Genealogy Chat

Karen, If you know the church where the marriage took place, there's a strong chance they will still hold the records. Find its address in the National Catholic Directory, in most public libraries. If the church/parish has closed or merged, try any parish in the town. If that goes nowhere, try the Diocesan office- often run by lay people, who know where to find the info! Ring during office hours, initially, but best put requests for detailed info in a letter- seems to get a better response. Re: conversion- adults who are baptised in another 'agreed' Christian faith are 'received' & confirmed. Otherwise, there can be full baptism, or conditional..... Someone without a saint's name (say Ophelia, or Wayne) would choose a 'christian' name for either ceremony. Complicated, isn't it? But most parishes/areas have someone who's an archive fanatic, and they're invaluable to us. Good luck, happy hunting, Mary

Oh Karen Did that button get stuck? LOL Pat x

I know what you mean, going round in circles Pat! I have just been browsing my family tree & because thre was alot of inter-marriage, some of the people are in twice! My problem about the Catholics is I can find no trace of my G. grandmother before her marriage in 1885, except a possible in "stray" 1881. I don't even think now that the guy she named as her father really was, because I can find no Alfred Walker (printer) with a daughter called Teresa, or indeed a Sarah, which is what I suspect her birth name was. Talk about brick wall! Oh, well, ever onwards!

There are two different things here A person who converts to catholism and as far as I know they don't change a name, but you do have to go through a baptism into that church and then a confirmation, which would be similar to Church of England. The only other name people would normally have is a confirmation name. One of my rellies married a catholic but did not have to become one themselves, but they had to agree to bring the children up in that religion. Hope this helps Pat x

Does any one have any idea of the process involved & how it would have been recorded, perhaps in parish records as a baptism? Would it be likely that a person would change their name on conversion, perhaps as a symbol of starting a new life?