Archives

Access to Records

Records later than 1920 are not open to general research. It must be remembered that these are not public records, but were created by and for a private institution. Therefore, further local restrictions may be applicable.

What Are Sacramental Records

The sacramental records held by the Archives of the are concentrated in the years of the nineteenth century. These are records made as individual church members receive one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church: baptism, penance, eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, and the annointing of the sick and dying. Records of baptisms and marriages are the most common; records of the eucharist, confirmation, orders, and anointing the sick are less common; no penance records are made or kept.

Sacramental records are generally made by the parish priest when the sacrament is performed, and are maintained in the several parishes. The records are kept in special volumes set aside for that purpose and therefore will normally be distinct from all other parish records. Priests are required to make and keep these records and, since they also have cause to examine earlier records on a fairly regular basis, the records are for the most part carefully kept. The sacramental records of approximately 150 parishes of the Archdiocese have been centralized in the Archives, under circumstances and for reasons that are not entirely clear. When the records are found not to be in the Archives, researchers should contact the individual parishes.

The records are arranged alphabetically, first by town and then by parish name. Where they exist, spine titles and spine volume numbers have been used to identify the record volumes. Mission districts for the nineteenth century unrelated to particular parishes are given at the end of the alphabetical town listing. For the most part, these records are not indexed. Where indexes exist, they are usually found in the volume to which they pertain, although for some parishes [the Cathderal of the Holy Cross, for example] separate indexes covering a series of volumes have been prepared.

These sacramental records are of particular value to genealogists and social and family historians. They may also be of value to canonists seeking information for marriage cases and dispensations. These records are comparable to the vital statistics of births, marriages, and deaths that are maintained by the cities and towns and by the state.

The suggested citation to these records includes parish name, place, title of the volume, inclusive dates, page numbers if any, and an indication that the volume is to be found in the Archives.

Examples: Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. Baptisms,
1831-1838, 314, [Archives, Archdiocese of Boston]

Types of Sacramental Records

Sacramental records are required by canon law to be kept according to a formula which varies with the kind of record. Listed below is the information contained in the records of the six sacraments for which the records are kept.

1. Baptisms: Records include the date, the name of the child, the names of the parents [sometimes including the maiden name of the mother], the names of the sponsors [that is, the god-parents], and the signature of the officiating priest. Entries are made in the record books as they occur in time; initial access to these records is therefore by date and then by name.

2. Marriages: Records include the date, the names of the parties being married, the names of the two official witnesses, and the signature of the officiating priest. Initial access is also by date and then by the surname of the husband.

3. Eucharist: Records are kept of a child's first receipt of the eucharist only. Regular parish communion records are not kept, as they are in some Protestant denominations. For the time period covered by these records, a child usually received first communion as part of a class about the age of seven. [Individual receipt of first communion has become increasingly common in recent years.] Records of first communions were not kept as regularly and carefully as those of baptisms and marriages, and they are often part of school or orphanage records The records include only the date and names of the communicants.

4. Confirmations: Confirmation is usually administered to children as part of a class or group at about the age of thirteen. As confirmation can be administered only by a bishop, records of the sacrament are generally not kept in the parishes and therefore do not appear very often in this record group. Occasionally, the date and names of those confirmed will be given, often as part of school or orphanage records. Confirmation records are more frequently found in episcopal registers [that is, records of bishops' activity], but those records include only the dates, location, confirming bishop, and the total number of males and females confirmed, with no record kept of individual names.

5. Ordinations: Records of ordinations, which can be performed only by a bishop, are kept as part of the episcopal register and are not kept at the parish level. Ordination records in the episcopal registers include the date, the name of the person being ordained, the rank to which he is being ordained, and the presiding bishop.

6. Sick Calls: Records include name, and frequently the address and notation of cause of death of the person, as well as a notation of confession and viaticum.

7. Deaths: Records of deaths and burials are rarely kept as part of the parish sacramental records. Where they are kept they include the date of burial, the name of the deceased, the date of death, the age at death, whether penance and the eucharist were received before death, and the signature of the officiating priest. Burial records more frequently appear as part of cemetery records.

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