Family Search and the Family History Center

I'm a big fan of the Mormon Church and their website: familysearch.org.  Here's how it works:  You go to the website:  https://www.familysearch.org and enter the name of the person you are searching for.  (The best part of this is that you can do all of this in the comfort of your home, dressed comfortably with a snack and/or a drink)  You can add extra info, such as date of birth, parents, place that they lived, etc...   Click on search and away we go.  You can get a variety of results from federal census records, state census records, NJ State Death  and Burial records,  and some Catholic Church Baptismal and Marriage records.  Along with the results, sometimes there is a digital image to view and/or save to your computer, and with each result you can get the microfilm roll number from the family history library in Salt Lake City, but you don't have to go to Salt Lake City to view the record.  You can order the microfilm from a local Family History Center near you (mine is in Eatontown)  It costs $5.50 to have the microfilm roll shipped to the FHC.   When the reel comes in, you can used their microfilm readers to view it.

So, having said all of that, I have previously had some good luck with Catholic Church Records from Jersey City, NJ. that I located on this site.  I found a bunch of records for my dad's O'Dea family baptisms and marriages.  The marriage records give you maiden names for the bride, and the parents of both the bride and groom - very helpful.  The baptism records give you birth dates and baptism dates, parents names (including the mother's maiden name) and Sponsors names - who usually turn out to be relatives.

All right, he is finally getting to the point.  I went  to the family search site and looked up Florence McConville.  I entered her parents names: Edward McConville and Hannah Sullivan, and BINGO.  One of the results is a baptismal record from 26 Nov 1899.  The entry says that she was baptized 26 Nov 1899 in Saint Patricks Catholic Church in Jersey City. It gives her parents names and a birth date of 11 Nov 1899.  When you click on her name, it gives you basically the same info in another format, which includes the microfilm number of 1403369 titled "New Jersey Births and Christenings 1660 - 1980".  As it turns out, when I called the FHC in Eatontown, they already have the film there.  So  I finally getting around to get driving up there to view the film.  The film is a group of ledger books of church records.  The first thing on the reel is an index.  In the index, I find a McConville - but not Florence - it is Catherine.  That is my grandmother's name (Florence is her sister).  I had run her through familysearch.org and did not get this result, she was born 10 Dec 1896 and baptized 3 Jan 1897 and her sponsors are listed as William (unreadable) and Mary Wharton.  Mary Wharton is probably the daughter of Willie and Annie Wharton who brought Hannah and Mary Ann Sullivan in the US after their father died, as nannies for their children.  The next index contains Florence McConville and the ledger lists her sponsors as Joseph A Findally (?) and Elizabeth Milford - another cousin.  Elizabeth is the daughter of Poppa Mac's sister Mary Emma McConville Milford.

More confirmation that Aunt Florence's recollections of family relations is right on the money once again.  Each baptism has a sponsor who is a cousin whom I never would have known about were it not for Aunt Florence.  So I had a good day at the Family History Center, only 15 minutes from my house - and that is important with the price of gas these days.  I got the record for Florence McConville Markey that I came for, plus I got a bonus and found my grandmother's baptism to boot.  Not too shabby.