Church records for Catherine Amelia Gunther

I am back again with another record I found on Find My Past this past weekend. This is the Church record for the marriage of my great aunt, Catherine Amelia Gunther. She was a sister of my maternal grandmother.

"Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Marriages" Find My Past, (findmypast.com accessed 6 Aug 2017) St. Anthony of Padua record of marriage, pg 30, Kelly-Gunther, 2 Sep 1916

As has been the custom in the Catholic Church, some of this record is in Latin. I have not had Latin since freshman year in high school! But I was able to get through it. So glad for this record for many reasons! One we have a record that the marriage did take place and it happened 2 Sep 1916. This is important because the note on the Philadelphia Marriage License Application said that they "did not have the "return" or duplicate certificate with the application at the time of microfilming". The other item was the dates and places for the bride and groom's baptisms. Catherine's baptism was 6 Sep 1908 at St. Patrick's Church in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her mother's family was from Norristown but they lived in Philadelphia. I thought this a little strange since they were in St. Anthony's parish and I did find another record from St. Anthony's from 1911, the baptism of my great grandfather, Emil Gunther.

"Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms" Find My Past, (findmypast.com accessed 6 Aug 2017) St. Anthony of Padua record of baptisms, pg. 501, Emil Gunther, 19 Mar 1911

This record was a total surprise find and also great. Emil Gunther has been a puzzle to me. He came from Germany. My grandmother would talk about him saying he was from the Black Woods! When I did start finding records for him all they said was Germany. His death certificate did not have any more information including not have any names for his parents. So finding this church record of his baptism at 50 years old and it has the names of his parents, Fred. Gunther and Emily Hammerschmidt. I thought that his father's name was Frederick because on my grandmother's birth certificate it has the father's name as Frederick instead of Emil. Also I found that Emil and Catherine had a son that I knew nothing about. He died at 16 months and his name was Frederick.

So getting back to Catherine Amelia Gunther's baptism record. I looked up St. Patrick Church and called them on Monday morning. I explained what I was looking for. I was told they would see what they could find and call me back. Tuesday I received a call back from Maria saying she found the record and I asked if she could send it to me. She said she would get it out that day and today I received this!

Saint Patrick Catholic Church (Norristown, PA), Family Sacramental Certificates (privately held), Catherine Amelia Gunther Baptism Certificate (1908 Baptism), issued 2017, citing no book or page number

I was so excited to receive this today! But more Latin! I still have work to do on this record, like trying to figure out what the first name of the godfather could be. I see the last name of McCarron, my great-grandmother's name, yea! So as far as why the baptism took place in Norristown and not Philadelphia is most likely not an answer I will find very soon! But I am so happy to add this to my growing collection of family records!!!

I'll just keep looking!!!

Marriage licenses in Find My Past

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Marriage Certificate No. 433346, (1920) accessed 10 Mar 2011, McCarry-Gunther; Philadelphia County Orphans Court, Philadelphia

I have been having such fun over the last week finding records that are new in Find My Past! This is the first time I have found so much on this site. I am liking this! One of the new things is the Marriage License images and this is really great! These are the Philadelphia marriage licenses and have not been online before. You had to order or go to the courthouse in Philadelphia. I had a learning curve at first which led to the post I made on Facebook the other day. In 2011 I had been in Philadelphia for something at GSP. So before the meeting I went to the courthouse and ordered my grandparents marriage license. I received it in the mail the following week.This is what the cover looks like for a copy.

After I went to the Philly Archives and saw some on microfilm I saw that the name of the church was sometimes was written on the cover. So that was why I was looking for the church. So after I called the archives for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and found out the church name because I had the name of the priest, I was so excited in finding out that it was Saint Anthony of Padua church. Then later in the day I was working on finding records for my grandparents and one of the pages of their license came up but I couldn't find other pages until I saw that you had to open one page at a time(like I said I didn't have a lot of experience using Find My Past). Then I spoke to a friend and she was looking at the same time and found that you had to open them up one page at a time. So this page came up.

United States Marriages, Find My Past (findmypast.com: accessed 3 Aug 2017),  marriage certificate no. 433346, (1920), McCarry-Gunther

This is the return that was sent back to the court by the person that performed the ceremony. It was copied with the cover page as you can see it is different than the one I had. You can see St Anthony written on the bottom. So there was the answer on the original. I'm just glad to have it now. So after this I started going through and finding marriage licenses for my McCarry's and finally I did find my Parents' license. I already had their copy of the license but this gave me the whole story.

United States Marriages, Find My Past (findmypast.com:accessed 3 Aug 2017), marriage certificate no 892745, (1950), O'Donnell-McCarry

I still have more work to do and I am getting a bit more comfortable with Find My Past. So I'll keep going, I'll keep on looking!

Walsh Finds in Find My Past

"Philadelphia Catholic Parish Records" Database. Archdiocese of Philadelphia Sacramental Registers, 1775-1917. (FindmyPast.com:accessed 27 Jul 2017), entry for John Walsh, baptized 30 Sep 1877; citing St. Matthew Church, Conshohocken, Baptism, Sep 1877, pg 196, Find My Past.

On Thursday and Friday last week I had some great finds! I had been following emails going in the chain for Greater Philadelphia APG for a few days seeing that Find My Past was going to be releasing a new record set from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia! That got me excited and I had to check it out. On Thursday the link was there to get the list of Parishes that were included in the release. I was thrilled to see ones that I was interested in so I had a further look. I just started putting in the McCarry names but did not find anything. So I tried John Walsh. This was my great grandmother, Bridget Walsh McCarry's father and brother's name. Some hits came up with a birth year that worked for her brother. It showed Conshohocken for the location. I knew that lived in Conshohocken, Montgomery County, a suburb of Philadelphia. That was their location in the 1880 census and it was on Bridget's marriage license. So I opened up the transcription first and started reading. It gives the name, birth date, baptism date, parents names and name of the parish. When I reached the parents names I was surprised! Father: John Walsh, Mother: Catherine Neylan? John's death certificate said his mother's name was Catherine Carr! His father's death certificate said his mother's name was Catherine Niland! Ok, what's happening here???? So I went over to the image page and the above is that full page image. John is on the left 3rd from the bottom. Below is the close up. This gives the godparents which does not show on the transcription.

I went on to try finding the other Walsh children to see what I would find. Well I found Bridget next.

This record also had the mother as Catherine Niland(the spelling I have usually seen) and the godmother is Anna Niland. I have an Annie Malloy that was much involved with the family and when I found her death certificate I found that her maiden name was Niland! So then I found the oldest son, Thomas.

Thomas' also had the mother as Catherine Niland and his godmother is Bridget Niland. Bridget Niland owned the grave where John and Catherine Walsh are buried. Also Bridget Niland died while living with James and Bridget McCarry. There were two more Walsh children, Patrick and Catherine, but I was not able to find records for them.
So I am trying to figure out how the mother's name was Niland not Carr??? Maybe Bridget was confused when her father died and gave her parents names instead of her father's parents names??? But then where did Carr come from on her brother's death certificate??? I have nothing for Thomas. Family lore has that he went out to work and they never heard from him again. The youngest of the Walsh children was Catherine. I knew her, she died in 1970. But her death certificate along with Bridget's does not list their mother's name. As for Patrick I have not been able to find anything except he is on the 1800 census but nothing else has been found.

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, marriage certificate no 473344 (1923) McCarry-Crawford, FamilySearch, Find My Past.

The other find I had was on Friday. This is the marriage license for one of my grandfather's brothers, Thomas McCarry.
So I need to check out these records some more and hope I find some more things!
If you have family from Philadelphia or surrounding area, you might want to check this out. It only goes to 1917. I do know that you have go to the individual parish to get any records for 1920 and after.
So I will just keep on looking!