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Sunday, February 25, 2018

Church Record Sunday: Maternal Grandparental Sacramental Records

Recently I stumbled across some unindexed records at FamilySearch.org for Catholic churches my mother and her ancestors were parishoners of in Houston, Texas.  Using some indexes built into the documents, as well as some paging to appropriate dates, I found records for a number of relatives.

Here are the sacramental records at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Houston, Texas, for my maternal grandparents, Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967) and Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997):


Above:  Baptism of my grandfather Charles Guokas Jr. on October 3, 1903, the third (bottom) record above.  Godparents appear to be Alex Golawski and aunt Pauline Guokas (Felicijona Černaitė) Guokas (1878-1953), wife of his father’s brother Joseph (Juozopas) P. Guokas (1869-1933).  Note that this record gives the spelling of the last name of his mother Elizabeth (what I think is)  Banevičius (1875-1929) as "Bonewitch." 

Below:  Baptism of my grandmother Melzina Mary(?) Wolfe, July 9, 1926, the fifth (bottom) record.  Godmother is her future mother-in-law, Elizabeth Banevičius Guokas.  Note that she is a convert - she was baptized the day before her wedding.  The only reason I can think of that Mary was put down as her middle name is because Melzina is not a saint's name.




Above:  Marriage record (third from top; at the bottom) for my maternal grandparents Charles Peter Guokas and Melzina Wolfe, on July 10, 1926.  Witnesses appear to be a Joe McClellan and an Elizabeth Williams; I don't recognize either of these names.

Below:  My grandparents' picture from their wedding day.   The photo was taken at the  Keystone Studio at the corner of Texas Avenue and San Jacinto Street in Houston, not far from the church and from the Union Station.




Above:  My grandparents on their honeymoon at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas.

Below:  My grandmother Melzina Guokas' Confirmation record (see bottom name).  Since she was not baptized until she was an adult, she was confirmed at age 22, after having two children, on May 12, 1929.  Her confirmation name was also Mary.



© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

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