Irish Families Identified in the St. Joseph Church, South Bend, Indiana Records
The records that I have compiled in this section of my website cover records found in items 3,4,6,7 and 8 of the St Joseph Catholic Church Microfilm #1617235. It will include a combination of baptisms, marriages and death records from this film. This roughly covers the years 1867-1914. This is a work in progress. I have tons of records to add to this section and will gradually add them each week. Keep in mind that many of the earlier Irish Church records for this area may be found in the Sacred Heart Church Records at Notre Dame. A compilation of those records is presented in the South Bend section.
Based on information obtained from "A History of St. Joseph's Church, South Bend, Indiana" it appears that there was a large influx of Irish into Joseph Church Parish around 1874. There were only 46 families in 1868, jumping to 139 families in 1874. Many of the earlier families that I have included in this compilation had surnames (either the husband or the wife) that I identified as being potentially Irish surnames from the irishtimes.com surname search site. Some like Roch (possibly the Irish surname Roche or Roach) could be French or Meyers could be German, but I have included them for the sake of being thorough and not wanting to leave out any possible Irish immigrants. Many surnames present in Ireland records like the Griffith's Valuation had English and Scottish origins, but for the sake of being thorough they will be included here. It is far easier to eliminate those later that aren't than to miss some who may have Irish origins.
These records will be presented by Fathers/Husbands Surname. I am documenting only the families with an identifiable Irish Surname (using irishtimes.com and a variety of other resources to determine this) in this section. If the Mother/Bride's name appears to be Irish even though the father/husband's surname is not, it will still be included (but under his name). For example Guilielmi Nadeau was not Irish but Helen McNabb appears to have an Irish Surname so I will include this record under section M-N. If a name is of questionable ethnic origin but I believe it to be Irish, it will be included (such as Meyer). Better to remove it later because it was German than to leave an Irish Descendent out of this compilation! Many surnames found in Ireland are of English or Scottish origin, they will still be included based on the above-mentioned criteria. There was a significant French population that I noted in the early Sacred Heart Church Records, even before the Irish. The early records at Sacred Heart seemed to be segregated by Ethnic background (French married French and witnessed their records and the Irish married Irish and witnessed their records). I think this gradually began to change in the later years represented by these St Joseph Church Records when there was some intermingling of the ethnic backgrounds (in example Coquillard/Cole, Adelsperger/Brennan).
I have only included the child's given name in these records. If you find your family in here and would like the baptismal name, feel free to contact me so I can give it to you. In regard to the event: I will refer to Baptisms with a "B" and Marriages with an "M".
| Surnames A-C | Surnames D-F | Surnames G-I |
| Surnames J-L | Surnames M-N | Surnames O-R |
| Surnames S-T | Surnames U-Z |