Deceased Clergy Publication

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brentwood, stewart foster

Some news from last year – but of interest to anyone with a Brentwood priest in their family.

Brentwood archivist Fr Stewart Foster has compiled a new publication. The Deceased Clergy of the Diocese of Brentwood: Biographical Summaries has 315 pages with illustrations. It gives a biographical summary (and for most entries there are illustrations) of the 200 deceased priests and five permanent deacons of the Diocese of Brentwood (1917-2012).

Profits from the sale will benefit the Brentwood Diocesan Sick & Retired Clergy Fund and the Brentwood Ecclesiastical Education Fund (for the training of students for the priesthood).

Copies are available from: Clergy Book, Brentwood Diocesan Archives, Cathedral House, Brentwood, Essex CM15 8AT at £10 (plus £2.25 p&p). Cheques should be made in favour of ‘BRCDT’.

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Battle Diary (Saint Laurence Papers)

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ampleforth, benedictine, forbes, guards brigade, italian campaign, WW2

Always to be found where the battle was fiercest or the shelling most intense, giving courage to the wounded and dying, Fr George Forbes, former Grenadier Guards officer, a Benedictine monk of Ampleforth, in wartime Chaplain to the Guards Brigade, tells his own experience of the Italian campaign of 1943-45, and adds some thoughtful comments in an Appendix on the distressing handover of prisoners to the Russians and Jugoslavs at the end of World War 2 – ‘one of those cases when, whatever answer you give, you are bound to be wrong’. Forbes writes simply and clearly, not without humour, and gives a unique view of the front line battles fought by the men he was with for three years. Much of the fighting was in mountains up to 3000 feet high (1000 m), where ice, rain and mud were worse enemies than the German Army (which emerges with respect). Notes on the people named and an index of army terms make the book a stand-alone read.

Available from Amazon as a Kindle (or compatible device) edition. If you don’t have a Kindle there is a free app (available here) that will let you read the book on your PC

Lace For Study

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dress, lace, vestments

It isn’t strictly related to Catholic Family History but Pam Fontana brought this website to my attention www.laceforstudy.org.uk. This illustrates what many of your ancestors may have worn (mainly the females), covering lace edgings, collars, cuffs, headpieces etc., from the early 1700s to the late 1900s. There are at present some 1000 illustrations, and each can be enlarged twice giving a better view than is possible in any museum. There are also illustrations of domestic items your forebears may have used; also some alb cuffs and alb flounces, and altar frontals. There are details of each piece, such as the dimensions, period, last use, with in some cases, the re-use from a much earlier period. There is an index, and specific items can be searched for.

You might like to know more about the Alb Flounces. Many of these are mid-18th century, as these pieces were used until Vatican II when the priests were finally released from the obligation to use the existing ones, as cared for by the nuns, and could spend parish money on the simpler ones normally used today. There are four included so far, and I would draw your attention to item 932, a Filet (netting) convent made work, done in Malta in the mid-19th century, and with wonderful iconography.

Ancestors who were priests

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Gandy, Kelly, priests

We receive many queries from people asking about how to research ancestors who were thought to have been priests. In this blog entry I will try to describe some useful sources of information.  In the text that follows the sources are given by numbers in brackets and the full citation details are given at the foot of the article.  The first places to look are in English & Welsh Priests (1) and (2) which are simple lists and will help to confirm the basic facts.

Kelly’s Notes on English Catholic Missions (3) which was reprinted (4) and is now available on-line (5) has the names and years, where known, of the priests associated with each mission for years up to 1907, when this work was produced. Of course for this to be of use, you will need to know the missions or churches where your ancestor served.

Many churches have produced histories ranging from books to pamphlets and information is often now available on the web. These will usually have some information about priests who served there. Local newspapers will often contain obituaries, particularly if the priest was well known or had served for many years.

Don’t forget the Catholic Directory published every year gives the priests at each mission or church as this entry from the 1858 edition shows. 

Gandy’s Bibliography (6) has a whole section on the Clergy and gives many more suggestions than I have listed in this article.

Works Cited

1. Bellenger, Dominic Aidan. English & Welsh priests, 1558-1800 : a working list. Bath : Downside Abbey, 1984.

2. Fitzgerald-Lombard, Charles. English & Welsh Priests 1801-1914 : A Working List. Bath : Downside Abbey, 1993.

3. Kelly, Bernard W. Historical Notes on English Catholic Missions. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1907. Reprinted by Michael Gandy 1995.

4. —. Historical Notes on English Catholic Missions. London : Michael Gandy, 1995. with the omission of an introductory essay on the history of Catholicism in England since the Reformation and the addition of an alphabetical index by county.

5. —. Ebook and Texts Archive > Canadian Libraries > University of Toronto – John M. Kelly Library > Historical notes on English Catholic Missions. Internet Archive. [Online] http://archive.org/details/historicalnoteso00kelluoft.

6. Gandy, M. Catholic Family History: A Bibliography Of General Sources. London : Michael Gandy, 1976. ISBN 0 9520535 8 6.