Bill, I just answered another query on this subject before I saw yours. But to repeat, I had some people that I was looking for before 1890 and was told the same thing at St. Patrick's, and also that you have to give them the exact date of death in order for them to find the record. I had noticed that Macomber Funeral Home was listed on the records of many of my people who were in St Patrick's, so after some research, I talked to Potter Funeral Home in Westport. This man's grandfather had bought out Macomber in the late 1890's. There had been a fire there during World War II (don't we always run into that!) but he was able to locate a record, partly burned, and from it I found the death date and parents names of the person I was seeking. Then I wrote to St Patrick's cemetery with that date and they provided me with the grave location and more information from the cemetery record. Joan

To anyone whom it may help, I have just finished going through the 1930 census page by page for the city of New Bedford. I have an index of 323 names of heads of households and "strays" having the surnames listed below. If anyone is interested in any of these names, please e-mail me and I can provide you with an ED and page number. I can't guarantee that this is EVERYBODY with these names (some of the writing was very difficult to read), so it's very possible I may have missed a few people. Still, it may be a start for someone. My list includes ONLY these surnames: ARKWRIGHT BELANGER BESSETTE DOHERTY DOUCET GRINDROD HARRISON HODGKINSON HOLDEN HOWARD MAHON MARSDEN NUTTALL PELCZAR/PELCZARSKI POIRIER POLCHLOPEK SWEENEY TATRO/TETRAULT TURCOTTE VAILLENCOURT WALMSLEY