Wallace Dingman–My First Relative To Be a Railroader

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My maternal grandfather, Wallace Betts Dingman, b 1881 – d 1920, was the first of several relatives to “escape” from life on the farm to working on the railroad. He grew up with his twin brother, Walter, on the farm of Andrew and Mary (Betts) Dingman in Williamsfield Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio. The family is listed in Williamsfield in the 1900 Census.

I can’t be sure exactly when Wallace began working for a railroad, but we know from the 1910 Census that he was living in Conneaut, Ohio, with his wife, Grace (listed as Maud [sic]),  and daughter, Mary (listed as Bernice [sic]), working as a brakeman for a “steam railway.” Wallace and Grace were married in Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio on 28 Sep 1905, and it is likely that he landed his first railroad job around then.

On his WWI draft registration card, filled out on 6 Sep 1918, he lists his occupation as switchman for the B&LE Railroad [a short-haul railroad named the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad hauling iron ore between Conneaut and Bessemer, Pennsylvania.

In the 1920 Census, his occupation is listed as switchman for a Steam Rail Road.

His obituary, published in the Andover Citizen, described his employment thusly:

He was married to Miss Grace Morley of this place [Andover] and they moved to Conneaut where Mr. Dingman was employed by the Nickle Plate railroad. [from clipping of obit in possession of the author.]

So, he must have switched employers sometime between 1918 and 1920. What could we learn about these two railroads at the time of his employment?

I found the following excerpt online in a sample of text provided by Google Books from Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, by Kenneth C. Springirth, Arcadia Publishing, 2009:

The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad is a north-south railroad in western Pennsylvania from North Bessemer (near Pittsburgh) … to Conneaut, Ohio.

Carnegie Steel Corporation, headed by Andrew Carnegie, had the iron ore and the vessels to transport the iron ore and gained control of the railroad, which on Decmeber 31, 1900, became incorporated as the Bessemer and lake Erie Railroad to transport the iron ore from Lake Erie to the company’s Pittsburgh steel mills. The railroad became a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation, which took over Carnegie Steel Company in 1901.

 Further, I found the following excerpt online in another sample of text provided by Google Books, this from Railroading in Conneaut, Ohio, by David Borsveld, Arcadia Publishing, 2003. First, here is some background on this book provided by the publisher:

Conneaut, Ohio, a major Lake Erie harbor town, fortified the industrial and economic growth of the Great Lakes area during the “Golden Age” of railroading. Three major railroads, the Nickel Plate Road, the New York Central, and the Bessemer & Lake Erie hauled people, iron ore, and coal in and out of Conneaut. Written in cooperation with the Conneaut Historical Railroad Museum and the Conneaut Area Historical Society, this book preserves Conneaut’s rich rail and shipping history in vintage photographs.

Now for the excerpt that explains where the Nickle Plate got its name:

The importance of the Nickel Plate Road in Conneaut’s history cannot be overstated. Conneaut yard was the western terminus of the railroad’s eastern division and served as a model for other yards in the system; many local residents were employed there.

The New York & Chicago Railway was formed in 1881 by a group of New York investors with plans to construct a mainline stretching from Chicago to Buffalo and with designs on St. Louis as well. The Norwalk Chronicle (Ohio) described the New York & Chicago as “the great New York and St. Louis double-track nickel-plated railroad”—giving birth to the moniker Nickel Plate Road, which was embraced by the company. In that same year, the New York & Chicago merged with the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago to form the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. The line was extended eastward, and by January 1882, the rails had reached Conneaut. During 1881-82, Conneaut competed vigorously with Ashtabula and Kingsville for the division point yard and eastern division repair shops, offering 70 acres of free land. A party of Nickel Plate VIPs made the first passenger trip over the line’s eastern division from Cleveland to Conneaut on February 17, 1882, carrying out a thorough inspection of the physical plant. On March 16, Conneaut was given the nod, to the job of its citizens. The new roundhouse that was built there had 22 locomotive stalls around its 65-foot turntable, and the yard incorporated 8 miles of track.

By October the NKP’s eastern division tracks were complete into Buffalo, as were the new Conneaut facilities. The first two local freights to originate from Conneaut departed simultaneously at 6 a.m. on October 25, 1882, one heading east and the other west. In 1911, a new, larger turntable and roundhouse were built, and the shop facilities were also expanded. Five years later, in accordance with the recently passed Clayton Antitrust Act, the New York Central (which had controlled the NKP since shortly after its inception) was forced to sell the line. Brothers Mantis and Otis Van Sweringen, real estate men from Cleveland, purchased the railroad in order to secure the right-of-way for a planned traction line. In 1922, the NKP tool over both the Lake Erie & Western Railroad and the Toledo, St. Louis & Western, becoming a Midwestern giant with 1,683 miles of track.

I did a bit more online research to see what the duties were for Brakeman and Switchman. A website for the Union Pacific Railroad System gives concise definitions as follow:

Brakeman — Inspects the train, assists the conductor, operates the brakes and assists in switching.

Switchman — Attends the switch in a railroad yard, switching trains from one track to another.

So, with Internet research using Google, I was able to gather a modest amount of information that probably applied to Wallace and his work history before his untimely death in 1920.

I’ll provide information about other relatives “working on the railroad” in future posts.

Surnames in Finland

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Today, I accessed the wiki page on FamilySearch.org labeled “Finland Surnames.” It was quite helpful as it very clearly explained the surname practices in Western Finland versus those in Eastern Finland.

Eastern and western Finland have different naming traditions. Both naming customs date back to the earliest written sources. There was frequent overlap of these practices in both areas.

All Finns had patronymic names. If they also had a farm name or a family surname, the patronymic name may or may not have been written out. The same person may have used a patronymic name in one record and a farm or family surname in another record.

Following is a brief description of various types of Finnish surnames according to geographic (east-west) distributions:

Western Finland (Ahvenanmaa, Häme, Kymi, Turku-Pori, Uusimaa, and Vaasa Counties with the exception of certain parishes). Surnames changed from generation to generation according to the Scandinavian patronymic naming customs used in Sweden.

Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Lappi, Mikkeli, Oulu, and Viipuri Counties with the exception of certain parishes). Surnames did not change from generation to generation.

For those not familiar with Finland’s history, it was a part of Sweden for centuries. Here is a capsule history found here:

The Finns’ repeated raids on the Scandinavian coast impelled Eric IX, the Swedish king, to conquer the country in 1157. It was made a part of the Swedish kingdom and converted to Christianity. By 1809 the whole of Finland was conquered by Alexander I of Russia, who set up Finland as a grand duchy.

My grandparents, Evert and Ida Maria (Hytönen) Huuskonen, emigrated from Kuopio County in 1902 and 1903 respectively, and both their families used family surnames. But church records I have seen often included patronymic names as well the family surnames. I consider myself lucky that my having to work with patronymic surname system to hunt down ancestors is limited to only a very few Finnish relatives.

The wiki article also explains about the endings that are characteristic of Finnish family surnames.

Family Names. The surnames used in eastern Finland are family surnames, which means that they were used in a family from generation to generation. They represent some of the earliest family surnames of Europe and most of them indicate relationship or common origin, although this cannot always be proved because of few sources.

Family surnames have certain types of endings: -nen or -ainen/-äinen. For example, Huuskonen and Liimatainen are family surnames. In earlier records, these names were found with other endings, such as Huuskoin and Liimatain. Early records also used a feminine variation: -tar. For example, Huuskotar and Liimatar both have the feminine ending.

Obviously I found this to be very interesting because of the use of my grandfather’s family surname–Huuskonen–as an example. And yes, I have seen in early church records the Huuskoin version of our surname.

It is also interesting that I have a Liimatainen connection as well: Emma Liimatainen, b 1858 d 1931, married Gabriel Huuskonen b 1859 d1950, my 1st cousin 2X removed.

Finally, let me point out that I found Emma’s baptismal record online on Ancestry.com–another example of Ancestry’s growing coverage of Finnish records. I found it here.

 

Online Repository Tracks Nearly 10 Years of Genealogy News & Developments

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I am constantly amazed by how much news has come from genealogical and family history organizations and companies over the years. One way to track developments is to access the online repository of the Family History Newsletter — Genealogy News, compiled by by Sylvia and Jack Sonneborn. The newsletters are available for viewing on Rootsweb, beginning with the October 2007 issue and running monthly through December 2016. That’s almost 10 years of news and counting.

You can access these newsletters at
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~payork/York2Ward/

Earlier issues are available in MS Word, while later issues have been converted to PDF files. Issues often run 20 pages or more packed with reports about genealogy and family history news.

Here is background info about the newsletters and their creators:

These are links to the York Pennsylvania Ward Family History Newsletters, provided by Sylvia and Jack Sonneborn, of York County, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka LDS Church, Mormon Church). Please be advised that these newsletters may contain religious information peculiar to the LDS Church in addition to very useful genealogy research information.

Note: This is NOT an official site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those that would like to know more from official websites of the Church, please see lds.org , familysearch.org, … LDS Radio Online, and/or LDS Newsroom.

In some cases where I have just learned about a genealogy program feature, I can go to these newsletters and learn when that feature was first introduced. In some cases, I find I have been missing out on research productivity for weeks and even months by not taking advantage of the latest feature or development.

 

Tracking Down Info on Our First Landlord

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My wife MJ and I were talking about our first residence today, and we were trying to remember the details.

MJ remembered that we dealt with Mrs. Wirth beginning in the spring of 1960-to about 1965, living at two addresses on Westlake Ave. in Parma, Ohio. We didn’t remember her first name, but MJ did remember that her son’s name was Robert.

MJ remembers talking with her new employer, Dick Davis, head of the music department for the Parma Schools system (she was hired to be an elementary music teacher), about where to look for an apartment. He steered her to Mrs. Wirth, because her son Robert worked for the school system, and Mr. Davis knew she had an apartment to rent. When we contacted Mrs. Wirth, she was happy to rent to a teacher in the Parma Schools.

Could we learn any more about the Wirth family? And exactly what the address was where we lived? We could drive down Westlake Ave. and check the house numbers, but I wanted to see what I could learn online about where we lived 56 years ago.

A Google search for “Robert Wirth” turned up this obituary:
Robert L. Wirth, 86, of Parma, died Feb. 2. [2013]

He was a U.S. Navy World War II veteran who served on the U.S.S. Randolph.

Mr. Wirth was the husband for 61 years of Bette L. (nee Auping); father of Gayle Kadlec (John), Robert Jr., Susan Wirth-Racela (David) and William; grandfather of Jessica Kadlec, Kathryn Doran (Dr. Michael), Lauren and Taylor Racela; brother of the late Frank A.; uncle of many.

Cremation was by Busch Crematory, and a Memorial Gathering at the Busch Funeral Home [Parma] is planned for the spring.

That obituary was published in the Sun News on February 09, 2013 at 7:29 AM.

This looked like a promising lead, but our Mrs. Wirth would have been older. I decided to try another online search, this time using Ancestry.com to search in the 1940 Census.

Here I found Robert Wirth, age 39; with Therese Wirth, age 40, Robert G. Wirth, age 13, and Franklin Wirth, age 2. They were living at 7106 Westlake Ave., and in fact, were living in the same house in 1935. This more likely was our landlady and her family, including her son Robert. The enumerator indicated that Therese was the informant for the enumeration.

This find improved our recollection of the address of our first residence: It was in fact 7106 Westlake Ave. And after a few months living in the upstairs apartment, Mrs. Wirth invited us to move next door into her much newer duplex. In talking about this, we now recalled that our second address was 7110 Westlake Ave. It was only about a mile from MJ’s place of employment: Thoreau Park Elementary School, and it was very convenient for me to ride the bus downtown to my new job at Penton Publishing Co.

So with a little online investigation, we were able to accurately record our first home after being married on 25 Jun 1960. We’ll write more about our wedding later.

My First Experience with Interment.net

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I was working just now with a tree I had started in MyHeritage.com and a record match came up for the burial of my great uncle Frank A. Betts, b 1866-d 1929, on Interment.net. The match was for his burial in Park Lawn Cemetery, just outside of Jamestown in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. I have visited his grave site in this cemetery, so the information was not new, but the match to a record in Interment.net was my first experience with this database website. Incidentally, the cemetery is a large one, but I could not find a website for it.

In the match offered by MyHeritage.com, I clicked on “view full record on internet.net.” I was presented with a list of interments in Park Lawn Cemetery contributed by Terence Whalen. Scrolling way down the list, I found Frank Betts with his birth and death years. In many cases, this would be enough to add this record to a person’s page in a genealogical database or online tree.

In this listing of interments in Park Lawn, I found another Betts and a whole slew of Bates, who are also relatives. There were listed several Dingmans, including my great grandparents Andrew S. and Mary Elizabeth (Betts) Dingman. Again, I know about most of these burials, but it was nice to see them listed all in one place.

The list I reviewed first was for Surnames A-D and ran from Margaret Ackerman to William Duvall. Three other lists are included for Park Lawn for Surnames L to Z. The burial listings included burials as late as 1980. This is all because of the volunteer efforts of Terence Whalen.

I’ve learned that Interment.net is another useful online resource for searching for info about ancestors and other relatives.

MyHeritage Yields Finnish Researchers Interested in My Ancestors

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I just gave myself a Christmas present of a premium membership to MyHeritage.com. By poking around in the free version, I gathered the strong impression that this genealogical database provider has a bigger presence in Europe than Ancestry.com. I entered some very limited information about my Huuskonen (original spelling) ancestors on an online tree I created in my account dubbed Huskonen-Huuskonen Research project. Starting with myself, I went back four generations with very limited information.

Since entering this data, I have learned that there are several Smart Matches for me to review and confirm or not.

Here is a list of the matches:

Närhi Web Site \ Narhi Family Tree (20 matches)
Seppä Emil Hännisen sukusivusto \ Seppä Emil Hänninen (19 matches)
Leppänen Web Site \ Leppänen Family Tree (8 matches)
Savolainen Web Site \ Savolainen Family Tree (6 matches)
Jäntti Web Site \ export-Ancestors (5 matches)
Kirsti’s Background Web Site \ Kirstis Background – 13052016 (4) – 14072016 (4 matches)
haapa Web Site \ haapa Family Tree (3 matches)
Häkkinen Web Site \ Häkkinen Family Tree (2 matches)
juopperi Web Site \ juopperi – 2013-06-25 22-06-34 (One match)
väisänen Web Site \ väisänen Family Tree (One match)
Ritvanen Web Site \ Ritvanen Family Tree (One match)
Hurri Web Site \ Hurri Family Tree (One match)
Suomalainen Web Site \ Suomalainen Family Tree (One match)
I have removed the links that were behind each of the web site names in this list, since it would be rather complicated for you the reader to try to check them out. If you are familiar with the appearance of Finnish surnames, you will conclude as I have that most of these researchers are based in Finland and the Smart Matches indicate that they have an interest in people who appear in my ancestry. The Savolainen web site is particularly interesting because my great grandmother was Eva Savolainen.

This is pretty exciting, as I have had little contact with researchers in Finland. Obviously, they have more ready access to records–and they can read the language, which I cannot without heavy use of Google Translate.

I have confirmed most of the matches listed above. Now I have to wait for the web site managers to accept my confirmations. Then the information can be added to my website.

One more thing: I can sync the information from my online tree to a tree in Family Tree Builder, a genealogical database available for free from MyHeritage. You can download it here. With this arrangement, you can keep a copy of your family tree on your computer and use it to print out a variety of reports and charts.

Watch this space for progress reports.

Address Lookup for Relative Was Instructive

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When we sent out our 2016 annual holiday letter a few days ago, we expected that we might get a few “not deliverable” returns. Sure enough, today we did get one envelope back.

Ironically, we had received a Christmas card from this family but in our haste to hold down clutter, we threw away the envelope without double checking the return address.

Well, what to do? I went to the Internet and Google. First, I tried the WhitePages lookup. That reported an address on file, but it required a fee for the details.

Another person search website gave me another address that had seemed familiar to what I remembered from a quick glance at the card when we received it, but I wanted to check further. I used that address in the Google search window and came up with several “hits.” These included Zillow (which I was familiar with) and several other real estate listing websites.  There was the property of the couple we were looking for and the last time it was sold: 2014. This date squared with what I thought I know about their movements.

Another website was VoterRecords.com. Here I found both husband and wife listed, their address, their ages, and their party affiliation. Bingo! Everything squared up.

Both types of websites rely on public records, so there was no privacy problems here.

I was now confident enough to address another envelope and resend the holiday letter to what I firmly believed to be their current address.

It’s amazing what you can learn with a little poking around on the Internet using Google.

One Caveat: Many of these websites want you to sign up for a membership with a credit card, so be careful if you don’t want to be hit with a recurring charge.

Search Cleveland Catholic Cemeteries with iPhone App

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Yesterday (16 Dec 2016),  the Catholic Cemeteries Association, Diocese of Cleveland, introduced a FREE iPhone App for searching nearly 700,000 burials dating back to the mid-1800s in Catholic cemeteries throughout Northeast Ohio.

Some other features:

  • Save loved ones and cemetery info to your profile for easy access later.
  • Use GPS navigation to your loved one’s final resting place (currently available for All Saints Northfield and Resurrection Valley City). Other cemeteries will be available in coming weeks, according to the announcement.
  • Access cemetery maps, driving directions, and visitation/office hours.

To download the app, go here.

Currently, 15 of 19 cemeteries are available for online search.

The online search is currently available for the following cemeteries:

  • All Saints, Northfield
  • All Souls, Chardon
  • Assumption of Mary, Brook Park
  • Calvary, Cleveland
  • Calvary, Lorain
  • Holy Cross, Akron
  • Holy Cross, Brook Park
  • Resurrection, Valley City
  • St. Joseph, Avon
  • St. Mary, Cleveland
  • St. Mary, Cuyahoga Heights
  • St. Mary, Elyria
  • St. Mary of the Falls
  • Elmhurst Park, Avon
  • Holy Trinity Avon

Work is ongoing at the following cemeteries:

  • St. Joseph, Cleveland
  • St. John, Cleveland

To search for ancestors in this database, go here (creating an account (free) and login are required).

This list accounts for 17 of the 19 cemeteries. No word was available on the Association’s website for St. Mary Cemetery in Cleveland and St. Paul Cemetery in Euclid, which round out the list of 19 cemeteries affiliated with the Association.

If you want to check St. Mary Cemetery for an ancestor, go to Find A Grave for 7,694 burial listings, of which 65% reportedly are photographed.  Find A Grave also has listings for St. Paul Cemetery in Euclid, with 1,684 burials, 77% photographed.

 

Timeline for Grandma Grace, My Maternal Grandmother

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Today, I was using Copernic to search my desktop computer for timeline files. I was really looking for any medical timelines that I had created for my wife and myself.

Copernic turned up a timeline that I had created for my maternal grandmother, Grace Darling [born Bertha) Green (adopted Morley] Dingman/Tripp/Stafford. I had forgotten that I had created this timeline in 2014. Even at this later date, it seems pretty comprehensive so I am reproducing it here.

1879-1881. Grace used various birth dates throughout her life. The birth of Bertha Green was recorded as occurring on 7 Mar 1879 in Ashtabula County to parents J. R. and Mary Green. This is likely Grace’s birth and her name was changed before the 1880 Census.  Other dates she used are 7 Mar 1880, 12 Mar 1880, and 7 Mar 1881. Her mother’s maiden name was Sumner. Her father Jared R. Green died in Nov 1879. No record of their marriage has been found. The couple also had a son, Edwin D Green, b 16 Aug 1867 and d 7 Jul 1949.

1880 Census Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Grace is living in the household of her widowed mother, Mary Green. This contemporaneous record reported Grace as being 1 year old, which is significant because enumerators for the 1880 census were instructed to report the month of birth if a person was born “within the year,” that is between June 1, 1879 and May 31, 1880. Mary evidently reported that Grace was born before June 1, 1879, so this census record lends support to Grace being born on 7 Mar 1879 with the birth name of Bertha.

1884 Grace’s mother, now Mary E. Furman, died in Ferry Township, Oceana County, Michigan, in the home of an uncle, George Sumner. At this point, Grace was considered to be an orphan, as Mary’s second husband, Stephen Furman, was living separately. No record has been found in Ohio or Michigan for the marriage of Mary and Stephan. Grace came to Andover to live with James and Jennie Morley shortly after her mother died.

1900 Census Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio Age: 20 Grace is living in the household of James S Morley (age 72) along with Jennie Morley (age 58). She is listed as daughter of James, who is postmaster. She is working as a clerk in the post office.

1900 — 6 Jun James Morley dies at age 72.

1905 — 28 Sep Age: 25. Grace marries Wallace Betts Dingman (my maternal grandfather) in Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio. They move to Conneaut where Wallace worked for one of the railroads.

1910 Census Conneaut Ward 2, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Age: 30. Grace is living in household of Wallace Dingman, her husband, who is working as a brakeman for a steam railroad.

1920 Census Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Age: 40. Grace is living in household of Wallace Dingman, her husband, who is working as a switchman for a steam railroad.

1920 — April 1 Wallace Dingman dies at age 39. The death certificate does not identify a cause of death.

1922 (about) Age: 42. Grace marries John J Tripp (of Andover). I don’t have any record for this marriage.

1930 Census Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Age: 50. Occupation: school teacher in Andover Public School. She was living in the “Morley house” on West Main Street, but separated from John Tripp. Her son Wallace Dingman, Jr., is living with her.

1935 (about) Age: 55. Divorce from John J Tripp

1935 Grace is living in the “same house” as enumerated in the 1940 Census (see next item).

1940 Census Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Age: 60. Occupation: school teacher in Andover Public School. She was living in the “Morley house.” Also living there were Walfrid and Mary Huskonen (her daughter) and Wallace (me—her grandson).

1943 12 March Age: 63. She married Don A Stafford in Ashtabula County and moved to Cleveland. It was the third marriage for both. In August, she listed the “Morley House” in Andover for sale.

1945 Grace and Don hosted me for a week at their home in Cleveland. I was seven years old at the time. Check this post for details:

1947 (about) Grace and Don began vacationing in a winter home in Tampa, Florida.

1948 14 Jan. Florida death certificate reports Grace’s age as 67 [I’ve given up trying to reconcile this age with the birth registration of Bertha in 1879].  She died in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida. Don Stafford, her third husband, was the informant, but he wasn’t able to provide much information about Grace and her parents or birthplace (in fact, this was one of the least informative death certificates I have seen).

The following obituary appeared in the Ashtabula Star Beacon:

OH–Ashtabula Star Beacon….16 Jan 1948

GRACE STAFFORD–67: Andover; died at 11:45PM Wednesday at Tampa FL following a 2 week illness. She was born 7 Mar 1881 [sic] at Conneaut, a dau of Mr&Mrs Jared Green. She lived most of her life in Andover where she taught in the public schools. She also taught 5 years in East Conneaut schools. Mrs Stafford was a member of Floral Chapter 534-OES & Past Matrons Club. In 1905, Mrs Stafford married Wallace Dingman who preceded her in death in 1920. In 1943 she married Don A Stafford. The couple resided in Cleveland & were vacationing in Florida when her death occurred.

Beside her husband, she is survived by a dau: Mrs Mary Huskonen-Andover; a son: Wallace Dingman Jr-Buffalo & 7 grandchildren.

Services are to be held Sunday afternoon at Baumgardner Funeral Home here. Rev William Harrison–pastor of Andover Congregational Church will officiate. Interment will be in Maple Grove Cem here.

Obituary transcribed to Find-A-Grave by Diana Jo Csikos, added 14 Jun 2010, Find A Grave Memorial 53688001

Researching Catholic Records in Greater Cleveland

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I sometimes fall behind in reading material about genealogical research in Northeast Ohio. A case in point: The October 2016 issue of Lakelines, published by the Lake County Genealogical Society, a chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. On page 11, the issue presented the following brief article entitled “Archives of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese”:

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese includes eight counties of northeast Ohio; Ashland, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lorain, Lake, Medina, Summit and Wayne. If you are researching Catholic ancestors who resided in any of these counties, be aware that the diocese maintains an Archive which may be of help. Further information is contained on their webpage http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/chancellor/archives-office/

I am not Catholic, but from time to time, people ask me about researching in Catholic records, so I clicked on the link in the above article. I was presented with a concise description of the records that might be available in the Archives. Here are the main points (indented material or material within quotation marks is verbatim):

Access: “Our Diocesan policy is to keep our archive records closed. We can and do research information on a time available basis.” The website cautions that a response may take two or three months.

A request for information involves filling out and submitting a Request Form (telephone requests aren’t accepted). A copy of the form is downloadable from the website. Click on ARCHIVE REQUEST FORM. (Note that the website also offers a Sacramental Record Request Form. Use this form only to request a Sacramental Certificate for when you received one of the following sacraments: Baptism, first communion, confirmation, or marriage.)

The website then proceeds to discuss what may be available:

Parishes have five kinds of Sacramental records:Baptismal (birth), Marriage, Death, First Communion, and Confirmation Records. Baptismal (birth), Marriage, and Death contain information that can vary from record to record and church to church. By the Code of Canon Law (Church Law which governs the administration of our parishes), pastors were required to maintain Sacramental Records. The Code specified what kinds of information were to be reported in those Records.

For a baptism –the child’s name, his or her date of birth (though some very early records omit this), his or her date of baptism, the parents’ names (including the mother’s maiden name) and sponsors’ names along with the name of the officiating priest.

Marriage records were to include the complete names of the bride and groom, the date of the wedding, and the names of the witnesses along with the officiating clergy. On marriage records some pastors would add the names of the parents of the bride and groom, perhaps indicate where the bride and groom had been born, or even occasionally note the ages of the bride and groom. This form of record-keeping was not consistent and the information noted did vary by parish and by priest. Even two records recorded at the same time by the same priest could and did have different amounts of information.

Death records are very inconsistent regarding the kind and quality of information because the Code was not specific as to exactly what information was required. Some pastor recorded only the person’s name and date of services. Other pastors recorded additional information. Records from the same time period and sometimes the same church can provide vastly different amounts of information.
The information contained in First Communion, and Confirmation Records is usually limited to name and date the Sacrament was received.

Parishes did not keep anything comparable to a census or detailed registration form on parishioners.

After 1908 a change in Canon Law mandated that the church and date of baptism be included on any Catholic marriage record for the Catholic bride or groom. Records created before that time (and unfortunately some after date) do not have that information.

Location of Sacramental Records:
Sacramental Records ordinarily are maintained by the parish which created them. Like many Dioceses, the Cleveland Diocese has closed some parishes. The records of closed churches were sent to the Archives Office.

The Archives also has microfilmed records from some of our older parishes throughout the Diocese. Unfortunately many early records were not maintained because of the mission status (and extreme shortage of priests) of Northern Ohio. Though Catholics were present in the city since 1812, our earliest Sacramental Records for the city of Cleveland date from the early 1840’s.

Being something of a history buff, I clicked on the home page for the website to find the section entitled:

History of the Diocese
The Diocese of Cleveland was created on April 23, 1847 for 10,000 Catholics. In 1848 the 1st Seminary, St. Francis de Sales Seminary, was opened however the name was eventually changed to St. Mary Seminary.

On November 19, 1848, the first priests for service to the Diocese of Cleveland were ordained.

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist was constructed from 1848 until 1852 at the corner of Superior Avenue and Erie Street (now East 9th Street). It was dedicated on November 7, 1852.

The territory of the Diocese would fluctuate with the creation of the Diocese of Toledo (1910) and then again with the creation of the Diocese of Youngstown (1943). Currently the Diocese of Cleveland encompasses 8 counties of northeast Ohio (Ashland, Cuyhoga, Geauga, Lorain, Lake, Medina, Summit and Wayne).

In 1912, the first Catholic Charities office was opened at East 9th and Prospect.

In 1925, a new St. Mary Seminary was dedicated on Ansel Road in Cleveland.

From 1946 until 1948 the cathedral along with adjacent diocesan buildings were rebuilt and remodeled. The new cathedral was consecrated on September 4, 1948. In 1977 the sanctuary of the cathedral was renovated to bring it up-to-date with the liturgical changes from the Second Vatican Council.

Another source of information about Catholic ancestors is the Cleveland Catholic Cemetery Association database of burials. Go to http://www.clecem.org/ and click on “Burial Search.” To search the database for names and burial locations, you need to create an account. Once you create the account and log in, you will find that conducting the search is easy. If you find an entry for your person of interest, it should contain that full name, address, date of death and date of burial, age, and cemetery with the grave location.

The online search is currently available for the following cemeteries:

• All Saints, Northfield
• All Souls, Chardon
• Assumption of Mary, Brook Park
• Calvary, Cleveland
• Calvary, Lorain
• Holy Cross, Akron
• Holy Cross, Brook Park
• Resurrection, Valley City
• St. Joseph, Avon
• St. Mary, Cleveland
• St. Mary, Cuyahoga Heights
• St. Mary, Elyria
• St. Mary of the Falls
• Elmhurst Park, Avon
• Holy Trinity Avon

Work is ongoing at the following cemeteries:

• St. Joseph, Cleveland
• St. John, Cleveland
• St. Paul, Euclid