A database of existing English Roman Catholic Registers?

[Blue70]

Is there a website which lists the existing RC parish registers and where they are located?

FindMyPast have transcribed and uploaded some - I believe it's the diocese of Westminster (not yet complete) and possibly the Midlands (Birmingham)?

However, there are still large parts of England where the relevant RC records are not searchable online.

Even accepting that the parish priest probably holds them it's still difficult to find out exactly which records the church holds and what dates they cover. It's a little frustrating tracking down the appropriate contact details for the priest and then having to enquire if they actually hold the information before a request for a search can be made. From personal experience queries aren't always acknowledged

A central database would be extremely useful to speed things up a bit.

Amended to read:
"FindMyPast have transcribed"

Going back to this post I don't think there is such a website and it would take a lot of investigative work to put something like this together. It can be a real effort as you have found determining where certain RC registers are kept. Even after finding out that a church in a location has registers you are interested in there can be problems getting them to play ball. I'm still waiting for a response from a certain RC church after having received an acknowledgement from their admin person months ago. They probably get a lot of requests and getting the registers out for a family history researcher is probably at the bottom of their to do lists and sometimes gets neglected completely. 


Blue

[Jill Eaton]

Even after finding out that a church in a location has registers you are interested in there can be problems getting them to play ball. I'm still waiting for a response from a certain RC church after having received an acknowledgement from their admin person months ago. They probably get a lot of requests and getting the registers out for a family history researcher is probably at the bottom of their to do lists and sometimes gets neglected completely. 


Blue

I know exactly what you mean. I'd be quite happy to make a donation to whatever charity they considered appropriate if it would help. However, making the offer sounds a little cheeky and might be construed as bribery

Some years  back I did contact the archivist at the Westminster Diocesan Archives. He couldn't have been more helpful. I did have to go and look myself in the end and it did end up being a very expensive baptism record ( A day off work, train fairs for two, ages walking round actually trying to find the archives! and not allowed to photocopy the record). Ironically they are available on FMY now including the original image.

Who knows if we wait long enough eventually all RC records will be digitised. I think I'll be dead by then

[eadaoin]

I know exactly what you mean. I'd be quite happy to make a donation to whatever charity they considered appropriate if it would help. However, making the offer sounds a little cheeky and might be construed as bribery

I don't think they'd think of it as bribery. I've contacted 3 parishes here in the Dublin area, over the last 5 years or so - two by phone and one by email. I left 5euro and a small box of chocs at one, one said that's fine - don't bother, and the other thanked me for my 5euro donation . . I said give it to the church fund or a charity of your choosing.

[MarieC]

I'll certainly be interested in this new database when it becomes available.  I have an absolute brick wall with my Catholic Martin 3xggrandparents - no idea where either of them was born or baptised.  Living in hope again...

[ankerdine]

I recently received an email from FindMyPast stating that The Catholic Heritage Collection is now available on their website. Is this of use to you?

I am unable to copy the email but maybe someone else can do so.

Judy

[Westoe]

[quote author=sallyyorks link=topic=780638.msg6350049#msg6350049 date=1508064832
Also have a bunch of catholics in Yorkshire. Same problem.

It's almost as if the church doesn't want to share the records on the big genealogy sites?[/quote]

Hello sallyyorks,

I have a CD with:
"The Catholic Registers of Little Blake Street Chapel, now St. Wilfrid's, York, 1771-1838"

I can take a look there for you if it covers your dates and if you PM me with your names.

Cheers,
Westoe

[sallyyorks]

Also have a bunch of catholics in Yorkshire. Same problem.

It's almost as if the church doesn't want to share the records on the big genealogy sites?

Hello sallyyorks,

I have a CD with:
"The Catholic Registers of Little Blake Street Chapel, now St. Wilfrid's, York, 1771-1838"

I can take a look there for you if it covers your dates and if you PM me with your names.

Cheers,
Westoe

Hi Westoe
Thank you for your offer

They weren't from York city but I guess they might have used the church there as they were not too far away.
The ones I am stuck on at those dates are

Elizabeth Metcalf bapt about 1827, father Francis. Also Francis marriage. His father Thomas Metcalf who married 1770s/ 1780s. From around Kirby Hill/Humberton/Knaresborough/Helperby

Robert Ingleson b about 1819. William his father, married twice. Mary or Isabel. Second wife Elizabeth. From Coneythorpe/Goldsborough/Ripley/Killinghall/Hopperton/Hampsthwaite area.

Harriet Benson b 1818. Bapt recorded in a CofE? church (familysearch) but with note 'RC'.
Joseph Benson and Isabella Dickinson bapts. They marr 1804. Also some on this line named Ibbetson and Parker. From Goldsborough/Knaresborough area

All the above were mostly ag labs who tended to move around quite a bit

[MarieC]

I recently received an email from FindMyPast stating that The Catholic Heritage Collection is now available on their website. Is this of use to you?

I am unable to copy the email but maybe someone else can do so.

Judy

Thanks Judy,

I am no longer a member of FindMyPast but they still send me emails.  I will be trying to have a look at that collection that you mention, if I can do so without rejoining.  But I'm still very interested in this new database when it becomes generally available.

MarieC

[Jill Eaton]

Findmypast Catholic Heritage records for England currently only have the records for the archdiocese of Birmingham and Westminster. The Westminster records are not yet complete and I don't know about Birmingham.

If you are lucky enough to find a record you can at least look at the original as well as the transcript.

I don't know if, when, or if ever the record sets will be extended. I'm hoping for the remaining Westminster and then Southwark diocese to be added before I get too old to care