Some Early Records of St. Patrick's Church, Hogansburg, NY: Introduction

This is a compilation of the records of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Hogansburg, NY from approximately 1843-1852. The records cover the geographical area of northwestern Franklin Co. NY, northeastern St. Lawrence Co. NY and southwestern Quebec. The information was transcribed from photocopies of LDS microfilm #1450727, which were filmed in 1986 from the original documents in possesion of the parish at Hogansburg.

The main body of the work was taken from Item 1 on the microfilm, "Baptisms 1843-1852 (Hogansburg, Ft. Covington, Massena and Malone)". These records are broken down by locality in the originals according to where the event either took place or was recorded:

Hogansburg : records go from Apr. 6, 1844 to Dec. 5, 1851. This includes baptisms mainly for residents of the Towns of Bombay in Franklin Co. and Brasher in St. Lawrence Co. with occasional baptisms from other surrounding areas, such as the Town of Massena in St. Lawrence Co.

Ft. Covington : records go from January 1, 1844 to Nov. 27, 1852. They contain baptisms from the Town of Ft. Covington in Franklin Co. NY, plus several areas in southern Quebec such as Dundee and Godmanchester.

Massena : records go from May 19, 1844 to Oct. 17, 1852. These records are mainly for the Town of Massena, but also contain occasional records from other Towns in St. Lawrence Co. such as Louisville and Brasher.

Malone : records go from Mar. 25, 1843 to June 16, 1844. These cover Malone itself, plus some records from Bangor, Constable, modern-day Burke and Chateaugay in Franklin Co.. Other unidentified localities may also be included

The second major source of citations was Item 3 on the microfilm, "Marriages 1843-1855 (Ft. Covington and Hogansburg)". These records include marriages from Franklin and St. Lawrence Cos. in NY and some from Quebec and go from April 17, 1843 to Aug. 16, 1855.

All the St. Patrick's records up until 1915 have been microfilmed, and bits and pieces from later books were added to the main body of the work if they pertained to people already mentioned in the records from 1843-1852. A third source of citations were the records for the Hogansburg parish which were started in 1836 by Fr. John McNulty, and added to periodicaly after his departure in 1841. These records were maintained by Fr. Marcoux of the Mohawk mission in St. Regis Que. and still are kept at St. Regis. These records had been microfilmed in the 1970's, but are not availble (at least in 2001) through the LDS library. They appear to be Fr. Marcoux's attempt to serve the Hogansburg parish at times when there was no resident priest. Again, citations from this record were only used when they pertained to people mentioned in the 1843-1852 list. The original of the microfilm was placed in the Diocesan vault in Ogdensburg for safekeeping.

In general, the spelling and penmanship of these records is poor. A considerable amount of editing and educated guessing was required in order to prevent a majority of the entries from being labeled as illegible. However, even with guessing, there were approximately 70 citations which were so difficult to read that they were placed in their own list. A researcher looking for a specific name may be able to discern the names involved, especially if using a microfilm reader which allows magnification. All the transcription for this list was done from 8.5" x 11" photocopies, so no enlargement was possible.

Besides legibility, the spelling of names, especially names of French origin, is likely to be the cause of greatest difficulty when looking at the originals. The priests doing the recording were Irish, and not expert at spelling even common Irish names. One look at a telephone book in northern NY will confirm that there is no "correct" way to spell many French names even today, whether anglicized or not. This confusion over spelling presented a huge problem as the records were being typed. It was necessary to try to come up with consistent spellings of names so that family groups would appear together in the list. This required making decisions as to how certain names would be represented in this list, and those decisions were not necessarily correct. In most cases, a compromise was reached which produced a version of the name in question which was phonetically correct, if not entirely "accurate". Researchers are advised to use their imaginations when searching for a specific name. Some of the more common names and their variations appear at the end of this introduction

One last source of confusion with the French names was the system of using a "dit" name in addition to the surname. For example, one common name in these records was Duhaut dit Jasmin. Some members of the family gradually became known as Jasmin or one of its variations (Jesmer, Jesmin) while others retained the Duhaut. Some members of the family seemed to have switched back and forth. "Leger dit Parisien" is another example. Researchers looking for one of these names may find the family listed under the "dit" name instead

A few Irish names pose a problem only because of the use (or non-use) of the "Mc" and "O" prefixes. Most Irish names traditionally had the prefix "Mc" (son) or "O" (grandson), but many branches of families dropped the prefix when they emigrated to the US. As time went on, it became popular to restore the prefix to the family name. Some names are listed here using the prefix, and others are not. For example, many of the "Keefe" listings were actually "O'Keefe" in the original but it was desirable to list all branches of the family one way so that the family groups could be seen together

There had been Catholics in the St. Lawrence valley for many years before the parish at Hogansburg was established. A mission to the Mohawks was set up in St. Regis Que. in the 18th century, but the priest assigned there was not necessarily able to cover the vast amount of area of northern NY and southern Que. to minister to Catholic settlers. A church building of some sort had been constructed at Hogansburg by 1834, but there was no priest specifically assigned to it. In November 1835, Fr. John McNulty arrived on the scene and began his ministry to the faithful who were spread out over quite a large area.

Trains were not yet a reality in the region, so traveling the circuit that he did on horseback or wagon must have been an exhausting ordeal. Even today, travel in the winter in that area can be difficult and dangerous, so he must have been quite a strong individual. His ministry took him to 5 major areas; Massena, Brasher , Ft. Covington,and Malone in NY, plus at least some work in southern Que. such as the villages of Dundee and Godmanchester. His parish register starts in January 1836 and continuues until March, 1841. In 1840 he began a religious debate with Rev. Ashbel Parmelee, the Congregationalist minister in Malone. This debate was carried out through the newspapers of the area, with each responding to the religious challenges written by the other. It may have been this debate which triggered his arrest and imprisonment in Malone in 1841. He escaped to Canada and died there in 1882

The majority of the records transcribed here were done by the Keveny brothers. Fr. James Keveny was appointed to Hogansburg in 1843 and stayed there until late August, 1851 at which time he was transferred to Clinton County. He was replaced by his brother Thomas who had been living in Hogansburg with their parents for several years. Thomas' handwriting is often completely illegible, so there are more incomplete transcriptions after August, 1851 than before

In order to save space, the sources of the records were abbreviated according to the following table:

b1 all baptisms taken from the four sections of Item 1 on the microfilm (ie Ft. Covington, Hogansburg, Malone and Massena) from 1843 to roughly 1852, with a few from later years added. These are mostly the records of the Keveny brothers.

b2 a few baptisms taken from the previous book of church records kept by Fr. McNulty and later added to by Fr. Marcoux of St. Regis, PQ comprising the years of 1834 to about 1841. Only records pertaining to families mentioned in the b1 list were cited.

m1 all marriages listed in a separate item (Item 3) of the microfilm, containing nothing but marriages from all four districts from roughly 1843 until 1855.

m2 marriages listed by Fr. McNulty in the older set of church records. Only marriages of couples mentioned in b1 or b2 were cited.

d2 deaths listed by Fr. McNulty or Fr. Marcoux in the older set of church records

Be sure to also check out the 70 citations which were so difficult to read that they were placed in their own list

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