Re the comments about "stubborn and pig headed" priests not letting us look at Catholic registers, a few points: As I noted earlier, most were filmed in the 1950s and are widely available. Whenever I've visited a church in Ireland, I've always been allowed to look at the records, but it helps to be polite. Attending to the spiritual needs of their parishioners is an enormous job for most Irish priests, leaving little time to answer genealogy requests. Catholic bishops decide whether or not their dioceses' films should be made generally available. (They're not public documents.) There are a couple of bishops who have held out. The best way to encourage them to keep holding out is to write nasty things about priests on mailing lists. Diane

The truth sometimes hurts a great deal.  Like all the pedophiles.  My father hated the Catholic church and did Not want my mother to send me to a Catholic school.  I can tell you all kinds of things about priests and what they did to my parents.  I can say we kids adored Fa McCarthy and that was probably why he was moved away.  But this is a family history list and I will go off and do happy things.  I tell the truth as I was taught at home and in Catholic school!   Alanna --- On Tue, 5/17/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: Re the comments about "stubborn and pig headed" priests not letting us look at Catholic registers, a few points: As I noted earlier, most were filmed in the 1950s and are widely available. Whenever I've visited a church in Ireland, I've always been allowed to look at the records, but it helps to be polite. Attending to the spiritual needs of their parishioners is an enormous job for most Irish priests, leaving little time to answer genealogy requests. Catholic bishops decide whether or not their dioceses' films should be made generally available. (They're not public documents.) There are a couple of bishops who have held out. The best way to encourage them to keep holding out is to write nasty things about priests on mailing lists. Diane