Chicago Catholic Cemetery Records

This is the third in a series of three posts about researching Lithuanians in the Chicago area, where many of them settled after immigrating to the United States. (Here is the first post, and here is the second post.)

Most Lithuanian Catholics in Chicago were buried in St. Casimir Catholic Cemetery, which was originally designated as a Lithuanian cemetery.  It opened in 1903, and burial cards from that year through about 1988 are available on FamilySearch.

You want to search the Illinois, Archdiocese of Chicago, Cemetery Records, 1864-1989 collection on FamilySearch, here:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1503083 

My recommendation is to start with just the surname.  This is because first names were sometimes Anglicized for St. Casimir, particularly in later years, but more often, especially in earlier years, the Lithuanian first name was used.  Plus, if you enter only the last name, you'll pull up others with the same last name (or similar spellings) that may be related.

Above is a picture of the home page for this collection.  I entered Guokas for the last name, and clicked the Search button.  Below is an image of the first part of the results.

There were 38 results in all, some of which were "sounds like" (and Soundex) spellings that were pretty far off.  But the exact matches appear first, and I was looking for Juozapas (Joseph) Guokas, my second cousin thrice removed.  When you find a person you're looking for (or are interested in), I recommend clicking on the icon that looks like a piece of paper, and clicking on that for the record details.  Below is an image of the record details for Juozapas Guokas.

Some things to pay attention to in the record pictured above:

- the top arrow on the right points to the name of the cemetery (here, it is St. Casimir, but some Lithuanian immigrants were buried in other Catholic cemeteries);

- the bottom arrow on the left points to a "Copy Citation" button, which you'll want to do to properly source and document this information in Geni and other genealogy sites; and

- the "View Original Document" button just under the image of the card.  That opens the image to provide a larger view, like in the image below.

Some things to pay attention to in the record pictured above:

- the location (grave, lot, block, and/or section numbers) for the grave;

- the home address for the deceased - which might be helpful for finding the family on a census or in a directory;

- the internment date, which may also help you locate an obituary; and

- the age and the burial permit number (which might also be recorded on a death certificate), both of which can help you make sure you have the right person, especially with more common Lithuanian surnames.

I also want to point out the arrow at the far right, which appears when you hover near it - you can click that to look at the next burial card for St. Casimir.  I strongly encourage doing that, because these are supposed to be in alphabetical order, and you may encounter another family member.  But before you do, make a note of the grave location.

Clicking the next image button brought up a burial card for Kazimieras Guokas, who is buried in the same block and lot as Juozapas, which strongly indicates a relationship.  Kazimieras (Charles) Guokas is Juozapas' son.

Clicking on the Next Image arrow on the page with Kazimieras' burial card brought up that of Petronella (Sukys) Guokas, who is his mother and the wife of Juozapas.  Note in the image below that she is also buried in the same lot and block, and that she was living in Ohio at the time of her death, at age 70 and nearly 20 years after her husband's death.  Besides being an indicator of where to look for a civil death record and an obituary, it's also a hint that another family member was probably also living in Youngstown or at least nearby in Ohio. 

Finally, don't forget to also scroll forward.  Doing so from Juozapas' burial card brought up that of Julijonas Guokas, who is the son of Juozapas and Petronella, and the brother of Kazimieras, and buried in the same lot and block.

In the image above, also note that there is more than one way to maneuver through these images.  Besides the Next Image and Previous Image (pictured, in the middle) buttons, you can also enter an image number in the box at upper left, or click on a different image in the scroll bar at the bottom.

In the case of Petronella, she is listed in this record under the male Lithuanian form of the surname Guokas.  But you'll also want to scroll backwards and forwards enough (or do a separate search) for the female Lithuanian forms of surnames.  Use https://gen.wooyd.org/lt_surnames/ to help you find those.

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You'll also want to use the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Cemeteries "Locate a Loved One" web page, at https://www.catholiccemeterieschicago.org/locate-a-loved-one/ - an image is below.  This tool is particularly helpful if you have someone buried after the end date for the burial cards (which is 1988 for St. Casimir, and anywhere from 1986 to 1988 for other cemeteries).  Sometimes there are name spelling differences between the cards and these official records, which will also show up here.

You'll need to fill out your first and last name, an e-mail address, and check at least the second box (an agreement that you won't use the information provided "for any commercial purposes or financial gain").  Then click the Request button, and check your e-mail, which will look something like the one pictured below.

You'll need to click the "Locate Your Loved Ones" button in this e-mail to access the system.  You'll get a search page like the one below.

I suggest entering just the last name, and leaving the default to search all cemeteries.  This system won't bring up alternate spellings, but you can enter as few as two letters in the last name field (and in that case, I'd suggest adding at least a first initial and/or selecting a cemetery, because I got 12,612 results when I entered just Gu for the last name).  It will bring up everything that starts with the letters you entered.

Before we get to the results, I want to point out the timer at the upper right.  When you get down somewhere around five minutes or less, a window will pop up, like the one below, offering to extend your time, and you'll get 15 more minutes if you click yes.  I'm not sure how many times this window will pop up, though.

Below are the results for my search on Guokas.  There are only seven, and they are all buried at St. Casimir.  I clicked on the view button for my relative Juozapas.

Below is the top part of the page that will next appear.  On the left is the information that was also on the burial card, but there's also a link to view the grave location on Google Maps, and another link to bring up a QR code that will also take you to the location on Google Maps.  And just to be sure, the location is also shown on a Google map on the right.

In the image above, I also marked the buttons you can click to have this information e-mailed to you (and the web page updates to indicate the email was sent), and a button to download a PDF of the information.  Below is an example of the e-mail sent.

Note that the e-mail also includes a link to view the location on Google Maps.  Below is an image of what the PDF looked like (click on it to view it larger).  You get a section map on the left, a cemetery map on the upper right, the burial record information, and a QR code to view the location on Google Maps.

Note in the image above that I highlighted something that differs from the information on the burial card.  This record indicates Juozapas is buried in Section (not Block) 9.  

Going back to the record page for Juozapas, if you scroll down the page, you can also access the cemetery map, and download a PDF (which, for this cemetery, is high quality).

Scroll even further down the page, and you'll also find a section map you can download.  Unfortunately, for Section 9 at least, this image is a poor quality PNG image and not especially readable.  Perhaps they will be updated someday.

And here is a link to the FindAGrave memorial for Juozapas Guokas, which includes an image of the tombstone, which he shares with his wife and the two sons who predeceased him.  The engraving is in Lithuanian:  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188095962/joseph-guokas

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Chicago Lithuanian Catholic Churches

This is the second  in a series of three posts about researching Lithuanians in the Chicago area, where many of them settled after immigrating to the United States. (Here is the first post, and here is the third post.)

I created a mapping tool to help people with Lithuanian ancestors who settled in Chicago before 1915-1925 to find Catholic Church records (baptisms, marriages, and deaths) in that area.  The tool uses Google's My Maps feature, and can help you find the nearest Catholic Church (serving predominantly Lithuanians) to a given address.  Here's a link to it:  https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ptiPg9tl9szvKo-q7MItfQGRahkkMzd6&usp=sharing

For this example, I'm looking for the church where two of my relatives married - Juozapas (Joseph) Guokas (my second cousin thrice removed) and Petronėlė Šukytė (Petronella Sukys).   I had an address for Joseph from his 1904 naturalization index card, so I started by entering that address.*  When you start to type it in, Google will make suggestions, and in this case the first one was correct.

Once you hit enter, a pin will be dropped at the address location.  Then, you can zoom outward on the map to find the nearest church icon - in this case, it was really close (see the red arrow).

Click on the church icon, and it will bring up some information about the church - its address, current use (some are no longer Catholic churches; some have been demolished), and links to a 1920 book that often has pictures and history of the church.  There's more information too - we'll get to that in a bit.

Immigrants often moved around a lot, especially in their early years in the United States, and I had another address for Joseph, this one from a 1911 directory.  (I've been unable to find him on the 1910 Census).  When I entered this one, I could see right away that the closest church was the same - All Saints on S. State Street.

Clicking on the church icon again, and this time scrolling down a bit, you'll see that I have also included a link to the church records available (free) on FamilySearch.  

Clicking on the link for All Saints brings you to the page pictured below.  Some -not all - of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Church records are indexed (searchable) there, and some (not all) are indexed and available at FindMyPast.  All Saints' records are not indexed (yet) in either place.  However, often there is an internal index available.  That's the case here, so I clicked on the link for "Marriages, 1906-1925 with index."

This brings up the first image in the record set.  Since I want to jump around a little bit, rather than scroll through page by page, I click on the View Grid icon.

This brings up small images of each page in the record set.  If you click on the image below to view it larger, you can tell that the first 3+ rows have the index pages in them.  I'll make an educated guess as to which one has the surnames beginning with G (the groom's name is almost always the only one indexed), and then scroll backwards or forwards as needed to get to it.

So here is the top half of the page with surnames beginning with G.  While none of the names are exactly what I'm looking for, the third one on the left, Juozas Goks, looks closest to Guokas.  (The other name I marked, Stanislaus Gokas, turned out to be Joseph's brother).  Keep in mind that surnames will often be misspelled, and that first names are often in Latin form (although in this case, it's Lithuanian).

Although the "Pagina" (Latin for page) would seem to indicate that Joseph's record is on page 28, in this case, 28 is a record number.  And here is the marriage record for Joseph and Petronella - below, I have combined an image of the top of the page with their record, which actually appears at the bottom of the page.  (Click on the image to view it larger.)

These Catholic Church marriage records will always have, at a minimum, the names of the bride and groom (including the bride's maiden name), the date of the marriage, and the officiant.  Sometimes there is other useful information.  In this case, we have the bride's and groom's ages (which can help you narrow down the year of birth), the names of both of their parents (including their mothers' maiden names), and the names of the witnesses, who are often relatives.  As mentioned earlier, Stanislaus Goks (Stanislovas Guokas) is Joseph's brother.  Petronella's grandmother was a Banaitis, so witness Justinus Banaitis is probably related to her.  Sometimes you are lucky and even get the name of the places where the bride and groom were baptized.

If you don't find the people you're looking for at the nearest Lithuanian Catholic Church, try zooming out more on the map to find the next closest one.  Pay attention to the year the church opened - the event you're looking for may have happened at an older Lithuanian church nearby.  It's also possible the event occurred at a parish that was not primarily Lithuanian.  You might try Chicago Ancestors, a good mapping tool from the Newberry Library to find churches and other points of interest near a particular address.

Also, keep in mind that the Chicago Archdiocese has only made records available through 1925 - and, in cases of churches that were still open when these records were originally microfilmed, only through 1915.  

* Check the "Location Links" tab here on my blog for other useful Chicago and Lithuanian research links.  I used the "Street name changes" link in the "Chicago - Maps, Streets, & Property" section there to find the current street name for Joseph's 1904 address - it had changed from Curtis in 1904 to Edbrooke today.

I hope you find this map helpful.  Please send me an e-mail (use the link at the end of this post) or comment if you find any broken links in the map.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Finding Obituaries in Draugas - The Chicago-area Lithuanian-language Newspaper

This is the first in a series of three posts about researching Lithuanians in the Chicago area, where many of them settled after immigrating to the United States.  (Here is the second post, and here is the third post).

This post is about finding obituaries in Draugas, the Chicago-area Lithuanian-language newspaper, which began publication in 1909 and is still going strong today.  Here is a link to the page to search its archives:

https://www.draugas.org/archyvas-paieska-search/

This will take you to the page pictured below.  The first link under "Paieška" lets you search the archive from 1909 through 2007, which is open to everyone.

When I click on that link, it brings up the following search page.  In this example, I am looking for an obituary for Juozapas (Joseph) Guokas, my second cousin thrice removed, who I already knew (from other sources) died April 22, 1938.  I decided to start just by entering his surname in the search box.

There were only 13 results, and none of them were him.  But the search mechanism for Draugas has an interesting fluke.

As mentioned on the initial search page, in Lithuanian, they don't know why, but when searching for a last name, the search finds a larger number of results when searching by last name together with the first name or first initial instead of presenting only the last name (e.g. J. Basanavičius instead of Basanavičius).  So I decided to try that, searching for "Juozapas Guokas" (but without quotation marks), and sure enough, there was a link to him.

 

Before looking at the obituary itself, here's another way to search for them, but you'll need to know at least the year of death, and ideally the date of death or burial.  Use the index - here is the link:

https://www.draugas.org/rodykle-index/

Here's what that page looks like.  I clicked on the link for 1938.

On the page for each year, there's another search box, so I tried searching for Guokas again.

This time, it did bring up a single result, for my Juozapas Guokas.

However, before we look at the actual obituary, here's a way to look for an obituary that doesn't come up with a search.  If you know the date of death, start checking issues on that date, out to about a week later.  If you know the date of burial, start by checking the issue on that date (or the day after), and go backwards about a week.  You can also check the whole month (and, if necessary, the first part of the next month) if you only know the month the death occurred.

Note that the newspaper isn't published every day.  Also, note that sometimes there will be multiple copies of the same issue (indicated by various designations after the date, and usually because scans were provided from more than one source repository).

Juozapas Guokas died on April 21, but his obituary wasn't published until April 25.  When you click on the link for that date, you get an image like the one below.  Obituaries are almost always near the end of the issue, so I use the scroll bar on the right to slide to the last page and then scroll up, or you can enter the last page in the page counter at the top and jump to that.  Or you can do a page search for your last name, or the first few letters of it.  I found it's easiest to jump to the end and scroll up, because most obituaries have the same format.

And here is the obituary for Juozapas Guokas, on the fifth of six pages for this issue.  As you read more of these, you'll quickly learn key words and be able to pic out the names of relatives.

You can always highlight the text and copy it ...

... and then paste it into Google Translate, OCR errors and all, to get a rough translation.

Here's the important information, as far as I'm concerned, with my rough translations (in other words, what I've come to know these various words and abbreviations mean):

Juozapas Guokas died (mirė) April (Bal.) 21, 1938.  He came from (kilo) Panevėžio district (apskr.), Smilgių parish (parap.), Valiliškių village (kaimo).  He lived in (išgyveno) America 35 years (metus).  He is survived by his wife (moterj) Petronėlė, maiden name (po tėvais) Šukiutė, son (sūnų) Peter (Petrą), daughter (dukterį) Stella (Stanislovą), two brothers (du brolius): Julius (Julijoną) and (ir) Stanley (Stanislovą) and his family (ir jo šeimą), sister (seserį) Domicėlę Žukauskienę  and her family (ir jos šeimą), and many others.

The obituary goes on to name the funeral home (Anthony Petkus) and give information about the funeral.  This one is on the 26th at St. Anthony parish church (Šv. Antano par. bažnyčią) - that would be the one in Cicero, a Lithuanian parish.  Almost all Lithuanian Catholics in the south part of Chicago were buried at St. Casimir Cemetery (Šv. Kazimiero kapines), then almost entirely Lithuanian, and almost all were buried the same day as the funeral Mass. 

As you can see, these obituaries are a goldmine of information!

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Mapping the Steeds

This post is a continuation of the work I've been doing with my stepson's mother-in-law, Emily, with her family tree.  Emily was curious about where her Steed family had lived in Chicago, so I decided to map them out - ideally with fire insurance maps, so one could get a sense of what the homes might have been like at the time the family lived in them.  All the homes were in the Canaryville area, west of the Union Stockyards. and they're all gone today. 

Emily's grandmother, Della, was born in Ohio on 23 December 1889 and baptized there on 29 December 1889.  The next child was born in Chicago on 31 May 1891, so the family must have moved there in 1890 or early 1891.  I compiled a list of addresses and dates, some from church records, some from civil records (particularly deaths), and some from directories available online in FamilySearch.  Here are the addresses I found:

4077 Seneschalle (also spelled Seneshall and Seneshalle) - 1891 city directory, and church records from 11 December 1892 through 16 July 1893.  This street no longer exists.  

534 Root - 1895 city directory.  This address was renumbered to 432 in 1909.

518 [W.] 42nd St. - church record from 17 May 1896.  This address was gone by 1909, and the lot was vacant on the 1925 and 1950 Sanborn maps, but it would have been renumbered to 418, and a brick home was built at that address sometime after September 1950.  

4141 Butler (aka 4141 Wright) - church records starting with 25 December 1898, civil death records in 1900, and city directories for 1898, 1899, and 1900.  This address is gone and the street has been renamed S. Normal Avenue.

524 Root - widow Margaret in the 1901 city directory.  This address was gone by 1909.  It is vacant on the 1925 Sanborn map and has the Bunge Brothers Coal Company coal yard on it on the 1950 Sanborn map.

456 W. 42nd St. - Margaret's 18 July 1909 death record, Della and her younger sisters on the 1910 Census, and church marriage records for two of Della's siblings on 10 January 1910 and 12 November 1913.  This is the post-renumbering address - before 1909, it was 556 W. 42nd St.  The original house was still there on the 1925 Sanborn map, but gone by the September 1950 map, so the brick house at the address today was constructed sometime after September 1950.

Below are two fire insurance maps that show the location of the long-gone 4077 Seneshall.  The first is from Rascher's Atlas of Chicago, Volume 11, July 1885; Revised to September 1891.  That's why you see so many things pasted in - additions and corrections were made to the original July 1885 map simply by pasting over it.  This shows how the neighborhood looked about the time the family moved into it.  It should be noted that on this map, north points to the left.

Above:  annotated section of Rascher's Atlas of Chicago, Volume 11, July 1885; Revised to September 1891, sheet 86 (Source: Library of Congress).

Below:  annotated section of Sanborn Insurance Maps of Chicago, Illinois, Volume Thirteen, 1895, sheet 10 (Source: Library of Congress).

As you can see from the map above, the area was quite industrial, with the Chicago Forge and Bolt Company right behind the Steed family home.  During the time the Steed family lived at this address, they attended St. Cecelia Roman Catholic Church (now gone), an Irish parish that was at S. Wells Avenue and W. 45th Place.  Three children were baptized here (and two died) between 7 June 1891 and 31 December 1893.

Sometime in 1894 or 1895, the family moved a bit south and west, to the other side of the railroad tracks.  The other five addresses (1895-1901 and 1909-1913) are shown on the map below (click on the image to enlarge it), all within a block and a half.  Note that on the 1895 map below, the address from 1909-1913 (456 W. 42nd St.) has been located using its pre-renumbering address of 556 W. 42nd St.  The homes were all wood frame and were eventually torn down.

When the Steed family lived in this neighborhood, they attended St. Gabriel Roman Catholic Church at 600 W. 45th, which still exists today, although the interior has been renovated.

Above:  annotated section of Sanborn Insurance Maps of Chicago, Illinois Volume Thirteen, 1895, sheet 8  (Source: Library of Congress).

Below:  part of a Google My Map I created showing the locations of the Steed family homes in the Canaryville neighborhood of Chicago, with a current base map.

Finally, in the map above, I used Google My Maps to place these homes on a current base map - since none of them exist any more.

Last, I'm including images from the pages of the Chicago city directories where I found Michael or Margaret Steed listed.  There are directories available in FamilySearch for the 1884 to 1901 period that they were in this area, and I checked every one of them, but only found them in six directories.  This is not that unusual.

Above:  Michael Steed on page 2177 in the 1891 "Lakeside Directory" published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DX-8NLC?cat=308691&i=1111 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1891 > image 1112 of 1582; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Michael Steed on page 1653 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1895," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89DX-DWWZ?cat=308691&i=2049 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1894-1895 > image 2050 of 2411; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.
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Above:  Michael Steed on page 1707 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1898," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DX-8N2G?cat=308691&i=961 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1898-1899 > image 962 of 2595; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Michael Steed on page 1742 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DX-881B?cat=308691&i=2223 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1898-1899 > image 2224 of 2595; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Above:  Michael Steed on page 1802 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1900," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DX-82JR?cat=308691&i=923 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1900-1901 > image 924 of 2602; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Margaret Steed on page 1872 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1901," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89DX-8FLH?cat=308691&i=2210 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1900-1901 > image 2211 of 2602; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!