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From:
Subject: Re: Success with NYC Catholic Church Records?
Date: 9 Jun 2005 15:29:31 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/TUB.2ACI/4560.3

Message Board Post:

I've written several "cold call" letters to Catholic churches in Manhattan with response ranging from outstanding to none at all. I've asked for baptisms in a range of years for given parents, baptisms with approximate date, marriages with approximate date or range of years. I always include a donation "for preservation of the records" and ask them to let me know if other fees are due. It generally takes a rather long time (months) and sometimes they want a fee per record found or some such. With a few exceptions, I've always received a response eventually even if it was "nothing found".

Although I know they don't allow access to the records, I always ask if I could see them on a visit to NYC -- nothing ventured, as the saying goes.

I had amazing results from St Mary Attorney St (Grand St) and St Peter's (Barclay St). Good response from Old St Patrick's, Transfiguration, Our Lady of Pompeii. No response (8 months and counting, they haven't even cashed my check) from St Anthony of Padua. No response from SS Peter & Paul on Wythe Ave in Brooklyn after multiple follow-ups over several years (check remains uncashed).

Another tip, I always ask for a photocopy "if possible" or a transcription of ALL the info in the original record. They generally transcribe to a form that doesn't have spaces for more than the basics even if the original has more. I learned that when St Mary's sent me one photocopy of a baptism that had the parents' birthplaces! For a different year, their baptisms were simple 1-line ledger entries. Such things seem to vary by church and by year.

So, while patience for the response is definitely needed,
writing to RC churches is definitely worth a try.

J Torre

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