Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Yesterday I was on a quest to go to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/research//genealogy/ They have a lot of resources. What I was looking for were the death index and marriage index.

They have a book published by the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society http://www.wpgs.org/ That has an index. I found a few listings that I could use. You have to request a copy. This is good up till 1906 and after that you have to deal with the great and powerful State Of Pennsylvania. To get anything from the State of PA is like having elephants jump thru hoops. A lot of states now publish the deaths on line, but not PA, they do not even have an index of what is avaliable. The City of Philadelphia has an index and the listings on line.

There have been petitions to put these records online, but I doubt that they will do that because of the loss of the fee of $9 per death certificate. A cousin of mine had searched for the death certificate of Patrick O'Rourke and they said it did not exist. I had a copy of that certificate that I found among my dads things and sent her a copy.

Back to the story. Last January I recieved a document from the Diocese of Pittsburgh. It had listed two women, Catherine Dowd and Nora Dowd as a witness and sponsor for a Marriage and a Baptism of my grandfather and great grandparents. A year later I decided to research the marriages. So, there in sight was the marriage of my great grandfather Thomas sister Nora Nora, age twenty two, married Cummins Finarty (Feenarty) in February 1892. The most amazing thing is that they were hiding in plain sight. In the 1910 census they were all living next door to each other. I didn't know that because they were under their husbands names and I did not know about them.

Her sister Catherine Dowd married Thomas Mulroy in 1891. I found the listing on that one but not the actual document. The original had been taped and I did not get the proper page and volume. I will have to look for that again. The County of Allegheny had the names listed alphabetically by last and first name, plus by the men and women. I have to check the mens posting. Because of the alphabetizing it was difficult to find, but once I figured it out I found it.

Next week is a meeting so I will have more time to spend there.

I added the emigration paper of Catherine Dowd but it is too small to read and I need to find out 1) how to make it bigger for posting and 2) how to make it disappear if you do not want it there. It would be nice to be able to read the add ons.

Just click on the photo and it will enlarge to view the names. One problem solved. This was the listing of the immigration of Catherine Dowd, my great Aunt sister of Thomas Dowd.