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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Jill Eaton on Saturday 14 October 17 12:49 BST (UK)
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Is there a website which lists the existing RC parish registers and where they are located?
FMY 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" ::)
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Good question.
Having English catholic ancestors myself, I would be interested in any resources too.
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This might give some pointers:
https://www.genguide.co.uk/source/roman-catholic-registers-and-records/30/
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I don't think such a list exists.
I tried to get onto the Catholic FHS website but it wasn't working, so tried their facebook page which isn't particularly active. A question posted in September hasn't been answered.
There maybe something on their blog?
https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/where-are-the-records/
Michael Gandy is the go to person or this type of enquiry
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https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/where-are-the-records/
Michael Gandy is the go to person or this type of enquiry
This seems like an excellent place to start. Thanks :D
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FindMyPast has Birmingham diocesan records (images) which include Staffordshire and part of Worcestershire as well as Warwickshire. Have found a lot of my mum’s family on there.
There is also a list on the FindMyPast site of the parishes included in its Birmingham and Westminster collections.
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Liverpool RC records were included in the Liverpool Record Office/Ancestry digitisation project record images are viewable online on Ancestry or free on Ancestry on PC in Liverpool libraries.
Isle of Man RC records were included in the Isle of Man collection on Family Search. Unfortunately the way the records are incorporated does not make it clear what they are.
Blue
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Have you tried Gen UKI? Search by county.
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Hot off the press! The Margaret Higgins Database. Catholic records 1607-1840. Launched Oct. 2017 at Catholic Family History Society seminar. 250th Anniversary of Papists' Returns 1767.
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Are any of the records on Lan OPC from catholic registers?
I have seen some rellies on there noted as 'RC', but they are in the C of E parish registers.
There were a lot of catholics in the north of England
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Are any of the records on Lan OPC from catholic registers?
I have seen some rellies on there noted as 'RC', but they are in the C of E parish registers.
There were a lot of catholics in the north of England
Yes. Some of my mother's family are on. My paternal grandparents marriage is as well but not any of their children.There are quite a few Catholic records on LAN OPC. It has a "What's New" section on the Home page. It has some early baptisms for a few parishes and some early 20th century ones for others. Haven't found any R.C. registers for Preston on it yet but I found a transcript of St. Wilfrid's burial register by serendipity. I tried to post a link but it didn't work.
Catholic Record Society published transcripts of some registers 100 years ago. One volume has Fylde registers.
The priest of St. Peter's, Lancaster 200 years ago used to write comments in the burial register.
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Hot off the press! The Margaret Higgins Database. Catholic records 1607-1840. Launched Oct. 2017 at Catholic Family History Society seminar. 250th Anniversary of Papists' Returns 1767.
Brilliant find, thanks. Apparently the database will be available online later this year.
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A few years ago maybe 4 I was in Lancashire Archives and a gentleman was filming registers. I was trying to take a photo of a map on my little camera and he offered the use of his tripod. He turned out to be filming the RC Diocese of Salford Registers for lan-opc who had been given permission to film and transcribe the records. Over the subsequent years a number of Salford RC Diocese records have appeared on lan-opc and are still appearing. Their transcribers do a grand job.
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Are any of the records on Lan OPC from catholic registers?
I have seen some rellies on there noted as 'RC', but they are in the C of E parish registers.
There were a lot of catholics in the north of England
Yes. Some of my mother's family are on. My paternal grandparents marriage is as well but not any of their children.There are quite a few Catholic records on LAN OPC. It has a "What's New" section on the Home page. It has some early baptisms for a few parishes and some early 20th century ones for others. Haven't found any R.C. registers for Preston on it yet but I found a transcript of St. Wilfrid's burial register by serendipity. I tried to post a link but it didn't work.
Catholic Record Society published transcripts of some registers 100 years ago. One volume has Fylde registers.
The priest of St. Peter's, Lancaster 200 years ago used to write comments in the burial register.
Thank you Maiden Stone.
I will take another look at LanOPC today.
My Lancashire catholics are mostly in Leigh, St Helens/Haydock/Blackbrook and Ormskirk.
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Link about the RC database mentioned:-
http://whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/thousands-catholic-records-available-new-database
Blue
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Link about the RC database mentioned:-
http://whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/thousands-catholic-records-available-new-database
Blue
Not sure if it's the format I'm using, but when I click on the link and then on the links in the list on the 'Catholic Family History Society (CFHS)' nothing happens
http://catholicfhs.online/index.php/contact-us/membership.html
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Hot off the press! The Margaret Higgins Database. Catholic records 1607-1840. Launched Oct. 2017 at Catholic Family History Society seminar. 250th Anniversary of Papists' Returns 1767.
That's excellent news :D
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I don't see any Catholic registers on St. Helens page.
Coverage is patchy. Navigating pages for some large towns with many districts and dozens of churches, it's not always clear what denominations they are. If I was searching a large town I might look on GEN UKI first to get names of Catholic churches, then go to LAN OPC to see if the registers were on there.
Under " Resources" on the Wigan pages on LAN OPC all churches in Wigan are listed in 3 denomination tables with date of earliest record for each. LAN OPC has registers for only 1 R.C. Wigan church, starting 1855. Earliest R.C. register in Wigan is St. John's baptism register which dates from 1732. I was surprised how early it began.
Salford R.C. Cathedral; Baptisms 1843-1920; confirmations 1856-1874; marriages 1845-1893; conversions 1876-1926; deaths 1880-1940.
Earliest I noticed on the site was St. Mary, Chipping, baptisms 1780-1856.
The Blackburn page has baptisms from St. Joseph's workhouse.
Burnley, St. Mary of the Assumption, baptisms & marriages from 1820-1910.
Bury, St. Marie, baptisms 1825-76, marriages 1834-1924.
The above is a selection from a quick browse.
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Link about the RC database mentioned:-
http://whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/thousands-catholic-records-available-new-database
Blue
Not sure if it's the format I'm using, but when I click on the link and then on the links in the list on the 'Catholic Family History Society (CFHS)' nothing happens
http://catholicfhs.online/index.php/contact-us/membership.html
Same thing happened to me with that link.
CFHS is on my list of favourite sites so I can reach the main website OK.
I found out about the Margaret Higgins Database from CFHS website. A notice about the seminar is on the website. Margaret Higgins' son who compiled it gave a presentation. He's Australian so at first I assumed it was Australian records. If I'd renewed my sub. I would have known all about it.
Dick Eastman mentions it in his blog.
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Link about the RC database mentioned:-
http://whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/thousands-catholic-records-available-new-database
Blue
Not sure if it's the format I'm using, but when I click on the link and then on the links in the list on the 'Catholic Family History Society (CFHS)' nothing happens
http://catholicfhs.online/index.php/contact-us/membership.html
Same thing happened to me with that link.
CFHS is on my list of favourite sites so I can reach the main website OK.
I found out about the Margaret Higgins Database from CFHS website. A notice about the seminar is on the website. Margaret Higgins' son who compiled it gave a presentation. He's Australian so at first I assumed it was Australian records. If I'd renewed my sub. I would have known all about it.
Dick Eastman mentions it in his blog.
Thanks Maiden Stone
I have tried searching the site on different formats and the 'Margaret Higgins data base ' but just get sent back to the site where the links don't work
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http://catholicfhs.online/index.php
When I go to this site I can't then move onto to any of the sub-pages like "Publications". It just stays stuck on what I assume in the "Home" page.
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Registers of Catholic churches in Manchester indexed by Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society.
Catholic Register Index - source Information
www.mlfhs.org.uk/data/catholic_churches.php
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I don't see any Catholic registers on St. Helens page.
Coverage is patchy. Navigating pages for some large towns with many districts and dozens of churches, it's not always clear what denominations they are. If I was searching a large town I might look on GEN UKI first to get names of Catholic churches, then go to LAN OPC to see if the registers were on there.
Under " Resources" on the Wigan pages on LAN OPC all churches in Wigan are listed in 3 denomination tables with date of earliest record for each. LAN OPC has registers for only 1 R.C. Wigan church, starting 1855. Earliest R.C. register in Wigan is St. John's baptism register which dates from 1732. I was surprised how early it began.
Salford R.C. Cathedral; Baptisms 1843-1920; confirmations 1856-1874; marriages 1845-1893; conversions 1876-1926; deaths 1880-1940.
Earliest I noticed on the site was St. Mary, Chipping, baptisms 1780-1856.
The Blackburn page has baptisms from St. Joseph's workhouse.
Burnley, St. Mary of the Assumption, baptisms & marriages from 1820-1910.
Bury, St. Marie, baptisms 1825-76, marriages 1834-1924.
The above is a selection from a quick browse.
Thanks again
Little bit late dates for most of mine but still worth a look at the Wigan ones.
Mine are from quite old Lancashire families.
Two I can't find bapts for are
Sarah Buckley b about 1828 and her daughter Mary Ellen Livesey b about 1851
Both born Blackbrook (colliery), Lancs. Both fathers forenames are James.
No parish record for marriages either.
Many others, eg Hollands, of this branch are hard to find too.
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?
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I'm trying to find out who holds the catholic parish records for Southwark. All I can find out is the names of the RC chapels in the area. Various sites list the churches, like Genuki, but no one seems to know precisely what records are still extant and where they are located. familySearch tells me there are 3 RC churches but gives no information regarding them. Southwark Council only hold parish registers for St George's cathedral.
The last time I contacted one of the priests from the relevant church in question I got absolutely no reply.
I feel like I'm going round in circles!
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Try this for the Catholic Family History Society
https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com
This should take you to the main site.
There's also Facebook and Twitter.
Their page for the new database doesn't seem to work.
Some of the others seem to be old ones.
Edit. This link works.
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Try this for the Catholic Family History Society
https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com
This should take you to the main site.
There's also Facebook and Twitter.
Their page for the new database doesn't seem to work.
Some of the others seem to be old ones.
Edit. This link works.
Thanks
Yes link working.
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I'm trying to find out who holds the catholic parish records for Southwark. All I can find out is the names of the RC chapels in the area. Various sites list the churches, like Genuki, but no one seems to know precisely what records are still extant and where they are located. familySearch tells me there are 3 RC churches but gives no information regarding them. Southwark Council only hold parish registers for St George's cathedral.
The last time I contacted one of the priests from the relevant church in question I got absolutely no reply.
I feel like I'm going round in circles!
you may carry on going round in circles.
The RC diocesan website link to archives states the registers are at the churches
http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk/Archives.html
have a quick look at the Parish Register Survey ;)
The list of Southwark parishes is here
http://directory.rcsouthwark.co.uk/Southwark_Borough.html
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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
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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 ;) ;D
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 ::)
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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 ;) ;D
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.
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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...
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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
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[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
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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
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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
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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 :D ;)
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Jill, Thank you for that!
I suspect that the FindMyPast stuff will not be much use to me if that is all it contains. Some years ago, thanks to a tip from a Rootschatter and help from the part-time archivist of the diocese of Westminster, I found my lot worshipping at St James' Spanish Place in the early 19th century. And the church was kind enough to give me what they had. But there weren't records for them that went back further. I probably have found what exists for them in Westminster (doesn't mean I won't try a search, though!) I really have no idea where they could have come from before that, which is why this new index appeals, when it is available.
Real needle in a haystack stuff, this looking for Catholic ancestors, isn't it? :(
Thanks again, and I hope you find yours "before you get too old to care"! :)
Marie
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Real needle in a haystack stuff, this looking for Catholic ancestors, isn't it? :(
Thanks again, and I hope you find yours "before you get too old to care"! :)
Marie
The rhythmic banging my head on the desk, whimpering and look of despair in my eyes when I find a new lead generally prompts the now-ritual response from my family...."Irish, catholic or both?"
But having straightened my shoulders, taken a very deep breath, drunk a large glass of wine...I carry on searching regardless, knowing my odds of actually finding anything are probably very small indeed. I assume this means I still care ;D ;D ;) ;)
And those moments of success!!! All Rootschatters know that feeling :D
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Hello sallyyorks,
I've looked at all your surnames, but sadly, no joy for you.
Bought my copy of the Margaret Higgins database online tonight - can't wait for it to get here.
https://www.genfair.co.uk/product_list.php?sid=227&page=71864 (https://www.genfair.co.uk/product_list.php?sid=227&page=71864)
Cheers,
Westoe
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My CD of the Margaret Higgins arrived Friday. The disappointment was Crushing! The only two mentions I found of my family were one named man and two unnamed children in 1767 "Return of Papists" for South Shields and one named widow and two named children in 1767 "Return of Papists" for Whitby, both of which are readily available elsewhere. It doesn't even have the Catholic baptisms that are transcribed free online in issues of the Catholic Record Society journal where I have found some of mine.
I hope that this database is still a work in progress and will be added to from time to time after it comes online.
Cheers,
Westoe
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Hello sallyyorks,
I've looked at all your surnames, but sadly, no joy for you.
Bought my copy of the Margaret Higgins database online tonight - can't wait for it to get here.
https://www.genfair.co.uk/product_list.php?sid=227&page=71864 (https://www.genfair.co.uk/product_list.php?sid=227&page=71864)
Cheers,
Westoe
Thankyou for looking Westoe
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The Margaret Higgins Catholic database (3,348 pages) is now available free online.
See link here:
https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com/2019/12/17/margaret-higgins-database/ (https://catholicfhs.wordpress.com/2019/12/17/margaret-higgins-database/)
Because of the size, I think it best to download the whole thing and then use Control-F to search for your names.
Cheers,
Westoe
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For those interested in Southwark there were further records from the Archdiocese of Southwark made available on FindMyPast in June 2020.