David Vernon inquired about how to go about examining early San Francisco Catholic records. This is going to be time consuming unless by using city directories and a map you can pinpoint the location of residence of the family in question. Those same directories (in the front or the back) will provide the addresses of the churches. The records that survived the earthquake and fire are on film at the archives of the Catholic Archdiocese, located in Menlo Park at 320 Middlefield ®oad in the basement of St. Pat's Seminary. The archivist is Jeff Burns, and you must make an appointment to look at them by calling (650) 328-6502. Records for defunct churches are either at another existing church or at the Archdiocese office at 445 Church Street in San Francisco. Only those for St. Ignatius and St. Patrick's were totally lost. To determine what records survived for what churches and the years they cover, see pp. 32 and 33 of "Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for Pre-1906 San Francisco Research". There are desk copies at San Francisco Public Library or you can purchase one through the California Genealogical Society at www.calgensoc.org. This guide will help with most pre-earthquake records. Nancy Peterson ____________________________________________________________________