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Church Record Sunday: Holy Ghost

Church Record Sunday is a weekly prompt for GeneaBloggers which describes a specific church record or a set of records held by a church or denomination and how they can assist genealogists. I wish that today - being St Patrick's Day - I had some great records to share from my Irish ancestors. Sadly I really do not.

I do have the baptismal records from both my paternal grandparents and my Uncle Nick as well as marriage records for my great grandparents at the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Church. Church records are especially helpful on Daddy's side of the family.

The Baptismal Register reveals that Gigi (my grandfather) father is Pantalemon Hruszczak and Pelagia Matys. It lists Gigi's birth as 12 January 1918 and his baptism as 20 January 1918. Gigi was actually born on the 5th but the use of both the Julian and the Gregorian calendar here explain the date discrepency. It also reveals that my great grandfather (referrred to as Panko) is from Prusy, Sambor in Galicia Austria. Bessie (as Pelagia went by) was born in Fraha, Rohatya (the handwriting is difficult to read here) in Galicia Austria. Gigi's name is recorded as Josephus (Joseph). His sponsors were: (again handwriting is difficult to read) Sophronius Mliczko and Catherine Zywcryn. The priest was Rev. A. Symko. The baptism register is in Latin.

Uncle Nick's baptism certificate confirms he is the som of Panko Hruszczak and Pelagia Matys and that he was born in Coatesville. It also reveals that he was born on 26 March 1921 and baptized on 3 April 1921 by the Rev. Andrew Symko. Uncle Nick's sponsors were: Stephen Martynyuk and Catherine Zadorozna. His certificate of Baptism was actually issued on 20 October 1941 using information "from the Baptismal Register of this Church" by Rev. Wroblewsky.

Panko and Bessie's marriage record is in Ukrainian. I can not read it but a former priest translated for me and told me they were married July 1915.

One thing I learned long ago and am so grateful I did this as I gathered these records ... always get a photocopy and document the source when you see it. Do not ever assume these records will be again made available. In our parish for example the records are kept by individual parish members as they have been over the years. Before computers everything was hand written in ledgers.

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