in the area (unless they moved out and back within 5 years, which, of course, is not impossible). I know she lived a short life, a mere three years, but there should still be more evidence of her existence than her death certificate and a memory passed on through Uncle Jack and Uncle Ted. Mary the mother is also listed as having only given birth to 4 children, which simply isn't true, unless her age was misrecorded on her death certificate (the difference between being 1 year old and being 3 years old is huge).

All the adults are listed as having been born in Ireland, while all the children are listed as having been born in NY, although this is not true; we know Patrick was born in Ireland. Now John and Mary both say they immigrated in 1891, which is different from the answer they gave ten years ago. John has been naturalized (Mary probably is, too, by marriage, though I'm not sure of the laws relating to this at the time). John and Martin King say they immigrated (possibly together?) in 1907, and are not naturalized. John O'Hara is listed as a stableman at a livery stable (which is similar to his earlier occupation of coachman), while John King is an Engineer for a Gas Co. and Martin is a fireman at a Gas Co. All the kids had attended school in the past year, except for Malinda. They rent their home.