The Talmadges' Religion?

Just because I'm curious about these biographical details, and because
I find the Talmadges' lives so fascinating, I wonder if anyone here
knows what their religion was, if any. In Anita Loos's memoir "The
Talmadge Girls" she states that Peg was of Irish-Catholic descent, but
is much more ambiguous about Fred. She states that (paraphrased) he
came from the faith that "produced the Wandering Jew", which is
certainly an odd way of putting it.
Another major reason for my curiosity is that I wonder if there are
baptismal certificates one could use to cross-check the birth years
provided in the 1900 census. On 23 June of that year, the Talmadge
family were enumerated in the 8th ward of Brooklyn as follows:

Frederick, May 1868 (32), (can't read what's under occupation)
Margaret, Nov. 186[? looks like a 4, but the age looks like 38, which
would mean 1861].
Norma, May 1894 (6)
Natalie, Apr. 1896 (4)
Constance, Apr. 1898 (2)

It looks like Fred's parents were born in Connecticut, while Peg's
came from Ireland.

On 25 April 1910, the "Talmages" (as the name was spelt in both
censuses) were listed as:

Frederick H., 42, advertising agent
Margaret W., 41 [sic!]
Norma, 15
Natalie, 13
Constance, 11

Presumably, residents were asked to give data based on the "as of"
date (15 April in this case), and since Constance had a birthday on 19
April and Natalie would have one on 29 April the ages still jibe with
1900. There is some discrepancy with Peg's age, perhaps because she
didn't want to appear older than her husband.

I haven't found Norma in 1920, but in January of that year Peg is
listed as 59, Constance as 21, and Natalie as 23. So I think the birth
years of the daughters are pretty definitive, but if anyone knows
about their religious upbringing and/or presence of baptismal
certificates (if any), I'd love to know.

-Harold

On Oct 8, 9:35 pm, Harold Aherne <leotolstoy....DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Just because I'm curious about these biographical details, and because
> I find the Talmadges' lives so fascinating, I wonder if anyone here
> knows what their religion was, if any.

I have a vague recollection that they were Catholic, but I couldn't
swear to it. Any information bouncing around in the recesses of my
mind would have come from biographies of Buster Keaton (from the
chapters on Buster's first marriage), or possibly from "Without Lying
Down," and those sources should be well-enough indexed to make this
fairly easy to find if it's there.

Rodney Sauer
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com