St. Mary's Parish Loretto Kansas

Loretto's St. Mary's Parish Church

    St. Mary's Parish of Loretto Kansas was established in 1912. It's kind of an unusual story for a parish because of how it came about. Originally the members of St. Mary's Parish were from Holy Cross Parish. However, when the elders of that parish got together and changed the name of the town from Holy Cross to Pfeifer, as their village in Russia was, the proud members that came from Kamenka & Rothammel, Saratov, Volga, Russia were put out. Click below for more!


   As a result the feud went on for awhile. Finally the bitter debate came to a head with the building a new church. The cost and overwhelming size of the church became the last straw. The Rothammel and Kamenka group had to go all the way to the Pope for permission to creation a new Parish. I'm pretty sure he didn't get the whole scoop. Need more? 

Map of Kamenka, Russia 1912
by Mr. Geo Meier

    The new St. Mary's Church in Loretto, Kansas was named after the immigrants church back in Kamenka. Loretto was known for their marching band and baseball in the early 1900's.  The church in Loretto was very similar to pictures of churches in the small villages of Russia where the immigrants traveled from. Check out the attach link to get a great Picture View of St Mary's Parish. 
    Every once in while you have an awesome find when doing genealogy. For me it happen one afternoon while I was working to take down the original church rectory from St. Mary's Parish. Hidden in the back walls, most likely fell behind the wall, was the original St. Mary's Parish Record Book. This awesome gem of a find is being posted on the St. Mary's Page of this blog to share with all of you that may be looking for ancestry that originate in Loretto, Kansas. Also, you may want to check out the page on Cemetery Sites. We will be added as much as we can work into the blog. 
    Good luck on your search for ancestors!