Catholic Family History Society CD/DVD-ROM Publications

This page provides brief details of all of our CD/DVD-ROM publications. The headings are links to the GENfair site, where copies may be purchased by using a credit card.

The Bishops’ Registers of Confirmations in the Midland and London Districts of the Catholic Church in England.

The Midland register covers 1768 – 1811 and 1816. The Midland District comprised the counties of Derbyshire, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. Includes an index to names. 265 pages.

The London Register covers 1826 – 1837 and 1843. The London District was comprised of the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, and The Channel Islands. Includes an index to names. 192 pages.

These are scans in PDF of the original printed publications which are now out of print.

St.Mary’s RC Church, Mulberry Street, Manchester

• Baptisms : 1794-1812, 1812-1819, 1820-1831, 1832-1841 & 1842-50
• Marriages : 1831-1836
• Burials : 1816-1825 & 1832-1837
• plus a List of Parents, extracted from the Baptism Registers

St.Mary’s is the oldest existing Catholic Church in Manchester and Salford. The Manchester Mission first began in 1773, in a room in Roman Entry (off High St.). In 1776, it moved to Rook Street Chapel (off Market St.). The Mission finally moved, in 1794, to Mulberry Street and remained on the same site, as a functioning parish church, to the present day. The Registers have been fully transcribed and, with the exception of the Marriages, are presented in Surname sorted order in searchable PDF format.

Baptisms are contiguous from 1794 to 1850. The Burial ground is under the floor of the church (now sealed). The Registers have a seven year gap, with a further 18-month break within the second register. Legal marriages were not permitted here until 1837, but the Register records the Sacrament of Marriage for a five year period. In the absence of a full Marriage Register, there is a list of Parents, extracted from the five Baptism Registers and presented as two (father & mother) surname sorted tables with the child’s Baptism date to help fix a time frame. Also the parents list is supplied as an unformatted (CSV) text file, which may be copied into a spreadsheet for personal analysis. The Clergy are listed, with the date of their first appearance in a register.

Manchester, St. Patrick (RC) Baptisms 1832 – 1860

Baptisms at St Patrick’s RC Church, Livesey Street, Manchester 1832-1860. Index to 26,093 baptisms plus scanned copies of the registers.

Founded in 1832 to cater for the huge intake of Irish people into Manchester St Patrick’s quickly became Manchester’s largest RC parish numerically with more than 1,000 baptisms in some years.

This CD-ROM contains scanned copies of the original baptism register for the period 2 Mar 1832 to 30 Dec 1960. The index contains 26,093 entries in the form; child’s surname, child’s Christian name, mother’s maiden surname, date of baptism, register page number,and image number.

Manchester, St. Patrick (RC) Burials 1832 – 1858

Burials at St. Patrick’s Church, Livesey St., Manchester, 1832-1858 on CDROM. The graveyard is the burial place of Catholics from over much of North Manchester. The entries total 27,094. As well as the name of the deceased and date of burial many entries contain the cause of death and address.

Manchester, St. Anne (RC) Baptisms 1848 – 1874

St Anne, Junction St, Ancoats, was founded in 1848. Almost 9,000 entries with about 40,000 names in all, including godparents. Contains both a transcript and scanned copies of the original baptism register All names in the register are fully indexed.

Lancashire Catholic Wills 1492-1894

This is a valuable finding aid for those researchers with Catholic ancestors in Lancashire. It contains names which appear in the wills of persons reputed to be Catholics. Over 4,000 wills are included and the Index shows the names of nearly 50,000 testators, beneficiaries, family members and witnesses. In addition, wherever possible, the reputed Roman Catholic status of the testators and others has been confirmed by reference to other sources such as parish registers and Returns of Papists, which are also noted in the Index. The wills relating to this index, which covers the whole County of Lancashire, are kept in the Lancashire Record Office, Bow Lane, Preston. Those from the area North of the Ribble were registered at the Archdeaconry of Richmond and those from South of the Ribble at the Archdeaconry of Chester.

Lancashire Registers Volume 1

The Roman Catholic Register of Wrightington Hall (later St Joseph’s)

• Baptisms 1795 – 1879
• Confirmations 1813 – 1876
• Banns 1854 – 1889
• Marriages 1795 – 1852
• Deaths 1806 – 1879
• First Communicants 1851 – 1889

The Registers of Standish Hall (later St Marie’s)

• Baptisms 1742 – 1885
• Marriages 1743 – 1839
• Burials 1770 – 1889

Wrightington and Standish are two Lancashire villages about 2 miles apart, in a county which was perhaps the centre of English Catholicism following the Reformation and in which Bishop Leyburn confirmed 8,900 Catholics in 1687. Originally farming communities, they became more industrial during the development of the Lancashire coalfield.

Wrightington Hall was the seat of the Dicconson family from the middle of the 17th century; it inherited the manor by marrying into the Wrightington family. Despite being predominantly Catholic the family managed to maintain its estates from the penal laws. As was often the case with Catholic gentry the hall chapel served the local Catholic community. The chapel continued in use until succeeded by St Joseph’s in 1894.

In a similar fashion Standish Hall became a centre for its local Catholic community. The original hall was probably built in the late 16th century but was rebuilt with a larger chapel in the mid 18th century, which continued in public use until 1884. The mission was succeeded by the church of St Marie of the Annunciation.

St Wilfrid with St Mary, Preston, Lancashire

St Wilfrid with St Mary RC Parish, Preston, Lancashire

• Baptisms: 1768 – 1803 and 1813 – 1899
• Marriages: 1769 – 1803, 1813 – 1829, and 1836 – 1899
• Death/Burials: 1768 – 1803, 1817 – 1854, and 1891 – 1915

The Jesuits served the Preston Mission from at least 1701 and possibly earlier from 1685, first in an older chapel, then in a newly built St Mary’s, on Friargate, from 1761. Preston Catholics used this chapel for over thirty years. By the late 1780s, St Mary’s had become too small for the congregation and was closed and used as a warehouse when St Wilfrid’s Church was constructed off Fishergate, opening in 1793. Later in the nineteenth century St Wilfrid’s was extended and substantially renovated both inside and out. This is the church we see today.

London, Sardinian Embassy Chapel, Registers 1772 – 1841

This CD contains transcriptions with indexes of 12 baptismal registers from the Sardinian Chapel in Lincoln’s Inn Fields from March 1772 to April 1841. This mission has been rightly termed the Mother Church of the Catholic Faith in the Archdiocese of Westminster. In total the indexes contain over 60,000 last names. The CD is complete with instructions on how to access the registers.

Miscellaneous London District Transcriptions – Volume 1

This CD contains scans of 27 indexed transcriptions of Catholic parish registers from churches, chapels and missions in the County of Middlesex. The registers cover:

• Bavarian Embassy Baptisms 1748-1838 Marriages 1747-1840
• St Aloysius Baptisms 1802 Confirmations 1808-1820
• St Boniface Baptisms 1812-1862
• St Mary Moorfields Baptisms 1763-1839 Marriages 1777-1853 Burials 1819-1853
• Virginia Street Chapel Wapping Baptisms 1789-1800
• Westminster St Mary Baptisms 1809-1838

Miscellaneous London District Transcriptions – Volume 2

This CD complements Volume 1 with scans of a further 23 indexed transcriptions of Catholic parish registers from churches, chapels and missions in the ecclesiastical division known as the London District until 1850. The registers on this CD cover:

• French Chapel Royal: Baptisms 1842-1911 and Marriages 1846-1910
• Kentish Town, St Alexis: Baptisms 1849-1854
• Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa and St Stanislaus Kostka Chapels, Central London: Baptisms 1863-1877
• Soho St Patrick: Baptisms 1779-1851, Index to Baptisms 1793-1937, Confirmations 1818-1854 and Marriages 1809-1856
• Southwark St George’s Fields Chapel: Baptisms 1788-1823 and Marriages 1823-1837
• St James, Spanish Place, Westminster: Baptisms 1732-1848 and Marriages 1732-1845
• Standon, Old Hall Green, Herts.: Baptisms 1811-1831, Confirmations 1814-1849 and Marriages 1812-1848
• Virginia Street Chapel, Wapping: Baptisms 1832-1840

Registers of The French Chapel Royal

This CD provides the following records of the French Chapel Royal, King St., Portman Sq., London.

• Baptisms 1792-1841 (1148 entries)
• Marriages 1792-1846 (487 entries)
• Burials 1794-1801 and 1813-1814 (65 entries).

Records largely relate to French emigrés and their subsequent families. Baptisms are recorded from a number of Hampshire locations as well as in London. The earlier burials are almost all at St Helier, Isle of Jersey, and Winchester, as are many marriages, while those of 1813-14 are at Lymington. Much genealogical data beyond that normally found in such registers is provided.

The originals of these registers are held in the French National Archives at Nantes. A filmstrip copy was given to the Archivist of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocese, and this was lodged for safekeeping and for wider access at the Portsmouth City Archives, located at the Portsmouth History Centre. References are provided to enable copies from the filmstrip to be obtained.

The transcriptions are provided in both date and surname order, in searchable PDF formats.

Introduction to Catholic Southampton

Canon Scantlebury’s last work, his Introduction to Catholic Southampton, belies its title since is in fact a record of his extensive research into the history of Catholicism in the city since the Reformation.

This CD contains:

• Introduction to Catholic Southampton by Canon R. E. Scantlebury
• The Registers of St Joseph’s Church, Southampton:
  • Baptisms 1792 – 1848
  • Marriages 1803 – 1849
• Introduction to St Joseph’s Registers with Transcriptions of the Latin & French entries
• Bibliography
• Researches into the precursors of St Joseph’s Church
• Documents relating to the enlargement of St Joseph’s Church, its School and Anti-Catholic Hostility in Southampton
• Biography of Fr H. C. E. Van Doorne, the Belgian Poet & Curate and Historian of St Joseph’s
• A full transcription of the Pylewell House and Elm Cottage Marriage Register (1843 and 1855)

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