Many years ago, when I first started genealogy research, I wrote a letter to St. John the Baptist Church in Joliet asking if they had a marriage record for my great-grandfather, John (Johan) Hork to Julia Sievert in 1872. I knew that my grandfather, William Cyril Hork, was Catholic and hoped they were married in the church. What I had for the marriage date and place was from an Illinois marriage index. Images of records weren’t online yet. I also asked about any baptisms held there for any of their children.
What I got back was a taped-together page of a two-page spread from the church book. They married in 1872 and were listed on line number 9.[1] Because this was a German Catholic Church, I got more than the groom and bride’s names and the date of the marriage. I also got their parent's names and the places they came from. But I did not get the column headings and had to guess what they were. Fortunately, the priest did not write in the Fractur script, so I was able to read it for the most part.
Fast forward twenty years and I discovered the Diocese of Joliet’s records available on Ancestry.[2] These were scanned in color, so I now have the full-page spread of their record.[3]
I am very thankful for my family being Roman Catholic and to the German Catholics who kept excellent and detailed records. This document brought my research over the pond to Oberhundem in Westfalen and Schneidemühl in Posen.
#52Ancestors-Week 13: Worship
This is my seventh year working on this
year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.
I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
[1] Church
of St. John the Baptist, Joliet, Illinois, marriage record, Joh. Anton Hork
& Julia Sievert, 1872, no. 9; copy in author’s collection.
[2] “Illinois,
U.S., Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Sacramental Records, 1800-1976,” Ancestry
(https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62097/).
[3] “Illinois,
U.S., Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Sacramental Records, 1800-1976,” Ancestry
(https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62097/)
> St John the Baptist, Joliet > Marriage Register, 1868-1884 > image
34 of 92, marriage book 2, p. 12, 1872, no. 9, Joh Anton Hork to Julia Anna Siewert.
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