Today's post contributed by Ted Bainbridge draws our attention to the Catholic Heritage Archive available at Findmypast. Ted has been a researcher, teacher, speaker and writer on genealogy since 1969. He has taught many beginner and advanced genealogy classes. His genealogical and historical articles are published frequently by several US national, state, and county organizations. Ted is the past president of the Longmont Genealogical Society, in Colorado, US. and he is currently on the staff of the Longmont Family History Center.[Ed.]

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The  Catholic  Heritage Archive

Ted  Bainbridge  PhD

Findmypast.com is enlarging its Catholic Heritage Archive [CHA] which intends to become 'the most comprehensive online collection of Roman Catholic records for the USA, Britain and Ireland, containing one hundred million records.' The site’s front page claims, 'Most of these records have never before been accessible by the public - either offline or online.'

Go to https://www.findmypast.com.au/page/catholic-records and sign in or subscribe.  [Access to Findmypast is free to members of the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) within the GSV Research Centre. Alternately free access is also available at LDS Church Family History Centres or your local library.]

The CHA contains or will contain millions of Irish records*, plus sacramental registers of England, Scotland, and the United States.  Records of the archdioceses of New York, Philadelphia (beginning in 1757), and Baltimore contain thirty million records. English records include those of Birmingham and Westminster, both beginning in 1657.  Records include baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials, censuses, and more.

You can search the entire collection by specifying various name, date, and place parameters. Alternatively, you can access English or Irish or Scottish baptism, marriage, or burial registers; as well as American baptism or marriage registers, or parish registers. Each data set can be searched for several parameters that you can specify or omit as you think best.

Invaluable guidance is available by selecting Learn More, Understanding the Records, Searching Irish Catholic Parish Registers, Common Latin Terminology, and Finding British and Irish Places of Birth.

There are many links to other helpful internet locations at the bottom of the CHA front page. 

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*  The GSV also recommends going to the free https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/for locating any Irish ancestors for birth, death and Marriage records. [Ed.]