In a message dated 12/31/2007 3:18:07 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, irish-new-york-city-request@rootsweb.com writes: Letter I meant to send this spring but never did. Your thoughts, please? ----------- You may or may not like my thoughts, but I am offering them. If the Bishop reads this letter and in any way feels like you are making him or the Church wrong by their actions, they will most likely immediately reply with a resounding NO. If he feels that your letter basically demands a YES, he will feel no freedom to say yes, or to even investigate any possibility of a project. It's actually a human phenomenon that most of us suffer from, and I would allege that priests and bishops are no different. I suggest you write your letter in a way that has them WANT to look at the possibility of such a project. That's probably the only way they might even have a slight interest. I too have obtained records from Chicago. I have been very fortunate that most of my family has Chicago connections. However, even when I made an inquiry to an old church in Haverstraw, NY, my check was cashed and no response ever was made. I wrote back to them numerous times, even mentioning my cousin who was at that time also a priest. Nope, nothing. I also had the same conversation with our local pastor when we lived in Indiana. He voiced the same concern over privacy and that the records are owned by the Church as an entity. Not to any people. Just some thoughts. Denise Editor, The Irish Everywhere Newsletter _www.irish-everywhere.com_ (http://www.irish-everywhere.com/) **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)