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Family tree detectives
archived from: 2006-03-16
by: Patricia Bartos

Delving into family history? Looking for Catholic ancestors?

The diocesan Archives and Records Center is ready to help.

The center, housed at the Cardinal Dearden Center in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, holds some 1,200 volumes of parish sacramental registers. These are baptismal, first Communion, confirmation, marriage and death registers kept by the more than 300 parishes that once made up the diocese. They cover records from 1808 to 1936.

Parishes send the records to the archives when everything in the book is at least 70 years old, said Ken White, director of the center.

Records of more recent events are not accessible because of the diocese’s policy on privacy restrictions. For the same reason, the center’s staff people do the actual research. Visitors have no access to the registers.

People requesting the information must provide an obituary, death certificate or Mass card to show proof of death.

“Baptismal records can be used as legal proof of age or identity, accepted by the government, that’s why we have to be very careful about it,” White said.

The archives staff is joined by four “very dedicated” women volunteers who have backgrounds in genealogy.

“They do a terrific job for us,” he said. “We couldn’t do it on our own.”

Last year, the center responded to 440 requests for research, plus another 500 inquires on genealogy procedures, which are usually handled over the phone.

“It’s a passion for people,” White said. “We encourage them to contact us.”

Some requests are bare-bones. One of White’s favorites came from a man who submitted just a name. Nothing else.

“We wrote back that we needed a little more information,” he said with a laugh.

Other requests come with lots of detail, dates and locations and parishes already known.

“It will more likely be something like, ‘They lived on the South Side in the 1850s and had X number of kids,’” White said.

The center’s records cover parishes in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties. Records relating to events prior to 1808 are accessible through the Greensburg Diocese (www.catholicgbg.org).

Information in the parish registers may vary greatly. Before 1917, White said, the church did not provide firm guidelines on information to be kept. So some have complete information and others the minimum, just names and dates.

“Some volumes can have next to nothing,” White said. “It’s hit and miss.”

Baptismal records will include the child’s name, the date, and the parents’ and godparents’ names. Some may provide lots more, including the mother’s maiden name and possibly the neighborhood or city and country of origin for one or both parents.

Marriage registers include the couple’s and witnesses’ names, and possibly ages, origins of birth and names and/or origins of those parents.

Death records will include the name and date of burial and possibly the age, place of birth, cause of death and cemetery. If a child, it may include the name of the father.

The archives and records center also has records from St. Paul and St. Joseph orphanages and Holy Family Institute, which contain the child’s name, dates of admission and departure, and possibly parental information.

“If you want to know about people who lived in this area in the 19th century, we’re the way to go,” White said, noting that state record-keeping began in 1906.

When the archives staff finds the information in the parish registers, they write it out, rather than photocopy it. Almost all records are in Latin, and the staff copies the information as written in the register, with original spelling.

“I really like helping people on this,” White said of the genealogical quests.

He has high praise for the volunteers who do the actual research.

“I want to stress what really good work our volunteers do,” he said. “They’re really good detectives at digging out information.”

A favorite request White recalls is where dates and location were provided, but nothing could be found on the German family in question. The researcher suggested translating the given name into German, and the information popped up.

People may call the center or fill out a form with the needed information. The cost for the search is $15 per hour.

The diocesan archives date to 1918 and Bishop Regis Canevin, who sought to collect and preserve records of the diocese’s history. It was 75 years later that the Archives and Records Center was established. White and his staff work with diocesan offices, parishes, schools and associations to preserve records and to make them available to diocesan officials, scholars and others.

Parishes planning jubilees contact the center, as do people doing research on the general history of the church. Aux. Bishop John McDowell used the center’s records to research his series of biographies on the bishops of Pittsburgh.

The center also welcomes donations of historical items that help to document Catholic history in southwestern Pennsylvania, such as photos, letters and books. White particularly likes early ancestral photos.

The center is located at 4721 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone number is 412-456-3158, and the e-mail address is archives@diopitt.org.

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