Holy Crap, Look What I Found

It usually takes a while for any advice to me to sink in.  Whether it is good or bad advice does not seem to have any bearing on my ability to listen to it.  I prove it all the time, and I have done it again.

In every genealogy podcast, lecture, class, etc..., almost every instructor will tell you to read every document that you find very carefully, because you never know what you may miss.  For instance, I just got done writing a blog about Family Search, the Family History Center, and the recent information that I found about the baptism of my grandmother, Catherine Mary McConville and her sister, Florence.  After writing the blog, I was looking at the entry for my grandmother's baptism in the ledger book of St Patrick's Catholic Church at 492 Bramhall Ave, Jersey City, when I saw another entry to the ledger written in.  Above my grandmother's name, I saw the name Edward Bergen written.  My first thought was that there was a Bergen baptized on the same day in the church, which would be odd because my grandmother would marry Edward Bergen in 1919.  Then I looked closer and this is what I saw:

My grandmother's name is on the bottom line, and written in above it says "Married Edward Bergen" then it says something I can't read.  Then I looked at the corresponding lines on the right hand page:

The line above my grandmother's godparents says: "J.C. (not THE J. C., it means Jersey City) Aug 27, 1919 by Rev. W. Costello.  Now you may not remember me telling the story about finding out when they married - but I discovered that Grandma was probably pregnant with my uncle at the time of the wedding.  Anyway, I have the marriage certificate from the State of NJ, signed by Rev. Costello with an address of 511 Pavonia Ave (Not St. Patricks Church)  511 Pavonia Ave is the address of St Joseph's Church.  I wonder if the change in Parishes had anything to do with the premature arrival of my Uncle Bill.  Or maybe they had simply moved and changed parishes.  Whatever the reason, the notation was entered in St Patrick's ledger book - I am pretty sure that this is supposed to happen.  BUT, if this is supposed to happen - how come there is no notation of Florence's marriage to Joseph Markey in the ledger by her baptism?  Maybe the notation was made somewhere else because the ledger books would be getting too tough to read.  Whatever the reason, I thought that this was an amazing find.

So the moral of the story, if there is one, is to read everything very carefully - you never know what you may come across.