Re: Request Protocol
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In reply to:
Request Protocol
Beth Bourque 7/13/07
Dear Beth,
Some dioceses (bishoprics) keep the old records in the diocesan archives.Others leave the old records at the parish where the sacrament was given.The individual bishops set the policy.You can write to the bishop and ask what his policy is, but be sure to read the posts about Doesn't the Catholic Church help people anymore? a few lines down.
Most Catholic records haven't been digitized.A staff person has to search through old records manually, which takes a lot of time.The Catholic Church has a personnel shortage, so it's hard for them to get to records for genealogy purposes.Our diocese has its old records in the archives, and they only do genealogy searches a few days per month.You can check the webpage for the diocese where your ancestors lived and see if there are any instructions for people wanting genealogy information.Our diocese charges a $5 fee for each record.Our diocese also has a form to fill out, but a lot of places don't.
Forms of address are Dear Father Smith or Dear Pastor for a parish priest.For a bishop, it is Dear Bishop Smith (or Dear Archbishop Smith, or Dear Cardinal Smith).Write a standard business letter.You can end with Respectfully, Jane Doe, but Sincerely yours is ok, too.
Since the old records are usually recorded by date, you get the best results if you specify the sacrament (they have baptism, confirmation, marriage, religious vows, and ordination) or that you want a burial record for a Catholic cemetery.There are no death records or general burial records, only Catholic cemetery records.You also need to give the date of the sacrament.Baptism of Charlotte Smith on Nov. 22, 1892.Since the records are filed by date and not computerized, it's almost impossible for them to search a surname or do any kind of general search.They have to read through log book types of documents, I think.
Since there was no birth control in the old days, you can usually place a marriage about a year before the birth of the oldest child and give the oldest child's exact date of birth.If they have time and energy, they may be willing to look around a bit through their records.That's what I'm trying to do with my great grandparents' wedding.The civil records were burned in a courthouse fire, so we don't know when they married.
For marriages, try to get the civil records first, so you have an exact date.Do the same for the death records.Get the civil birth record before you request a baptism record, unless you know the date of the baptism.
I think it's very prudent to enclose a sase, and inquire about what fees they expect.
My great grandfather's parish makes a note on the baptismal record when a person gets married.This happens because when someone wants to get married, the priest doing the wedding has to verify that the couple are baptised and not married in another parish, so he contacts the place where the baptism was done.The priest there sends verification and makes a note about the marriage.Most Catholic record searches are about verifying that a previous sacrament has been received before a marriage or religious vows or ordinations or first communions, not genealogy.Doing required record searches for sacraments or for proof of identity or age for Social Security or citizenship takes up a lot of Catholic time, so genealogy isn't a high priority, which is sad, because our church records are a gold mine for genealogy and history.Some bishops like mine are realizing how important it is to people to find their relatives, and are making their abilities with regard to genealogy searches clear.
There is also a problem of confidentiality.Catholic records are very private, though most of our sacraments are thought of as community events.Our bishop requires records be a certain number of years old and that the person have a close relationship to the person on the records.I haven't had trouble getting great grandparents' records.I haven't tried a great aunt and a great uncle who were handicapped and never married.I don't know if they will do aunts and uncles who left no descendants.
I wrote to the parish where my great grandparents had to have been married and where its for sure that my grandmother, the oldest child, was baptized, since we have her certificate.I got no reply, and it's been a few months.I plan to make another copy of the letter and enclose an sase, which I forgot to do the first time, and I think I'm going to enclose a $5 donation for each one of the 3 records I want and say I will be glad to send the proper amount if the fee is higher.
I wrote a letter to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops about the tendency to ignore requests for genealogy research and make no reply.I suggested that at minimum they could send a form letter with the diocesan genealogy policies on it and make it sound like they really want to be of service to Catholic families.
In Catholic circles a donation that is given for a specific purpose usually has to be used for that purpose only.I imagine a donation for genealogy research that the priest does not have time to do would have to be returned, but that's just my best guess.
This is all I know about writing for genealogy information, except use standard English, not slang, etc.
I hope this helps.
Kate Hagel
More Replies:
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Re: Request Protocol
Beth Bourque 7/14/07
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Re: Request Protocol
Kathryn Hagel 7/14/07
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Re: Request Protocol