St. Peter the Apostle

Based on the article from The Passionist, Ruth was first Baptized at St. Peter the Apostle. From the mid to late 1800s, St. Peter was noted for tending the needs of the Roman Catholic Irish imigrants. St. Peter is at the corner of Hollins and Poppleton Street and is about 8 blocks WNW of 216 Emory Street.

About thirty years ago the Baltimore Archdiocese allowed the Maryland Archives to microfilm all church records. Films were made available to libraries and history societies. The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore is a large repository of resources for the family historian. It is located 201 W. Monument Street and has on site parking.

The library catalog may be searched online at the following link: MDHSSearch. If we type in "St Peter the Apostle" , three results are returned. The third one down is the one we need. Proceeding through that link reveals that there are 6 microfilms in this collection. We need the following film as listed:

Call Number: Micro 3118
Location: Main Reading Room
Item ID: Q040069901
Media: Microfilm
Item Title: Baptisms 1872-1902 with index

The help desk will politely show you about. The microfilm #3118 contains the pages of the church's register. The front part has a sorted index. That would be handy, if we did not know the Baptism date.

We found the Ruth Baptism on page 111. It is cited as Baptism, George Ruth, 07FEB1895, St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church. Baptisms, Maryland Historical Society, Film Micro 3118, Baptisms, Page 111.

The Latin states "Baptism date March 1, 1895, I, the undersigned, Baptized George, born on 7 of Feb., son of George Ruth of the City and Katie Schamberger of the City, godmother Mrs. Lena Fell. J. T. O'Brien".

We learned a new name - Lena Fell. Usually, a Baptism sponsor is a relative. We can use records like this to tie members of a family together. If Lena is a sister of either George or Katie, this document will not tell if she is either a Ruth or a Schamberger.

In the case of this project it was easy to solve. Using a "Google" search for: Ruth and "Lena Fell" (in quotes) we find the first result points to a page at the Babe Ruth Museum that says Lena Fell is Katie's sister. The article also goes on to say that Babe Ruth's mother had an unmarked grave for 96 years. It can be read at the following link: BRMuseumArticle.

Next time we will finish up George's other Baptism and Confirmation record.

LINKS
St.Peter the Apostle

MDHS
MDHSSearch

BRMuseumArticle


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