While cleaning out my email inbox this weekend, I came across a photo one of my cousins snapped of my orphaned grandfather Michael John Flanagan’s (1927-1997) baptism record. He shot this quickly a couple years ago with his iPhone. I’ve been holding off posting it until I could get a good scanned copy of the document, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on the original yet, so I’m just going with the iPhone version.
According to the baptism record, Michael was baptized at just under one month old on June 19, 1927 at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Buffalo, New York. His parents Patrick Thomas Flanagan and Sarah (Kennedy) Flanagan are listed on the certificate, but I cannot read the surnames of his sponsors. [10/22/14 Update: My cousin Linda Flanagan confirmed that the sponsors were Patrick’s sister Mary Bridget FLANAGAN and her husband Charles John “John” McGOUGH, who also lived in Buffalo.]
I imagine that Patrick and Sarah, at this moment in history, expected to get to spend at least several more decades with their youngest son. But Patrick would die in December of the following year, and Sarah died in June 1930, orphaning Michael and his four older brothers.
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| St. Mary of Sorrows Church. Creative Commons image (2011) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. |
According to Wikipedia, the church was built in 1891 and was shut down as a church in 1985. It currently houses a charter school and community center. The building is located at 938 Genesee Street, Buffalo, New York.
Sources Cited
Saint Mary of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church. (2013, September 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:07, November 4, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saint_Mary_of_Sorrows_Roman_Catholic_Church&oldid=575075817
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