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~ Hints and tips for researching your Catholic ancestors in England and Wales

Catholic Family History

Tag Archives: archives

Buckinghamshire Family History Society

11 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Archives, Church Records, Events, General Information

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Tags

archives, registers

Buckinghamshire Family History Society Open Day
Saturday 23rd July 2016, 10am to 4pm
The Grange School, Wendover Way, Aylesbury, HP21 7NH.

Research facilities including our names database (over five million entries), Parish Register, People, and Places libraries. Parish Register transcripts and other research aids will be on sale. Expert advice; guest societies from around the country; local heritage groups; suppliers of data CDs, maps, software, archival materials and much more.

Admission is free, with free parking at the venue.

Further information, including a full list Bucksof organisations attending, can be found at http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk

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Salford Diocese Parish Registers Project

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

archives, baptism, catholic, confirmation, marriage, Parish Registers, Salford Diocesan Archives, Salford Diocese

The Salford Diocesan Archives are proceeding with a plan to digitise early parish registers from every one of churches in the diocese. The project is being supported by the diocesan hierarchy, and was given the support of the new Bishop, John Arnold in his recent Ad Clerum.

The project includes all baptism, confirmation, marriage and death registers deposited at Lancashire County Record Office, and those still held in the parishes, and covers dates up toRegisters of St Ann, Fairfield the mid 20th century.

As of the end of August 2015, the registers from all churches in the Borough of Manchester have been completed, with exception to Mount Carmel, Blackley, and this church is now scheduled for September.

The Boroughs of Stockport and Tameside were started in August, Heaton Norris has been competed and Denton is scheduled for September.

The Borough of Salford is also underway with only the Cathedral, St Peter’s, Greengate, St Thomas of Canterbury, Higher Broughton and St Edmund, Little Hulton, still being outstanding.

Once scanned and in PDF electronic book format, different registers are being passed on to the Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society, the Catholic Family History Society, the Lancashire Online Parish Clerks, and to other individuals for indexing and transcribing.

For more information the Salford Diocesan Archives can be contacted through their website below.

Salford Diocesan Archives

Roman Catholic Records

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Archives, Church Records, General Information, History, Notes and Queries

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Tags

archives, history, registers, useful

And some more useful information from our chairman, Sylvia Dibbs:Logo Transparent

Jim has covered the best material. Knowing the history of Catholicism in England is a very necessary prerequisite to researching Catholic ancestors.

So you will find Catholics in Anglican marriage and burial records, many of which are on commerical websites. Catholics also appear in ‘Anglican Parish Chest’ records or the local Quarter Sessions records, perhaps becuase they have broken the law in relation to their religious activities.

Some specifically Catholic records have strayed into local archives (for example in Warwickshire) and then been picked up by commercial sites, but for the most part Catholic priests and bishops have been very reluctant to release any archives in their care.

The National Archives at Kew http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/atoz/r.htm# gives some helpful guidance on what records they hold. Many state papers include lists of papists made to collect fines/taxes or lead to prosecution for following the Catholic faith. I have made a transcription of some of these which will be made available for a small fee to download through the Catholic FHS website via GENfair. So ‘watch this space’.

Some free records can be found at  http://archive.org where out of copyright books have been scanned and made available to download. Use search terms ‘papist’ ,  ‘recusant’, ‘roman catholic’ ; with a little patience there is some worthwhile material to be found here.

The Latter Day Saints http://familysearch.org is always worth trying as some Catholic names have strayed here too.

Try http://cyndislist.com.catholic too. It does give details of catholic records on the family search site from around the world and of course many English catholics emigrated.

Access to Archives at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A gives details of archives arround England including their catalogues. For example Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives has a very good catalogue, which often gives brief details, which may be all a researcher needs.

One of the members of the Catholic Family History Society is compling a data base of as many pre-1837 Catholic names from all manner of documents as he can find. In due course he intends to put his on-line and it will be a very usefull resource. So something to look out for.

Catholic records do provide family historians with a very interesting challenge. It will be a long time before any commercial or free site makes much headway with them.

Roman Catholic Records Online

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Church Records, General Information, Notes and Queries

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archives, Gandy, registers, useful

A follow-on from the previous post giving more information from Jim Lancaster. The enquirer was asking if there is a list of what is available online.

Sadly there is no such list.  It would a major task that would need someone
to commit themselves solely to it.  Michael Gandy spent several years
compiling his volumes and his task was not as vague.  He compiled a list of
all the missions (no mean feat in itself) then contacted all the parish
priests of those churches to find where their registers were deposited.  Not
all priests responded and he had to contact some several times.  He would
also have contacted the various record offices to check their holdings.  A
comparable listing of on-line registers would be much more difficult, given
the unorganized nature of record transcriptions.

The British Isles have always been seen by Rome as three distinct entities,
no matter what the politics of the day stated.  The Church in Great Britain
is divided into two, England and Wales, and Scotland; and Ireland North and South) as a separate entity.  All three are separate with their own hierarchies, etc.  I have little knowledge of Catholic history in Scotland or Ireland.  A major source for the chronology of the development of Catholic missions in Great Britain is the Catholic Directory, an annual publication. This started in the early 1800s and
covered London initially and developed to cover Great Britain (England,
Wales and Scotland).  The Catholic Directory are now two separate volumes
one for England and Wales and one for Scotland.  Ireland has its own
Directory.

I referred to Gandy’s books because these list all the known chapels and
their registers, IF they exist.  If a register is not listed, there is no
point in looking for it on the internet.  Canon Law requires each parish
priest to maintain his registers in a safe condition.  Most dioceses issue
advice as to how this is done, but the dioceses often differ in this advice
according to their circumstances.  Some dioceses collect the registers no
longer needed for religious purposes into the Diocesan Archives (I think
Northampton is one such) whereas others recommend that the old registers are
deposited in the local County Record Office.  The three Lancashire dioceses
(Liverpool, Salford and Lancaster) have agreed that parishes in Lancashire
use the Lancashire Archives in Preston as the place of safety – except for
parishes in the City of Liverpool and they use the Liverpool Record Office.
Ancestry, FindMyPast, etc., have been active in acquiring access to
deposited registers.  Some of the Diocesan Archivists have agreed to this
and have made transcripts. etc., available to one or more of these groups.
As far as I know there is no listing of these.

At the time civil registration of Births, Marriages, and Deaths commenced in
England (Scotland is different) the Registration Commissioners requested
that non-parochial chapels submit their registers for authentication so
that the information (pre July 1837) could be used in courts of law.  Most
Free Church chapels submitted their registers for authentication, many on
the understanding that the registers would be returned, but very few RC
chapels submitted their registers (I think, mainly from north-east England).
The only Lancashire chapel to submit its registers was Blackburn (St Alban).
The registers were not returned and have eventually found their way into the
National Archives.  They are listed in TNA catalogues as Class RG4.  There
was a repeat request made in 1858 and these registers are in Class RG5 or
RG8, I think.  These deposited registers are now available on both Ancestry
and FMP .

Many local family history societies have transcribed some Catholic registers
but these are not usually available on line as the sale of the transcripts
help to support the FHS.  Some societies are selling information on the
internet through one of the major sites.  Most of these are listed in the
GenGuide site I mentioned in my earlier note.

It must also be remembered that the civil law between 1756 and 1837 required
all marriages to be solemnised in a licensed Anglican church before an
authorised Anglican minister if they were to be recognised in law.  Except
is very rural areas there were no Catholic burial grounds and Catholics were
usually buried in the local Anglican church.  Often the fact that the
persons involved were Catholics (Papists) is not mentioned in the register.

As the various transcribing agencies each has its own aims and agenda, there
is little coordination of the activity.  Even within one team there may not
be a planned program of transcribing.  It usually depends on what the
volunteers can access easily.  As an example, I have attached a listing of
the RC material that is currently available on LancashireOPC.

FamilySearch has a listing of the records it includes.  Searching that list
for a specific church will show if any of its registers have been
transcribed for FamilySearch.

CFHS North West Group – Summer Outing

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Events, General Information, Libraries

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Tags

archives, Manchester, North West

Saturday July 12th 2014

Guided tour of the Refurbished Manchester Central Library (opened March 2014)

11 am Meet in Foyer of the Manchester Central Library,
St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 5PD
Tour of the Archives led by Bob Haynes ( Manchester
& Lancashire FHS) and a member of the Library staff.

12.30 pm Chat in the Library coffee lounge or have lunch in the
neighbourhoood (large choice of eating-places and
hostelries)

1.30 pm Reassemble in Library foyer
Guided Tour to places of Catholic interest in Central
Manchester led by Pauline Lloyd, Manchester Green Badge Guide.

Cost £5.00 p.p. (pay on the day)

Please book a place with either

Jean Smith jeansmith1934@talktalk.nnet 0161 4839 199 or
Maureen Fitzgibbon maureen.fitzgibbon94@gmail.com 0161 903 9567

Sad News from the North West

08 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Archives, Libraries

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

archives, Lancashire, News, Preston

The Bishop of Lancaster has decided that the Talbot Library in Preston, which has been a much-prized repository of Roman Catholic Literature and artefacts for more than 20 years, is to close on December 31st. The loss will be greatly felt by many people researching Catholic history and students fro the nearby University of Central Lancashire. The NW Group of the Catholic Family History Society has held many happy and fruitful meetings there. Because the annual Christmas closure had already been scheduled, the Library will be effectively closed from FRIDAY DECEMBER 13th.

Who were the Nuns? Project

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Archives, Events, General Information, Meetings

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

archives, England, free, Manchester, nuns

Who Were The Nuns? Follow the link to find out more information about this project, but read below for details of a free event in Manchester.

The key purpose of the database is to identify those women who entered the English convents from the foundation of the first new house in Brussels in 1598 until 1800. The latter date has been taken to mark the end of the exile period when most of them decided to leave the continent and seek sanctuary in England because of the impact of violence associated with the French revolution and anti-religious legislation.

Find out how you can use the database and other project resources for family and local history in this free event.

When: Saturday 2nd November 2013

Where: Salford Diocesan Archives, at St Augustine’s Church, Grosvenor Square, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6BW

Agenda

  • 10.00 a.m. coffee, 10.30 a.m. first talk
  • Dr Caroline Bowden and Dr James Kelly talking about the project and how it can be used to find North West families
  • Dr Janet Hollinshead, Choosing their future: women in the Blundell family in early modern Lancashire
  • Peter J Tyldesley, The Tyldesleys and their faith in the 17th and 18th centuries

There will be a chance to see the archives at lunchtime with Father David Lannon, the archivist and to try out the database.

There is no cost for the day: refreshments will be available during breaks. Lunch can be purchased locally. All welcome, but please confirm attendance in advance with Dr Caroline Bowden from whom further details can be obtained. c.bowden@qmul.ac.uk

The venue is ten minutes walk from Oxford Road station in Manchester.

The Tablet Archive

24 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Archives, General Information, News, Publications

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

archives, newspaper, Tablet

The Tablet is a British Catholic weekly journal that has been published continually since 1840. It reports on religion current affairs, politics, social issues, literature and the arts with a special emphasis on Roman Catholicism while remaining ecumenical.

The Tablet archive goes back to 1841 and every page has been scanned and digitised, each article tagged and extracted, so that you can search the whole archive by content, keyword, topic, location, and date.

You might not find details of your ancestors, but you will certainly find plenty of information about what was happening at the time, both locally and nationally.

After entering search times the results are presented in the usual way. Clicking on one of the entries will display the OCR text of the article and also gives the page image which can be viewed. This is useful because, as I’m sure you know, OCR is not foolproof.

Alternatively if you are interested in a particular date you can go to Browse All Issues and then keep clicking down until you get to the issue you want.

I couldn’t find any help on the search terms that can be used but my assumption that they are used to find articles that contain all of the terms, appears to be incorrect – I need to do some more work to find out how they work. Some of the articles are quite long and you will probably need to use the search facilities in the browser (CTRL+F) to narrow it down further.

Thanks to Pam Fontana for telling me about this useful archive.

A Date for Your Diary

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Conference, Events, General Information, Meetings

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Tags

AGM, archives, conference, Manchester, Salford

Presentation1This year the Day Conference and AGM will be on Saturday 5 October and the venue will be the Salford Diocesan Archives (which are actually in Manchester). As usual, we will have guest speakers and we hope to have representatives from local family history societies present. There will be a help desk and other opportunities to further your research. All our publications will be on sale. An optional buffet lunch will be available and there will be ample time for socialising and networking. Please make a note of the date in your diaries. More information will be published once the details are finalised.

The Catholic National Library

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Church Records, Libraries

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

archives, registers, useful

Saint Michael's Abbey Church

Saint Michael’s Abbey Church

The Catholic National Library has over 70,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals including theology, spirituality and related subjects, biography, history (including Catholic Family History), and many works not freely available elsewhere. The library has a website where details of services and opening hours can be found. There is a very useful online catalogue.

Of particular interest to family historians is the collection of Mission Register transcripts dating back to 1694. These are typescripts on loan from the Catholic Family History Society. N.B. Some of these have now been published by the CFHS as data disks (see the list here)

The collection started life in 1912 and from 1997 the library (known as the Catholic Central Library) was located in Lancing Street, London and you may see references to this name and location in older books and magazines. When the lease ran out the library was without a home. However thanks to the Abbot of St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough and the Empress Eugenie Memorial Trust which own the assets of the Abbey, the entire Library is now housed in its precincts under the new name of the Catholic National Library.

 

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