Catholic Baptisms - Keokuk, Lee County

MCCORMICK AND CAMBRIDGE

Posted By: David Cossar (email)
Date: 11/13/2019 at 18:55:52

I am hoping that someone who lives in Keokuk, Lee County might be able to help me with identifying the Catholic Church(es) at which the Baptismal records, of members of a family that I am researching, are most likely to be located.

In April I sent an email to the Church ( keokukallsaints@diodav.org ) asking if they would be able to provide me with the Baptismal records of 7 children born to my Great Grandparents, William & Catherine (nee Cambridge) McCORMICK.

The initial response was that it would be summer before it could be attended to as that was the least busy time. Three months ago when I asked about progress, the Church requested additional information about the Parish(es) in which the family might have lived. As I am unfamiliar with the geography of Keokuk and the location of the old Parishes, I provided the family's addresses as shown in the 1885 & 1895 Iowa Census (see below).

As summer has now passed and I have not heard anything from the Church I assume they are too busy to provide me with the Baptismal records.

Based on the information below would someone be able to:

(1) enlighten me as to the likely Parish(es) in which the family would have resided at the time of both the 1885 & 1895 Census
(2) advise me as to whether the Church allows a researcher access to the records (I haven't asked the Church as yet)

The information I have on the family is as follows:

Daniel and Catherine McCORMICK (Catherine's maiden name was CAMBRIDGE) were born in Belfast, Ireland and emigrated to the USA in the 1880s. I have not been able to establish when William emigrated but have confirmation from Shipping records that Catherine arrived in the USA aboard 'State of Nevada' on 04 October 1884 with four children aged 6, 4, 3 & 1.

The family settled in Keokuk, Lee County. The 1885 Iowa Census shows them residing at 1116 Williams (sic) Street, whilst the 1895 Iowa Census shows them residing in Jackson Township, Lee County.(no street address is recorded).

My Great Grandfather was a Pork Butcher and I believe the family were very religious so I expect they lived within close proximity of his work and of a Church.

According to entries in the Family Bible a further 7 children were born in Keokuk between 1888 and 1896 but it seems that none of the births were registered. This discovery was made much later when at least two of the children applied for Birth Certificates and were subsequently issued a 'Delayed Certificate of Birth' based on the Iowa State Census for Keokuk, Lee County, 1895 and also, in one case, on information recorded in the Family Bible.

The children known to have been born in Keokuk (ages shown in parenthesis for those recorded in 1895 Census) were:

Patrick born 16 February 1888 (Died 1 July 1889. Place of Burial not shown)

Catherine (5) born 25 August 1889 - also known as Renee

William (8) born 22 March 1890*

Mary (3) born 3 February 1891 - also known as Mary Loretta

Nellie (1) born 5 August 1893 - also known as Ellen

Josephine born 11 November 1894 (Died 11 November 1894 - lived less than 1 hour. Buried Catholic Public Ground)

Elizabeth Louise born 18 July 1896 - also know as Louise

* William's birth year is recorded as 1889 on Delayed Birth Certificate but I believe age shown on 1895 Census to be correct in which case year of birth would have been 1887 or one year either side of 1887. (as an aside, William returned to the USA as a young adult and lived in the outskirts of Chicago but may have initially resided in Keokuk

I have little doubt, from my knowledge of the family, that the children would all have been baptised according to the rites of the Catholic Church within days (or even hours) of their births, provided the Parish had a resident Priest.

I would be grateful for any advice that would help me progress this.

David Cossar
Wellington
New Zealand