The Spiraling Chains: Kowalski - Bellan Family Trees
  • Home
  • Licciardi
    • Licciardi Family Photos
    • DeRigo
  • Bellan
    • Beljan Family in Croatia
    • Benicki >
      • Zagar
  • Bodziony
    • Bodziony - Poland
    • Golonka >
      • Bawołek
    • Krupa >
      • Kołodziej
  • Kowalski
  • The Spiraling Chains

Church Record Sunday: Catholic Directories on Google Books

5/18/2013

2 Comments

 
Over the past week or so, I have been (slowly) researching one of my husband's distant uncles, Henry Drees, who was a Catholic priest in Ohio during the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.  I have been using various Catholic directories on Google Books to trace his career and places of residence between census schedules.  Wikipedia does a nice summary of the evolution of Catholic Directory publishing in the 19th century.  

What makes these directories so helpful?  The directories, usually published annually, provides a listing of every Catholic-run church, hospital, school, college, orphanage, asylum, convent, seminary, and missionary in the United States.  And, actually, many of the directories that include the U.S. also include British North America as well.  This one, from 1876, includes a listing of clergy from Ireland, too:  
Picture
Each diocese/archdiocese is given its own sub-section; within the city proper, the parishes are listed alphabetically by name (left).  Then, every smaller town in that diocese that has a Catholic church is listed alphabetically (right).  If the church has full-time pastor and assistants, their names are listed.  Some of these directories will provide a church's "ethnicity," if its services were typically conducted in a language other than English or if the majority of its parishioners were of a particular nationality.
Picture
Sadlier's Catholic Directory, 1891,
Picture
Sadlier's Catholic Directory, 1891.
Obviously, if you have relatives who were Catholic priests, these directories are wonderful for figuring out which institutions they served at and when.  As I mentioned above, these directories also list Catholic schools and hospitals, which were often run by women's religious orders.  The directories DO list the names of the women in charge of these institutions, BUT many women serving in Catholic religious orders adopt new religious names once they take their final vows.  So, unless you know the name your relative took at the time of her vows, you might not be able to find her if she is listed, say, as Mother Superior of a convent.

The directories also have an obituary section in which the deaths of priests and other female and male religious members that occurred over the past year are listed.  Typically, due to space constraints, not much information is listed: Date, name, location, age, order - SOMETIMES place of birth and cause of death are listed, but not always.  The bonus in the obituaries is that women religious often have their birth names listed next to their religious names and titles.

Even if you do not have ancestors who were priests or other Catholic religious members, you may find these directories helpful.  Perhaps you know your relatives were Catholic and you know the town in which they settled.  Use these directories to figure out what church they attended (and then try to track down those sacrament records!).  Perhaps you don't know where your Polish Catholic immigrant great-grandparents attended church in a bigger city, like Cleveland.  Use these directories to figure out where the Polish Catholic churches were located and start researching those churches first.  Remember that Catholic churches and schools are not static entities; new ones open, old ones close and merge with other parishes.  These directories give us a snapshot of which parishes and schools were open and active every year in just about every location in the country.   

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many Catholic directories from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be viewed and downloaded for free through Google Books.  Simply go to Google Books and type "catholic directories" in the search box.  You will be able to browse through them and, if you are looking for a specific year or range of years, you can narrow down your search even further.
2 Comments
Linda Huesca Tully link
7/7/2013 07:10:41 am

Excellent post, Emily! You may already know that the Official Catholic Directory, published by P.J. Kenedy & Sons, succeeds Sadlier's Directory today. Published annually, it is often referred to simply as the "Kenedy." It's not online, but you can find a copy at every Catholic Church rectory. It continues to be a valuable resource for those years considered too recent to publish online but still of interest to many genealogists. Most dioceses also keep copies of past years of this three-inch thick volume.

Reply
Emily Schroeder
7/9/2013 02:50:46 am

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post, Linda! And thank you for the tip on Kenedy; I figured they still published something similar, but I haven't done much "recent" research needing a directory, so I didn't know about it. I will definitely keep it in mind.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Archives

    April 2017
    March 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012


    Categories

    All
    Anniversaries
    Antoni
    Aubry
    Bellan
    Bernard
    Bernhold
    Birthdays
    Birth Records
    Blogging
    Bodziony
    Braun
    Brunswick
    Bulcher
    Catholic
    Cemeteries
    Census Schedules
    Civil War
    Conferences And Talks
    Cousins
    Death Certificates
    Decorating
    Dna
    Drees
    Editorials
    First Communion
    France
    Funeral Cards
    Galicia
    Germany
    Golonka
    Grilliot
    Heirlooms
    Holidays
    Homes
    Hut
    Immigration
    Italy
    Janning
    Kahlig
    Knob
    Kowalski
    Krupa
    Licciardi
    Magottaux/Magoto
    Mapping
    Marriage
    Military
    Obituaries
    Occupations
    Organization
    Parazzini
    Poland
    Research
    Rolfes
    Schools
    Schroeder
    Ship Manifests
    Sports
    Surnames
    Tips
    Travel
    Tumbusch
    Voisinet
    Watercutter
    Weather
    Weddings
    Wellerding
    Wilkens
    Wills
    Wimmers
    World War II
    World War II
    Yearbooks


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.