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Catholic Family History

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

Catholic Family History

Tag Archives: England

Roman Catholic Records

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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

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England, Lancashire, Manchester, registers

Logo TransparentThis blog post is a response by Jim Lancaster to someone who was enquiring about the availability of Catholic record online. It contains a lot of useful information and I have reproduced it verbatim.

The period between the reign of Elizabeth and about 1791 is often referred to as the Penal Times and it was a period when it was dangerous to be a Catholic priest in England and therefore dangerous to keep records.Any Catholic records generated could have been used against individual Catholics, or the Catholic community.  The main records of Catholics in this period are ‘hostile’ records, records made by the state or its agents the Anglican clergy.  It is only from about 1791 that Catholic clergy felt sufficiently confident about civil legislation that mission registers could be maintained.  If you are seeking information from these registers, the best place to start is a set of books by Michael Gandy published originally in 1993  that list all the known surviving registers for Catholic missions in the UK for the period 1700 to 1880.  Some of these volumes have been revised as old registers have surfaced and more parish registers have been deposited in places of safety..

In the late Victorian time, there were groups in most counties who were transcribing Anglican parish registers, one example being the Lancashire Parish Register Society that is still operating today.  There was a move among Catholics to do the same for Catholic registers and this resulted in the formation of the Catholic Record Society.  This initially was concerned with the preservation and transcription of Catholic records and among its early volumes are Catholic registers from across England and Wales.  Many of these are now out of copyright, particularly outside the UK, and have been made available on the internet.

There is a guide to Catholic Records on a site “GenGuide” ( http://www.genguide.co.uk/source/roman-catholic-registers-and-records/30/ ) and this has lists of books, CDs, internet sites. and on-line databases. Some may lead to pay-to-view sites.  This site is as good a collection of basic information as I have been able to find

This site is comprehensive but not complete, and you will find that different parts of the country have different densities of Catholics and hence more or less interest in the Catholic community.  Different counties may have different facilities. Lancashire is particularly well served.  I have mentioned the Lancashire Parish Register Society that has transcribed most of the early Anglican registers.  This are the major records of Catholic marriages between 1756 and 1837, though Catholic marriages may not be clearly identified.   There is the Lancashire On-Line Parish Clerk Project (http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/ ) which is transcribing parish registers and making them available on the internet.  Again it is mainly Anglican church registers that have been transcribed but there are increasing numbers of non-Anglican registers including Catholic ones.  For post-1837 births marriages and deaths there is the LancashireBMD site (http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/ ).  This site is transcribing the Local Registrar’s Indexes and where possible upgrading them.  Again it is useful for marriages, though non-Anglican marriages appear as Registrar marriages until an Authorised Person was appointed by the church to act for the Registrar.  This became possible in 1898 but was not taken up by many Catholic parishes until 1960+.

The Manchester & Lancashire FHS has developed an index of Manchester Catholics from material that it had produced and from transcripts made available to it (www.mlfhs.org.uk/data/catholic_search.php ).  There is a similar site for Liverpool – Liverpool History Projects (http://www.liverpoolhistoryprojects.co.uk/ ) but for some items there may be a charge.  For the more northern parts of Lancashire, around Preston, Blackburn and Burnley, the Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society have published a large number of fiche of Catholic registers.  In recent years, the Catholic Family history Society has published a number of CDs and details are to be found at http://www.genfair.co.uk/supplier.php?sid=227

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Sights and Sounds of Recusant England

04 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Events

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Tags

England, Midlands

Where and When: St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham – Friday 13 June 2014

Speakers:

Eamon Duffy ‘Recusants writing the Reformation’;
Anne Dillon ‘Seeing is believing’: Elizabethan Catholic images of martyrdom

Evening concert in the chapel by Cappella Fede directed by Peter Leech accompanied by a talk by Maurice Whitehead.

Further details about the programme, costs and booking from Mrs Maggie Wilson Tel.0121 321 5026; E mail Maggie.Wilson@Oscott.org

Industrial and Reformatory Schools

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in General Information

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England, Industrial Schools, Orphanages

missing-ancestors.com has a useful (partial) list of industrial/reformatory schools including orphanages/refuges/homes etc. There is an alphabetical list available here.

The Rossbret Institutions Website is also very useful.

Midland Catholic History Society

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in General Information, History, Societies

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England, history, Midlands, useful

The MIDLAND CATHOLIC HISTORY SOCIETY was formed in 1996 by the merger of the Staffordshire Catholic History Society and the Worcestershire Catholic History Society. They have a program of events through the year and produce Midland Catholic History which contains articles on post-Reformation Catholic History, of interest to the general reader as well as to historians and antiquarians, and is an essential aid to the local Catholic historian.

You can find more details on their website by following this link.

English Catholic History Association

10 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in General Information, History, Societies

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

England, history, society, useful

The English Catholic History Association encourages interest in the Catholic history of England and Wales.  They organise visits to places associated with the Catholic faith, and arrange  conferences on subjects relating to our Catholic history.  They also support research into subjects of Catholic interest and seek to prevent the destruction of Catholic archives.

More details are on their website here. You will also find talks which have been recorded and can be downloaded and listened to.

Cambridge Catholic History

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in Events, General Information, Meetings

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Cambridge, England, useful

Those in the Cambridge area with an interest in Catholic history may be interested to know that the Old Palace in Ely will be open on Heritage Open Day, and there will be an exhibition on the recusant gentlemen imprisoned there between 1587 and 1600:

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/saturday-14th-september-the-old-palace

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.

Roll Of Honour

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in General Information, History

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England, war memorials

This site is dedicated to those men and women who fell fighting for their country. Recorded here are various war memorials within a variety of counties, it is fully intended to complete as many war memorials in the United Kingdom as possible. The counties and the war memorials completed for each are listed on a separate page. Photographs have been taken of the majority of the memorials, details of the men included and their photographs where possible.

There are a number of Roman Catholic memorials listed – for example for Staffordshire you can find Breewood St Mary’s and Cotton Roman Catholic College.

1715 List of Roman Catholics in England & Wales

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Lawrence Gregory in General Information

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

England, nonjurors, papists, wales

The book entitled The Names of the Roman Catholics, Nonjurors, and Others, who refus’d to take the Oaths to his late Majesty King George is available via Google Books to view online or download as a PDF. It is a list of papists by county with their place of abode and sometimes their occupation. It is a very useful reference if you are searching for recusant ancestors in the early 18th century. Here’s the link to Google Books.

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