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Diana
Tracing RC records in England & Wales from 1837, Scotland 1864 and Ireland 1864 is easy as the stautory reqirement to register births was applicable to everybody, including catholics, and although registering births did not become compulsory until later in the 1800's, most people did comply with registering births, so the RC ones will be found alongside others in the GRO 1837 or in the Irish or Scottish equavelents.
However, if your RC ancestors just happen to be amongst the small minority of peoplewho did not comply with the registration, then you could try to seek access to the Baptismal Registers of the various Catholic Churches where they were baptised. You will need to know exactly which church they were baptised.
A baptismal certificate will show you the name of the church, the name of the child, the parents and the godparents, no other information will be on there so post 1837 you are best off looking for the BMD Cert in the GRO.
There was no right to have to deposit these baptismal registers with the various County Record Offices, though a few may have done so.
If you are seeking RC records pre 1837 then that will only be possible by looking at the Baptimal Records of the various churches where your ancestors may have been baptised, and that will depend on the good will of the priest.
Few Catholic Churches exist much before 1825 in England, Wales and Scotland as to practice your RC religion pre 1829 was in fact illegal, though between approximately 1750 and 1829, the date of the Catholic Emancipaton Act, the consequences of practicing your RC faith was treated very leniently.
Pre about 1750 all RC were known as either Papists or Recusants and forbidden to practice their religion. There is a very good Catholic Family History Society to cater for these Recusants. It costs about £15/16 each year but offers excellent service to those people who have proven RC ancestors in the UK pre 1750ish.
Unlike Ireland, pre about 1800 most RC would be baptised in the C of E church.
If you want good, reliable information on your family history then the free option is hardly available. Even obtaining a baptism from the priest will cost you a donation, and these days you could not offer less that £5.
Janet North London Borders
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Eileen
Thank you for your reply. I have heard some priests won't even let you look at their records but I'm not sure if that is in England or Ireland. My husband's ancestors were originally from Ireland but had settled in London by 1873. I am not looking forward to trying to trace them in Ireland with names like Collins, Kelly and Corcoran!
My side of the family (Scottish) was so straight forward - now comes the hard bit!
Diana
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I had thought that the Roman Catholic church would keep central records of all those baptized as babies in order to make sure that they did their first comunion. However it seems that this is not so. Baptismal records are only kept at the church of baptism, they don't even have to send in annual 'returns' to their own diocese. I was quite surprised about that.
I had been told that I was baptised Catholic prior to my adoption by Baptists. I have contacted the local RC church nearest my birth home several times over the last four years, and have only once received a reply that records are archived and they will look it up in due course!!!!! My baptism would have been only 63 years ago, so I guess there is little chance of finding things that are earlier, as they seem to have little interest in keeping track of their 'members'
Hope you have more successs than I
Good luck
Eileen
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Teresa
Thank you for the reply. I didn't realise that they could get access to Catholic churches too. I shall try the site again and hope to have better luck next time in finding them.
Diana.
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Diana
You will find that Catholics are found on the LDS site too but the Civil birth records don't state that they are Catholic, only Baptism records.
I found a lot of my Ancestors being Baptised in the RC chapel in Lulworth Castle in Dorset dating from 1762 - 1815. and there are plenty of others...it just depends if the LDS were given access to the records or not.
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Can anyone tell me what is the best way to search for ancestors who were Roman Catholics in England. Are there any good and preferably free websites (i.e.like the LDS site) that I could find out births,marriages or deaths.
Many thanks
Diana
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