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Archiver > LONDON > 2005-05 > 1115746299


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Records for Catholic Churches
Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 18:31:39 +0100
In-Reply-To: <20050510152007.86057.qmail@web60924.mail.yahoo.com>


In message <>, Sharon
<> writes
>What rudeness could possibly be coming from someone
>who is making an inquiry about parish records?

The usual complaint is either that there is a peremptory demand (do this
and do it now!) or, after someone has gone to trouble on a search, no
thanks are ever received. If one or two people do that, it does queer
the pitch for anyone coming after.

>If you
>ask me, all of that is coming from the person(s) who
>have either a street, or an email address, but for
>whatever reason can't be bothered to answer their
>mail.

Absolutely no one is compelled to answer any type of mail from anyone.
(Except perhaps the deignated and paid enquiries person in a business
firm). Family history enquiries are a private matter, where you are
asking for a favour - and which do not come in the remit of modern
clergymen.
>Be it the vicar of a church, or people working
>on his behalf, or whomever. If none of these people
>have the time, or inclination to respond, perhaps they
>shouldn't have addresses people are writing to,

But the e-mail or address is there for the convenience of people
contacting them about their day to day work, not about the past.
What enquirers often don't realise is that the vast majority of CofE
parish registers are safely stored in the (County/.Borough) Archives,
and for a clergyman to go and search them would mean a trip, perhaps of
several miles, to those Archives.Some Catholic registers are held in a
diocesan archives, a few in the normal County Archives. And they may
not be able to read the (largely unindexed) registers anyway. The clergy
are not trained to deal with genealogical work, only with their current
duties. If they do have an interest and can take the trouble to go and
make searches, that is a bonus - and they are entitled to charge for it
too.

--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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