I cannot agree that "the concept of private ownership of church records is not diocesan or even national, it is global and universal so perhaps the approach needs to be to the Vatican rather than the Archdiocese of New York?" G.McC ---------------------- Yes, they are privately owned by the Roman Catholic church. But I have gotten hundreds Roman Catholic sacramental records off the LDS films of the sacramental records for five RC parishes in Ireland and for more than a dozen RC parishes in western Germany. And yet I have heard that the records of certain parishes in each of those countries -- in different dioceses than the ones that I sought -- are not available, under local option. The LDS has filmed at thousands of Roman Catholic churches all over the world, including in the United States. Some said yes and some said no. The same with other churches such as Lutheran, Evangelical Reformed, Methodist, Presbyterian. Since the Mormons rebaptize their ancestors when they find them, many congregations do not want the Mormons to have films of their records. And among those are some Roman Catholic churches. It is their choice, they are the owners. If your Diocesesan Archives or your parish has a film of their sacramental records to look up for you, then that is an LDS film ..... as the Mormons provided free copies of their sacramental records to the churches that permitted the Mormons to film the records. Go to www.familysearch.com and look to see if film for any other parish that you know of outside NYC is listed. You can rent that film at your local LDS Family History Center and look at all the sacramental records for a whole month! Vatican has nothing to do with it! The churches have and had the freedom to decide in some cases, and bishops decided for all of their parishes in other cases. But you must remember these are not public records, so we have no RIGHT to them -- and if a parish is graciously willing to search for our ancestors for us, we should at least be willing to reimburse the members of that parish for the 30-60 minutes or more of staff time it may take to set up the microfilm reader and then find the record you seek. You are asking for a gift, a favor. Please remember to say please and thank you and to pay your fair share and more of the costs of the gifts you seek -- many of the older parishes are in terrible financial straits -- and please be certain to enclose an SASE containing correct postage for what you seek. Each four copies usually costs another ounce of postage.