I ran across something interesting in some marriage records I was working with recently. There were some pages inserted among the usual forms. What were they? While written in Latin, I deduced that these were dispensations from consanguinity allowing the marriage to take place. Consanguinity? It's a fancy term for marrying someone who is blood related (usually a cousin).
Baptisms were usually performed close to the location of birth and shortly after birth. This practice was observed to lower the possibility of the infant dying before they received the rite. Marriages usually took place close to the residence of the bride or groom. But because these adults may have moved, we can't be sure they were born in the same parish as their marriage.
What is a sub condition baptism? The Catholic church only recognizes one baptism. A sub condition baptism is a "just in case" baptism in instances when it's not clear if the person has already been baptized. Under what circumstances might it apply? A sick newborn may be baptized at home without a priest. While such a baptism is considered valid, there may be a church baptism later on to make it "official". An orphaned child may also be baptized sub condition if no one is sure if the child has already been baptized. It might apply to a convert from a different Christian religion.
Most recently, I have been working on indexing passenger lists from various US ports through Family Search. In a previous article, I gave a couple of examples where names get lost in the indexing process and how there is no mechanism for correcting known or suspected errors. This problem becomes worse when a well intentioned arbitrator is not familiar with the language and handwriting. I call this "abribtrator obfuscation".
St. Adalbert Church in East St. Louis, IL did not appear in any inventory of Polish parishes that I have found. Some Poles from St. Louis, MO, settled in East St. Louis and it seemed reasonable that they would go to a Polish church.
Dubois is a rural farming communityin Washington County, IL (map). The parish church is St. Charles Borromeo and part of the cluster of Polish parishes in the Diocese of Belleville.
Scheller is a rural community in Jefferson County, IL (map) with many Polish families. Its church is St. Barbara, founded in 1898. The parish is a part of the cluster of Polish parishes in the Diocese of Belleville.
Posen is a rural farming village in Washington County, IL (map). This should NOT be confused with another Posen which is outside of Chicago in Cook County, IL. The parish is a part of the cluster of Polish parishes in the Diocese of Belleville. The parish church is Our Lady of Perpetual Help founded in 1901.
The gazetteer here is based on data from the Defense Mapping Agency, now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Poland's administrative provinces have changed over the years -- the most recent occurring in the 1990s. This gazetteer of Poland is a fusion of two sections. One part is from 1988 and the other is from 2009 (after the change).
