Author Archive
Today we’ve added six new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Peter in Dorchester. This update adds over 38,000 records and over 126,000 names to search.
Earlier this week we announced the extension of the Historic Catholic Records Online project up through the year 1920. This update includes 1901-1920 records when available in these volumes.
St. Peter (Dorchester) began in 1872 as an offshoot of St. Gregory in Dorchester. In James Sullivan’s One hundred years of progress, Joseph Byrne enthusiastically describes the appearance of the church which was dedicated in 1884, “No technical description can do more than faintly suggest the grandeur of St. Peter’s church which is a poem of architectural beauty” (175). The Dorchester Athenaeum’s history of the church has a very helpful paragraph (the sixth on the page) that explains the evolution of the Catholic parishes in Dorchester.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this parish available on our site. The new volumes are listed below:
St. Peter (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1872-1887
St. Peter (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1887-1895
St. Peter (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1895-1908
St. Peter (Dorchester) Confirmations, 1882-1920
St. Peter (Dorchester) Marriages, 1872-1897
St. Peter (Dorchester) Marriages, 1897-1920
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we’ve added 5 new parishes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 1789-1920. This update includes 34 new volumes, 137,666 records, and 470,647 names. The new parishes are Sts. Peter and Paul in South Boston, St. Mary of the Annunciation in Melrose, St. Philip in Roxbury, St. Bridget in Abington, and Sacred Heart in Newton.
Yesterday we announced the extension of the Historic Catholic Records Online project up through the year 1920. This update includes 1901-1920 records when available in these volumes.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his extensive help making these parishes available on our site. The new volumes are listed below:
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms Part 1, 1900-1911
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms Part 2, 1900-1911
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1847-1853
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1854-1862
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1862-1868
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1869-1872
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1872-1876
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1877-1881
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1881-1884
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1884-1888
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1888-1891
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Baptisms, 1891-1900
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Marriages, 1847-1853
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Marriages, 1854-1876
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Marriages, 1877-1894
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Marriages, 1894-1910
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Mission Baptisms, 1849-1853
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Confirmations, 1865-1890
Sts. Peter and Paul (South Boston) Confirmations, 1892-1905
St. Mary of the Annunciation (Melrose) Baptisms, 1875-1894
St. Mary of the Annunciation (Melrose) Baptisms, 1894-1906
St. Mary of the Annunciation (Melrose) Confirmations, 1897-1920
St. Mary of the Annunciation (Melrose) Marriages, 1894-1920
St. Philip (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1895-1898
St. Philip (Roxbury) Baptisms, 1898-1908
St. Philip (Roxbury) Confirmations, 1896-1913
St. Philip (Roxbury) Marriages, 1895-1908
Sacred Heart (Newton) Baptisms, 1908-1920
Sacred Heart (Newton) Baptisms, 1890-1907
Sacred Heart (Newton) Marriages, 1890-1920
St. Bridget (Abington) Baptisms, 1864-1900
St. Bridget (Abington) Confirmations and Financial Records, 1857-1883
St. Bridget (Abington) Confirmations, 1870-1920
St. Bridget (Abington) Marriages, 1864-1908
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we announce an update to the year range for our Historic Catholic Records Online project. Phase One of the project spanned the years 1789-1900. We will now be staring Phase Two of this project, in which we are digitizing and indexing volumes ranging from 1901-1920. In addition to updating many parishes that are already part of the project, we will add over 60 new parishes established after 1900.
A recap on how this project works: We’re currently creating two databases, Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 and Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920. The first database displays images of the pages online. Users can browse through the images to find what they are looking for. This database is available to all NEHGS guest members (which is a free membership). Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 is fully searchable and is available to all paying NEHGS members.
If you are curious about the geographic range of this project, be sure to view this map from the Archdiocese of Boston, outlining the modern boundaries of the archdiocese. We anticipate that Phase Two will be as large as Phase One, consisting of at least 720 volumes and 10 million names.
As we implement Phase Two, there will generally be two types of updates–new volumes, and additions to existing volumes that extend beyond 1900. Today we’ve added 72 new volumes from 17 parishes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920. The above link leads to the first page of the first new volume of Blessed Sacrament (Walpole). If you need help navigating this collection to view the other new volumes, please consult our how-to video. 39 of these volumes are additions to previously existing volumes on our site, and 33 are brand new volumes. All new and updated volumes are listed below.
We’d like to thank volunteers Eileen McCarthy, Bill Wolfendale, Max Agigian, Colleen Alm, Ross Weaver, Francis Alix, Tate Lehmann , Tim Belgrad, Angela Napolitano, Kim Bonner, and others for their help making this update possible. If you would like to contribute to this project by volunteering (either at home, or here at our research library on Newbury Street in Boston), please email Rachel Adams at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Baptisms, 1901-1908
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Baptisms, 1908-1920
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Marriages and Confirmations, 1901-1916
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Marriages, 1896-1900 and Confirmations, 1920
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Marriages, 1908-1920
Boston Harbor Islands Baptisms and Marriages, 1877-1920 (Mission)
Boston Harbor Islands Baptisms, 1877-1920 (Mission)
Boston Harbor Islands Sick Calls, 1894-1920 (Mission)
Holy Ghost (Whitman) Baptisms, 1897-1920
Holy Ghost (Whitman) Confirmations, 1898-1920
Holy Ghost (Whitman) Marriages, 1897-1908
Holy Ghost (Whitman) Marriages, 1908-1920
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1893-1907
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1908-1920
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1920
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Marriages, 1871-1920
Sacred Heart (Newton) Baptisms, 1908-1920
Sacred Heart (Newton) Baptisms, 1890-1907
Sacred Heart (Newton) Marriages, 1890-1920
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Baptisms, 1886-1909
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Baptisms, 1909-1920
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Confirmations, 1918
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) First Communions, 1919
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Marriages, 1886-1920
St. Bridget (Framingham) Baptisms, 1911-1920
St. Bridget (Framingham) Marriages, 1911-1920
St. Brigid (Lexington) Baptisms, 1886-1910
St. Brigid (Lexington) Baptisms, 1911-1920
St. Brigid (Lexington) Confirmations, 1908-1920
St. Brigid (Lexington) Marriages, 1886-1916
St. Brigid (Lexington) Marriages, 1916-1920
St. Casimir (Brockton) Baptisms, 1900-1909
St. Casimir (Brockton) Baptisms, 1909-1920
St. Casimir (Brockton) Deaths, 1900-1920
St. Casimir (Brockton) Marriages, 1900-1906
St. Casimir (Brockton) Marriages, 1906-1920
St. Edward the Confessor (Medfield) Baptisms, 1890-1908
St. Edward the Confessor (Medfield) Various, 1889-1920
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Baptisms, 1890-1914
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Baptisms, 1914-1920
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Confirmations, 1892-1920
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Marriages, 1890-1920
St. Mary (Holliston) Baptisms, 1870-1920
St. Mary (Holliston) Marriages, 1871-1920
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1900-1912
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1900-1916
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1912-1920
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Baptisms, 1920
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Confirmations, 1903-1920
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Marriages, 1900-1915
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Marriages, 1900-1920
St. Matthew (Dorchester) Special Marriages, 1912-1920
St. Michael (Hudson) Baptisms and Marriages, 1920
St. Michael (Hudson) Baptisms, 1898-1914
St. Michael (Hudson) Baptisms, Marriages, and Confirmations, 1912-1919
St. Michael (Hudson) Marriages, 1876-1914
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Baptisms, 1872-1908
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Baptisms, 1908-1914
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Baptisms, 1914-1920
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Confirmations, 1894-1916
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Marriages, 1872-1908
St. Patrick (Lawrence) Marriages, 1908-1920
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Baptisms, 1868-1902
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Baptisms, 1903-1920
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Confirmations, 1884-1920
St. Patrick (Stoneham) First Communions, 1911-1920
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Marriages, 1868-1920
St. Paul (Hingham) Baptisms, 1914-1920
St. Paul (Hingham) Baptisms, Marriages, and Conversions, 1876-1913
St. Paul (Hingham) Confirmations, 1888-1920
St. Paul (Hingham) First Communions, 1887-1920
St. Paul (Hingham) Marriages, 1876-1920
Today we’ve added three new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Anthony of Padua in Cohasset and St. Patrick in Stoneham. This update adds over 300 new pages to browse.
A note on the process of implementing this project that explains this update: At the Archdiocesan archives in Braintree, they have many, but not all of the parish registers. Some parish registers may still be located in the parish to which they belong. To scan the volumes for this project, about 40 books are brought to NEHGS at a time. We scan the volumes, then return them to the archives. For these parishes in particular, the Archdiocese already had the baptism volumes, which we scanned and published at an earlier date. A recent collecting trip brought these new volumes into their collection. So now we are updating our database with all of the pre-1901 volumes for both these parishes. While we prefer to release an entire parish at once, occasionally varying circumstances lead us to publish parishes in two parts.
We’d like to thank volunteers Eileen McCarthy, Bill Wolfendale, Ross Weaver and Kim Bonner for their help making this update possible.
If you need help navigating this collection, please consult our how-to video. The new volumes are listed below:
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Marriages, 1886-1900
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Confirmations, 1884-1900
St. Patrick (Stoneham) Marriages, 1868-1900
St. Anthony of Padua (Cohasset) Baptisms, 1886-1900 and St. Patrick (Stoneham) Baptisms, 1868-1900 are already available on our site.
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members. Learn more about becoming a NEHGS guest member (free).
Today we’ve added six new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton and St. John the Evangelist in Wellesley. This update adds over 800 new pages to browse.
The early history of these two parishes is intertwined. Before St. Mary’s was established in Newton’s Upper Falls, Catholics in both these areas attended St. Patrick’s in Watertown. In the 1860s, St. Mary’s (which would become Mary Immaculate of Lourdes) began to coalesce as a mission. In 1870 it became its own parish. St. John the Evangelist began as a mission of St. Mary’s. Initially, the building in which the Catholics worshiped was in Newton’s Lower Falls, but when they gathered the funds to purchase their own church, and become a parish, the new church was located in Wellesley.
The boundaries between the Newton area parishes were confusing and contentious–in both parishes there is a volume which begins with a description of parish boundaries. To learn more, see page A of St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Baptisms, 1890-1900 and pages A and B of Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1871-1872.
Newton itself consists of thirteen different villages. Here is a list of the Catholic churches in Newton that are currently available on our website, including the village in which they are located:
St. Bernard–West Newton, Mary Immaculate of Lourdes–Upper Falls, Our Lady Help of Christians–Newtonville, Sacred Heart–Newton Centre
Note: The volume Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1893-1900 is already on our site–it was part of a previous update.
We’d like to thank volunteers Eileen McCarthy, Bill Wolfendale, Max Agigian, Colleen Alm and Kim Bonner for their help making this update possible.
If you need help navigating this collection, please consult our how-to video. The new volumes are listed below:
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1871-1872
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Baptisms, 1871-1893
Mary Immaculate of Lourdes (Newton) Marriages, 1871-1900
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Baptisms, 1890-1900
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Confirmations, 1892-1900
St. John the Evangelist (Wellesley) Marriages, 1890-1900
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members. Learn more about becoming a NEHGS guest member (free).
Today we’re announcing three new sketches in Western Massachusetts Families in 1790 featuring William Graham (Colrain), Thomson Rawson (New Marlborough) and John Ellis (Pittsfield).
This study project focuses on individuals enumerated in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, also including modern Franklin and Hampden counties. Sketches for this project are submitted to editor Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG by NEHGS members and other interested researchers. If you are interested in submitting a sketch for Volume 5, please review our project home page.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this update possible.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we’ve added six new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from Blessed Sacrament (Walpole), St. Brigid (Lexington), and St. Mary (Holliston). This update adds over 600 new pages to browse.
Early Catholics in Walpole traveled to various towns in the southern portion of the Archdiocese to hear Mass. In 1872, Father Gouesse came to Foxborough and Walpole and helped fully establish the church in Walpole. St. Francis was the first church built in Walpole; the first Mass in the sanctuary was said in 1882. By the 1910s, the Catholic population had grown enough that they needed a bigger church, which would become Blessed Sacrament.
The Lexington parish began as a mission of St. Peter’s in Cambridge, then became a mission of Arlington. In 1865, a building was bought to serve as the first Catholic church in Lexington. In 1886 St. Brigid’s became their own parish.
Early Catholics in the Holliston area traveled to Milford and Hopkinton to worship. St. Mary in Holliston became its own parish in 1870.
We’d like to thank volunteers Eileen McCarthy, Ross Weaver, Max Agigian, and Kim Bonner for their help making this update possible.
If you need help navigating this collection, please consult our how-to video. The new volumes are listed below:
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Baptisms, Marriages, and Confirmations, 1872-1900
Blessed Sacrament (Walpole) Marriages, 1896-1900
St. Brigid (Lexington) Baptisms, 1886-1900
St. Brigid (Lexington) Marriages, 1886-1900
St. Mary (Holliston) Baptisms, 1870-1900
St. Mary (Holliston) Marriages, 1871-1900
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members. Learn more about becoming a NEHGS guest member (free).
69 databases can now provide hints for American AncesTREES. What do we mean by hints? Maybe in your American AncesTREEs family tree you have an ancestor who was born in 1860. Maybe we have a baptism for someone of the same name that also happened in 1860. Thanks to our most recent hinting update, you could get a hint suggesting that our 1860 baptism pertains to your 1860 birth. We’ve just added 47 new databases to the pool of databases offering hints, each of which is unique to AmericanAncestors.org.
You can get a complete list of databases that provide hints from the Database A-Z List. Use the Search menu on our homepage, and chose Browse Databases A-Z. Then if you do a search for the term Hinting, you will see the full list of databases currently providing hints to American AncesTREES.
American AncesTREES is available to all members. You can learn more information about it here.
We are pleased to announce an update to Ireland: The Annals of Beara: the release of the indexed version of Volume 2, which joins the indexed version of Volume 1 and the image-only Volume 3.
In 2009, Riobard O’Dwyer published a three-volume study of the families of the Beara Peninsula (West Cork, Ireland). The work contains information on families from the parishes of Adrigole and Allihies (Volume 1), Bere Island and Eyeries (Volume 2), and Castletownbere and Glengarriff (Volume 3). Volume 3 also contains a brief history of the O’Sullivan clan. The family records range in date from 1776 to 1992, with the majority of records in the period 1822-1956. Many of the families and descendants are traced from their origins in Beara to the United States and other countries.
Bere Island is about 1.5 km off the coast of County Cork. It was originally in the parish of Killaconenagh but became a separate parish in 1890. “As of 2012, the population was approximately 200, but the past population was significantly higher. At the time of the 1841 census the population was 2,122. However, by the 1851 census the population had decreased to 1,454 due to the Great Famine. The population decline continued in line with the national trend for emigration throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.” (“Bere Island,” Wikipedia). The main industry, as might be expected, was fishing. In addition, the British Navy had a long presence on the island.
Eyeries Parish is located on the northern coast of the Beara Peninsula. Like Bere Island, it experienced significant emigration as a result of the Great Famine. One of the primary occupations of Eyeries Parish was fishing. It was in Eyeries that “mackerel curing first started for the American markets.” (O’Halloran, W. History of West Cork, 1916) However, this industry declined around 1930. Another major employer of the residents of Eyeries was the copper mines in nearby Allihies, which began to decline in the 1860s and collapsed in 1884.
To research the families of Bere Island and Eyeries Parish, O’Dwyer used the Catholic and Church of Ireland parish records, as well as civil records and interviews of residents. In the case of Bere Island, roughly eight years of marriages and nine years of baptisms were missing from the Catholic Church records of the mid-1860s to early 1870s, but through study of the civil records, O’Dwyer traced 46 missing marriages and hundreds of births. Likewise, in Eyeries Parish, there were 200 people who were never entered in the records, and O’Dwyer had to use alternate methods to find them.
This database is now indexed for Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 3 is currently browse-only. Tables of contents for all three volumes may be downloaded to help locate the volumes and pages for specific towns and parishes in Beara. The NEHGS Library also holds the research papers of Riobard O’Dwyer in its Special Collections, call number Mss 1097.
Special thanks to Sam Sturgis for his help implementing this update and to Jean Maguire for authoring this post.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we’ve added seven new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Mary in Quincy and St. Paul in Cambridge. This update adds over 13,000 records and over 42,000 names to search.
St. Mary’s is described by James S. Sullivan in One Hundred Years of Progress in sparkling terms, “St. Mary’s Church, West Quincy, was the first church erected outside of Boston for the Catholics living along the South Shore and therefore can justly be considered the mother church of the numerous Catholic churches that now raise their glittering spires in the historic towns of the Plymouth colony.”
St. Paul was established in Harvard Square in 1875, from area that formerly belonged to St. Peter’s in Cambridge.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this parish available on our site. The new volumes are listed below:
St. Mary (Quincy) Baptisms and Marriages, 1844-1848
St. Mary (Quincy) Baptisms, 1849-1850 and Financial Records, 1864-1866
St. Mary (Quincy) Baptisms, 1900
St. Mary (Quincy) Marriages, 1853-1854
St. Paul (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1875-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) Confirmations, 1875-1900
St. Paul (Cambridge) Marriages, 1875-1900
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.