Online U.S. Catholic Parish Registers 2017 List

In 2015 I started a yearly list of what Roman Catholic parish registers I found online in various formats. There has been two major announcements in relation to the availability of such records since the last list in August 2016. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has partnered with the Archdiocese of Boston to eventually digitize records from all of their parishes up to the turn of the 20th century. Findmypast recently placed the registers of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia online and plan to add registers from other dioceses in the future. I've also added entries for parishes from other states such as Kentucky and upstate New York. New additions are in bold in the table.

Access and Format Key

S - Scanned

I - Indexed

NI - Not Indexed

T - Transcriptions

State	Diocese	Region/Parishes Covered	Years	Access & Format
Alabama	Archdiocese of Mobile	Mobile	1704-1764	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Arkansas	Archdiocese of Mobile	Fort St. Philippe	1744, 1761-1765	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
California	Sacremento	St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo County	1883-1939	Familysearch Books (S) *
Colorado	Archdiocese of Denver	St Mary's Catholic Parish, Littleton	1915-1985	Familysearch Books (S) **
Delaware	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
Kentucky		Sacred Heart Parish, St. Vincent	c.1833 - c.1914	Familysearch Books (T)
Illinois	Archdiocese of Chicago	City of Chicago and surrounding area	1833-1925	Familysearch (S/I)
Illinois	Belleville	South East Ohio / County map of parishes	1729-1956	Familysearch (S/NI)
Illinois		Kaskaskia (Caskakias), Prairie du Rocher, Fort de Chartres	1695-1813, 1761-1799, 1721-1765	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Indiana		Vincennes	1741-1786	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Archive.org (S)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Familysearch Books (S)**
Indiana		St. Peter's Parish, Montgomery County	1853-1881	Archive.org (S)
Louisiana	Archdiocese of New Orleans	Various Parishes	1772-1818	Archdiocese of New Orleans Archives (S)+
Louisiana	Archdiocese of New Orleans	Various Parishes	1751-1799	Archdiocese of New Orleans Archives (T)+
Louisiana		St. Gabriel	1753-1759	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Massachusetts	Archdiocese of Boston	Various Parishes	1789-1900	American Ancestors (S)
Maine		Frenchville Van Buren	1843-1943 1838-1900	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Maine		Ste. Luce, Frenchville, Aroostook County	1843-1860	Upper Saint John River Valley
Maryland	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
Michigan		St. Anne, Detroit Various others, Detroit St. Anne, Mackinac (Makinac) County Fort Français, Berrien County	1704-1943 1754-1784 1695-1828 1720-1733	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Missouri		St. Ferdinand, Florissant Old Cathedral, St. Louis	1790-1954 1766-1954	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Missouri		St. Peter's Parish, Kirkwood	1838-1851	St Louis Genealogical Society (T/I)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St. Peter's Parish, Belville Immaculate Conception Parish, Montclair	1839-1899	NYC Nuts (T/I)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	Various Parishes	19th Century	Familysearch (T/I)***
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St Mary Star of the Sea Parish, Beyonne	1884-1984	Hudson County Gen Soc (T)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St. John the Baptist Parish, Jersey City	1884-1928	Familysearch (S)
New York	Brooklyn	Our Lady of Sorrow Parish, Bushwick St. Leonards of Port Maurice, Bushwick Most Holy Trinity, Williamsburg	1842-1978	German Genealogy Group (T/I)
New York	Brooklyn	St Paul's Parish	1837-1900	Ancestry: here & here (T/I)
New York	Buffalo	Various Parishes++	19th & 20th Centuries	Familysearch Catalog (S/I/T) Familysearch  (T)
New York		Brasher Falls St. Joseph, Cooperville Chazy Fort Covington Fort Frederick, Albany Hogansburg Malone Massena	1843-1946 1843-1948 1902-1907 1843-1946 1732-1760 1843-1946 1843-1946 1843-1946	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Ohio	Toledo	North west Ohio	1796-2004	Familysearch (S/NI) Ancestry (S/NI)
Pennsylvania	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	Philadelphia and south east Pennsylvania	18th & 19th Century	Hathi Trust (S/T)
Pennsylvania	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	All Parishes	18th-20th centuries	Findmypast (S/I) Baptisms / Marriages / Registers Browse
Pennsylvania		Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh	1754-1756	Archive.org
Texas	Diocese of Austin	St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception, Austin	1853-1875	Austin Genealogical Society (T)
Wisconsin		St. Francis Xavier, Green Bay Prairie-du-Chien	1823-1826 1829	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)

* Search for: "Burial register, St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo Co., California"

** Search for: " St. Mary's Catholic Church, 1915-1985, of Littleton Colorado"

*** Records are contained within the database New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660-1980

**** Search for: "Register of St. Michael Catholic Church, Daviess County, Indiana"

+ Thanks to Nicole W. Miller (@nicolewmiller) for bringing these to my attention

++ Microfilms from parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo are available at the Family History Library. So far, some of these microfilms have been scanned and others have been indexed. You can access the scans and indexes via the Familysearch Catalog. Records that have been indexed are also available via the database New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962, which is available on Familysearch.

Tewksbury Almshouse Inmate Biographies

American and Canadian almshouse records from the 19th century have always been fruitful hunting grounds for information about immigrants from Ireland. I have previously written about Saint John Almshouse in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and now it is the turn of Tewksbury, located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Tewksbury Almshouse first opened in 1854 and quickly saw more admittals than the number it was built for.[1] Those who were admitted came from all over Massachusetts. What is very interesting about this institution is that detailed notes taken from a patient's intake interview have survived. Known as 'inmate biographies,' many of these are lengthy, detailed narratives that cover the person’s full life history, focusing on family relations, work, and health.[2]

The first phase of this digitization project has seen records from 1854 to 1883 come online, however, there are very few records from before 1860. There are currently records for approximate 40,000 individuals that can be viewed online. The final phase of digitization will see records added through the 1890s. There are records from after these years, but they will not be placed online. Some of the original records are at the Museum of Public Health in Tewksbury, while transcriptions of other original records, since destroyed, are available on microfilm at the Massachusetts State Archives. The digitized records come from both of these institutions. 

The records are heavily populated with immigrants from Ireland with the following example showing the genealogical gold they contain: [3]

Mary Stanley, inmate biography, 1873

Reg. No:              41109

Age:                     56

Name:                  Mary Stanley

From:                   Boston June 4 1873

Condition:           Well

Discharged:         June 24 1873

Removed:            Boston

By Whom:           Tupp [?]

For Nos:

56 b[orn] Ire[land] Co. Roscommon Land[ed] Quebec Ca[nada] May 15 1837 per Ship Emerald. Direct to Boston and resided in Boston since.  M[arrie]d Henry Stanley in Boston 1838. N.N. [?] No R[eal?]. Est[ate?] No taxes Laborer died Boston Jan[uary] 1856. Son Thomas Stanley stone mason resides #25 Northampton St. Daug[hter] Mary H[ouse?] w[i]f[e] of Benjamin Washington. #5 Smith's Court off Joy St. P[arents?] Richard and Ann O'Brien d[ied?] Ire[land]. Last lived rear of 383 Harrison Ave with Mrs Dayley. Says [she was] in no other inst[itution]. Officer Prouty [?] of Station 5 knows her. Rheum[atism?] In City Hosp[ital] 2 years ago. No M[oney?]. No Home.

As best that I can tell, the website on which this collection is hosted, University of Massachusetts Lowell Digital Initiatives, does not have a standalone database where you can search this collection. Instead, the search facility searches all digitized collections. However, all names from the Tewksbury Almshouse collection have been indexed.

You can read more about the collection here and access the records here. Browsing the records is also available, beginning here.

My thanks goes to R. Andrew Pierce, a professional genealogist in Boston, for telling me about this digitization project.

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[1] Meltsner, Heli. The Poorhouses of Massachusetts: A Cultural and Architectural History. Massachusetts: McFarland, 2012, pp. 32–33.

[2] Fisher, Joseph. 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record Collection at UMass Lowell,' Highlights. Boston Library Consortium (https://blc.org/special-highlights/tewksbury-almshouse-intake-record-collection-umass-lowell): accessed 19 February 2017.

[3] Tewksbury Almshouse, 'Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record: Stanley, Mary,' No. 41109, 4 June 1873; Digital Initiatives @ UML, University of Massachusetts Lowell Library (http://libhost.uml.edu/items/show/1807): accessed 19 February 2017.