Catholic Records

Lessons From a Mixed-Up Parish

22 Jan By Dwight

St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Chatham, Northumberland County, New Brunswick, may be the most ethnically and religiously mixed-up parish I have ever researched for an Irish family. Known as “Chatham Parish,” its records (1838-1899) are indexed and digitized as part of the “Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1670-1946,” on Ancestry.com. The lessons I learned from a page-by-page search for my targeted Irish family both amazed and confused me.

Chatham drew varied ethnic groups, with the Irish and French Canadians being among the largest. It was tough to rely on the index as the originals were complex. There were smaller pieces of paper inserted in the binding to reflect dispensations to marry, notices signed by non-Catholic spouses concerning their children’s religious upbringing, and of people requesting proof of their baptism so they could be married elsewhere.

Then there were the records of people converting to Catholicism; the assumption being in preparation for marriage. In most cases, they were absolved from heresy and conditionally rebaptized. The exception seemed to be the Lutherans from Scandinavian countries. They were absolved from heresy and received on a profession of faith.

So what did I learn? Religion was not necessarily clear-cut in these areas of diverse immigration. Sometimes who was the Catholic party was not always clear-cut. The fluid nature of church membership was not confined to the Catholic parish. It also occurred in the Protestant denominations.

For example, my targeted husband and wife were listed as Catholic on their marriage. They were married by a Baptist minister, with the witnesses being Presbyterian. Depending on the censuses, the wife was listed as Catholic or Presbyterian. I finally proved she and her husband were at least from Catholic families, and they had one child christened by the Chatham Parish priest. The rest was up for grabs. Her second marriage was to an Anglican in the Anglican Parish. For the wife, the censuses revealed her father was born in England and her mother in Ireland. Perhaps another mixed-marriage!

My most important lesson was to be very careful with church records and always look at original registers rather than relying on an index. If I had only relied on the index, then I would have missed the entire context of what the Chatham Parish was all about.

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Records So Bad You Laugh or Cry

30 Dec By Dwight

There are times in Irish research, where a record was kept so poorly that you either laugh or you cry. I had this happen recently when researching in the Catholic registers of Moylough & Mountbellew, County Galway. I had access to two different microfilming editions of the originals, and I utilized them both. Here is what I found out:

Several priests were serving the parish at the same time, each with his own record keeping style.
A common writing style in the christenings was to list the parents as Pat and Mrs. Sullivan. In this case, I could not trust whether the female godparent was listed by her maiden or married name.
Another common writing style was Pat and Mary Sullivan. In this case, I still could not assume the female godparent was listed by her married or maiden name. However, I had to wonder if whatever the surnames were of the godfather and godmother, if this could have been Mary’s maiden name.
Place names were commonly abbreviated. M. Bellew was obviously Mountbellew, but something like C. Bridge or B. Bridge required some thought. Perhaps, Carrickbridge and Ballybridge.
The writing was so poor that Pat Sullivan could just as easily have been Bat Sullivan for Bartholomew rather than Pat for Patrick. If the mother or godmother was listed with the first name of B. it was assumed this meant Bridget, K for Catherine; with M. being the mystery name of Mary or Margaret.

The bottom line is no index, not even one I could generate myself, could be used as the final word on what was preserved in this parish register. However, I knew what surname I was looking for and felt confident I could at least read that name accurately. So I could still research my targeted family. With my list of everybody by the surname in question documented, whether as a parent or godparent, then I could line up my findings and begin reconstructing various branches of the family.

The moral to this is even with access to an index online; I still had to go through them page by page. No index will be accurate for this parish as that is just not possible, and it’s no one’s fault.

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

Liverpool, England Catholic Registers Online

30 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

The Liverpool, England Catholic registers are online at Ancestry.com. However, they are easy to miss! It’s important to realize that on most databases for English records, when the term “parish” is used, it typically refers to the Protestant Church of England parish system. Although there were English Catholics who survived the Protestant Reformation, they met quietly, often in houses, and were considered non-conformists, just like any number of other churches. Prior to World War I, Catholic churches would have been considered a “chapel” rather than a parish.

The Church of England, which is part of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, became the state religion in 1559. Until 1829, when the Catholic Relief Act was passed, Catholics faced discrimination.

The Liverpool Catholic Records Collections

The collections, which are indexed and connected with the scanned images can be found in four Ancestry collections:

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1802-1906”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Confirmations, 1813-1920”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Marriages, 1754-1921”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1988”

The Liverpool Diocese was established in 1850, and most of the christenings, marriages and burials in these database would date from that time. It’s important to remember, it was the Irish Catholics flooding into the city, which would create huge parishes. The indexes can be searched by name and even by parent’s names if you know them. Also keep in mind that burial is not a sacrament in the Catholic Church, so parishes did not have to keep them. However, baptism and marriages were sacraments.

Importance of the Liverpool Databases

Liverpool was a major drawing place for ships leaving Ireland. Often passengers would disembark and either board another vessel, or they would stay for a while prior to moving elsewhere. This makes the Liverpool collections very important in your quest to document Irish ancestors.

Although Liverpool had one of the largest Catholic populations in England, it’s important to remember, that Catholics tended to register births, marriages and deaths less often with the government. Registration with the government became mandatory in 1874. The sketchy nature of Catholic registration with the government makes these Catholic databases a viable substitute. These are major databases for Irish immigrant research.

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The Irish Mission at Watson House

16 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

There is a new database called The Irish Mission at Watson House. It has the potential to be a major resource. However, it has to be utilized in a “thinking outside the box” approach.

Introduction to the Watson House

In an effort to help young immigrant women arrive safe, the Irish Mission for Immigrant Girls in New York City was established. The Catholic clergy and others would work tirelessly to help over 100,000 woman. The records generated are part of the Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Elizabeth Seton Shrine, at Watson House.

The need for such a safe house for female immigrants arose during an agricultural depression in Ireland which began in 1879. This saw more women emigrating alone. The church established the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Protection of Irish Immigrant Girls, purchasing the house in 1885, located in Manhattan at 7 State Street facing the harbor. It was intended as temporary housing until the girls could be met by family, friends or transfer to a final destination.

Using the Database

The first thing you will find when searching the Watson House records is that it is not clear cut. For example, although the records provide date, age, name and county of origin in Ireland, there’s little way know if you have the correct girl. Which Mary Kelly is yours? The solution I found was to use the destination field in the search feature. This allows you to seek all Mary Kelly girls who went, for example, to Cleveland, Ohio. If this is where your ancestor went, then this helps to narrow the field considerably.

In another approach, you can search all girls who went to Cleveland. Then use that pool of names and see if any were associated with your ancestor who settled in Cleveland. Where I see that you would have a problem is if the girl stayed in Manhattan.

These are just two of many approaches to a database such as this. So be careful not to discount databases such as this simply because they are not straightforward. You simply have to look at the information from the sidelines and then determine how to best approach the collection.

Click Here if you need help with locating your Irish immigrant ancestor.

Strategies for Using the Boston Pilot Database

18 Feb By Dwight Leave a Comment

People looking for missing relatives and friends from Ireland would place ads in the Boston Pilot (1831-1921) newspaper because of its wide circulation. Although published in Boston, ads flooded in from everywhere. It is within these want ads you often immigrant origins preserved and where various family members settled. Databases can be found on the websites of Ancestry, Boston College and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

What if Your Ancestor is Not Listed in the Database

When you find your ancestor, then your research really opens up. However, what if you don’t find your ancestors listed? I have found these databases are much deeper and can be used in many more ways than a simple straightforward search. Some of my favorite strategies are below.

Secondary Strategies for Using the Boston Pilot Database

Place Names: I may not know where a person was from in Ireland; however, I know where they settled. Use the search feature to identify all Irish who settled in that locality. Who was looking for people who settled in a particular state, city or with that surname? Once you study these ads, does a pattern emerge? For example, are most the ads looking for people from County Roscommon? If so, then you might have stumbled upon where your ancestor was from.

This strategy can also be used in reverse when you know the county in Ireland but you cannot identify a parish. Who from that county were placing ads for people living where your ancestor settled? Does a pattern emerge?

Associate Names: In research, we always assume the godparents at children’s christenings were friends and family of the parents. Then we wonder if they may have known them in Ireland prior to immigrating. Using this logic, take the names of the godparents as found in the immigrant parish and run them through the Boston Pilot databases. Does a pattern emerge? Who is looking for them or who are they looking for?

Religion: Do not assume everybody placing ads were Catholic or even practicing Catholic. Upon immigrating many Irish Catholics either dropped out of church or switched denominational affiliations. I see this all the time. So just because your ancestor became a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian or Adventist, do not assume they would not place an ad in the Jesuit published Boston Pilot. Also, do not assume nobody is looking for them!

With these few extra strategies, the Boston Pilot databases may actually yield where your family came from. These are not straightforward searches, but they have worked for many in many cases.

Irish Immigrants in a Multi-Ethnic Parish

4 Feb By Dwight Leave a Comment

In many countries where the Irish settled, they did not necessarily attend an “Irish Parish” or even an “English speaking parish” as we term these in genealogy. I was recently working in a small frontier Catholic parish in Southern Illinois where many Irish and Germans settled. What I was looking at didn’t make much sense until I looked at who the priest was writing the information down. When the German priest was baptizing and transcribing names in the registers, it was a nightmare. He obviously did well with the German names.

A German Priest Writes Irish Names

What made this case fascinating was the German priest seemed to have confused O’Connell and O’Donnell. This also brought into question his usage of McDonell, McDonald also for O’Donnell. My search family was O’Donnell.

What I noticed through closely examining a ten year period of these records from 1864-1874 was when the Irish priest took over the writing, he obviously got the names correct. It was through his transcriptions I was able to understand McDonnell and McDonald were the same and were not O’Donnell. However, he also seemed to have gone back into the registers and wrote over the mess created by the German priest in an attempt to correct errors in Irish names. While admirable, it created a secondary mess where I could not tell if it was really O’Donnell or O’Connell.

Irish Priest Begins Writing Irish Names

My solution was to continue in the registers where the German priest was no longer writing and see what the Irish priest did with the same families a few years later. If I had only stopped after a few years in the registers, I would have missed so much. It literally took me about 10 years of sorting through every family and the godparent’s names to unravel the mess created between the Irish and German priests. However, in the end, it was well worth my time!

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Central Catholic Library in Dublin

12 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

The Central Catholic Library in Dublin was founded in 1922 and currently has over 100,000 titles. Their collections include religious works, contemporary history and church issues. They also house four daily newspapers and Catholic weeklies from Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, South Africa and the United States. From the very beginning, the Central Catholic Library has made it their policy to welcome persons from all denomination free of charge.

The library’s periodical and newspaper collection are noteworthy. A listing of the periodicals, many of them genealogical and historical in nature, can be found on their website.

A Sampling of the Library Collections

Stephen Brown Research and Reference Library: This is the main reading room and houses theological works, historical works, and information on the religious orders. This room has 45 current periodical titles from Ireland, the UK, France and the United States.

Irish Room: This room has a large collection focusing on Irish history, both religious and secular.

Carnegie Collection: This collection on permanent loan from the Library Council of Ireland covers philosophy, religion and sociology. Within this collection are many books on other Christian churches such as Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and other denominations.

Jerome Room: This room holds a collection of some 1,200 books printed before 1850 going back to the sixteenth century.

Qualified Staff for Irish Catholic Questions

While this may not be the first repository you would visit or contact about your family history needs; I have found myself seeking their advice on occasion. For example, their staff is very qualified in Irish Catholic matters and being “on the ground” to use that expression, often they can fill in our knowledge gap about Irish culture, attitudes and practices.

If you would like help identifying where your Irish Catholic ancestor was from click here.

The importance of Women Religious in the Family

20 Jun By Dwight Leave a Comment

Yesterday I referred you to Kyle J. Betit’s two articles: in The Irish At Home and Abroad journal. In review, these are “Researching Catholic Nuns, Brothers and Priests in the U.S. for Place of Origin” (Volume 4, #3 (1997), pages 121-125); and the second is “Priests, Nuns and Brothers in Ireland” (Volume 5, #2 (1998), pages 70-76). Become well acquainted with these articles.

The point of researching a woman religious is because it is within the records of her life you may find where the entire family was born in Ireland. Women religious are very important females in your family tree.

Religious orders for women were very popular among the Irish in both Ireland and abroad. Sometimes it seems like there was always one girl in an Irish Catholic family who joined a religious order. Each order had an abbreviation, and this is important. For example BVM stands for Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. OCD means Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns. OSU means Order of St. Ursula (Ursuline Nuns) and RSM means Religious Sisters of Mercy. If you see these initials associated with a religious woman relative, this identifies the order name.

If you do not know what order a young woman may have joined, then look at her home parish. What order served it or the school she may have attended? A young woman was very likely to join the order of the nuns serving her parish or school.

Once you have an order, then you are ready to search for the records kept by that order which trained her. Sometimes it’s as simple as an Internet search.

The Importance of Men Religious in the Family

19 Jun By Dwight Leave a Comment

Sometimes we forget to research an Irish-born Catholic priest or brother in the family. If you can’t find where your ancestor was born using the typical immigrant records, then switch your focus to the religious relative. Why? Because these were educated men, and records were left behind. This typically can include their birth place.

For a “how to” guide on approaching this topic; I will refer you to Kyle J. Betit’s two articles: in The Irish At Home and Abroad journal. You can find copies in many major libraries. Betit’s first article is “Researching Catholic Nuns, Brothers and Priests in the U.S. for Place of Origin” (Volume 4, #3 (1997), pages 121-125); and the second is “Priests, Nuns and Brothers in Ireland” (Volume 5, #2 (1998), pages 70-76). While his articles are dated, the strategies he utilizes and the records discussed remain current.

A priest or brother would have belonged to a particular order. This is identified by initials behind the name of the priest. For example, OFM (OSF until 1897) stands for Order of Friars Minor which is the Franciscans. OSB is Order of St. Benedict (Benedictine Monks)

and SJ is Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Once you know this, then the records of the order are opened up to you.

In a reverse strategy, if you know a priest, for example, is in the family, but don’t know the order, then look for what order of priests served the home parish. Parishes were often served by a particular order, and young men from that parish were drawn to the order of the resident priests.

This blog only scratches the surface of this important topic in the search for immigrant origins. I will continue this discussion tomorrow with Female Religious.

The Difference Between Catholic and Protestant Research

2 Jun By Dwight Leave a Comment

The first question I ask in research is “Were they Catholic or Protestant?” This is important because of the different research approaches to each. If you don’t know, then chances are they were Protestant. Catholicism is a culture as well as a religion. So something usually passes down in some form. Protestantism is different. Loyalty is not necessarily to a particular denomination, but more individual. In other words, one could switch denominations, often as simple as transferring membership. Salvation isn’t based in church or ritual, but in the personal faith. Catholics held church and ritual to be very important, so they should appear in the registers. The question then is: How complete are those registers?

In Irish research, you will find Protestants documented more in the leases, marriage bonds and wills. However, saying this, most Protestants were still poor tenant farmers, just like their Catholic neighbors. Catholics of the upper class did appear in these records, but there were often legal restrictions, for example on how long they could hold a lease.

If you have spent much time in Irish church registers of all denominations, you already know there was conversion both ways. Mixed marriages were more common than you would think. In another twist, beginning in the 1840s, it was mainly Protestants who converted to Mormonism. A religion that was neither Catholic nor Protestant. That began to change after the partition of the country in 1921; then it became Protestants in the north and Catholics in the south.

Just be aware that knowing the religion of your ancestors is important. Whether they practiced may even be beside the point. The emphasis is on what records would document that particular culture at that particular point in time.

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