DearMYRTLE: Catholic Parish Histories (US)

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Catholic Parish Histories (US)

DearREADERS,
Been studying up, and ran across the following from A GENEALOGIST'S GUIDE TO DISCOVERING YOUR IRISH ANCESTORS by Dwight A. Radford & Kyle J. Betit, page 29: "Some parish histories contain biographical information about parishioners or an individual of the predominant origins of Irish immigrants in the parish. PARISH HISTORY COLLECTION: A Directory of Works at the University of Notre Dame, compiled by Sowinski, Cawley and Ames, inventories the large number of parish histories contained in this collection. PARISH HISTORY COLLECTION is also available on the internet at http://archives1.archives.nd.edu/parishes.htm "

So, DearREADERS, this prompted me to visit the web site where you click on the state where your ancestor's church was located. Once I got to the state of Michigan, I noticed the entries were NOT IRISH-SPECIFIC. In my sample below, I've spotlighted three entries for GERMAN Catholics. The inventory heading reads as follows:
STATE/CITY - PARISH - DATES - ETHNIC GROUP - LOCATION - CALL NUMBER

MI Westphalia - St Mary- 1836-1936 German - PPHC063 -

MI Westphalia - St Mary's- 1836-1986 German - 200 p CAPH - BX4603.W48 S3 O3 1986 -

MI Westphalia - St Mary's Parish- 1836-1976 German - 384p. CAPH - F574.W47.W47 -

>From HELP, I found a series of explanations of abbreviations, and the following: "A Notre Dame Archives inventory generally does NOT provide links to images of the documents it describes. It resembles a library's catalog in which one expects to find bibliographical descriptions but not the whole text of the books described."

So, in my case, I'd need to visit the Notre Dame Archives, or send a request for photocopies of the three Catholic Parish histories listed for the St. Mary's Parish in Westphalia, Michigan. The call numbers in the inventory are useful to THAT archive only.
ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
607 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
(219) 631-6448,
fax (219) 631-7980
Archives.1@nd.edu

DISCOVERING YOUR IRISH ANCESTORS (IBID., page 29) also mentioned that "The Catholic University of America's Mullen Library holds some three thousand parish histories arranged geographically." Since no web site was given, I used my web browser to search for: Catholic University of America.

Among the items on the hit list was: http://libraries.cua.edu/welcome.html In doing a search for Catholic parish histories, I located the following manuscript collections:

-- Parish Histories: "This collection contains more than 3,000 items, ranging in date from 1791 to the present. Researchers interested in the early history of Catholic settlements, the continuity of ethnic parishes, the development of Catholic institutions within a parish, parishioners' participation in local and national lay organizations, or in local or foreign missions, will find this collection useful."

There is much additional material of interest to family historians, including:

-- American Catholic Pamphlets: "This collection contains more than 10,200 items, focusing primarily on the pre-Vatican II period. Researchers studying the American Catholic Church's guidance to the laity, the Church's involvement in the social issues of the day, or the religious and lay groups which printed pamphlets will find this collection a rich resource. -- Many of the pamphlets were written to guide Catholic families with the issues in their daily lives, setting forth the Church's directives on family planning, chastity and abortion, temperance, successful marriages, and the education of children. Some pamphlets were written specifically for children, printed in large type and colorfully illustrated. "

-- Catholic Daughters of the Americas. "Papers. 1903-1998. 135 feet; 105 boxes. Donor: CDA,1998. Charitable organization of women founded by the Knights of Columbus in Utica, NY, in 1903. Originally known as the Daughters of Isabella, it was re-named the Catholic Daughters of America in 1921, and, since 1978, has been known as the Catholic Daughters of the Americas."

-- American Catholic Historical Association. Records. 1917-1996. 75 feet; 65 boxes. Donor: ACHA ?-1998.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA - MULLEN LIBRARY
American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
101 Life Cycle Institute
620 Michigan Avenue NE
Washington, DL 20064
(202) 319-5065
W. John Shepherd, Associate Archivist
shepherw@cua.edu

Happy Family Tree Climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Daily Genealogy Columnist
AOL Keywords: roots, myrtle

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