Today we’ve added eleven new volumes and updated four volumes in Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Mary (Lawrence), St. Peter (Lowell) and Our Lady Star of the Sea (Marblehead). This update adds over 44,300 records and over 174,200 names to search.
St. Mary’s was the second Catholic church in Lawrence, coalescing in the year 1848. This church ultimately formed the backbone of Lawrence’s burgeoning Catholic community, splitting into many more parishes. To learn more about the early development of Catholicism in Lawrence, you may want to consult Sketch of Catholicity in Lawrence and vicinity by Katherine O’Keefe (1882), available in our Digital Library and Archive.
St. Peter’s was the second Catholic church in Lowell. In One Hundred Years of Progress, James Sullivan relates how to establishment of this congregation was contentious, as some parishioners who lived far from St. Patrick’s (the original parish) wanted a geographically convenient church, while others would have preferred not to split the church. The first Mass was held in 1842, and from then the parish continued to grow.
Initially, Catholics across northeastern Massachusetts travelled to St. Mary’s in Salem to worship. In 1864, Our Lady Star of the Sea in Marblehead became its own parish. Before Danvers had a parish, Catholics from Danvers often travelled to Marblehead to worship.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these parishes available online.
The new volumes are listed below. Volumes with an asterisk have been updated. Previously they were truncated to only display records from before January 1, 1901. Now they are presented on our site in their complete form or up through December 31, 1920:
St. Mary (Lawrence) Baptisms, 1900-1913*
St. Mary (Lawrence) Confirmations, 1860-1920*
St. Mary (Lawrence) Marriages, 1908-1910
St. Mary (Lawrence) Marriages, 1911-1913
St. Mary (Lawrence) Marriages, 1914-1916
St. Mary (Lawrence) Marriages, 1917-1918
St. Mary (Lawrence) Marriages, 1919-1920
St. Mary Mission (Lawrence) Marriages, 1908-1919
St. Peter (Lowell) Baptisms, 1898-1904*
St. Peter (Lowell) Baptisms, 1904-1907
St. Peter (Lowell) Baptisms, 1907-1914
St. Peter (Lowell) Baptisms, 1914-1919
St. Peter (Lowell) Marriages, 1883-1904*
St. Peter (Lowell) Marriages, 1904-1919
Our Lady Star of the Sea (Marblehead) Baptisms, 1908-1920
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.