Thank you for your insight, Robert. Additionally, the numbers of clergy, nuns, and volunteers has declined over the years as fewer people belong to churches. Some churches have volunteers who work part-time specifically to handle such certificate requests. Some even work from 4- 6 pm, or work one day per week. Another factor is the language interference. This is especially true for churches located in the Lower East Side, but includes other historical churches. Over time a church's cultural constituency has changed from Irish/German/Italian to Chinese, Korean, and native speakers of other languages. They may not attempt to search alternative surname spellings, or follow a surname into additional years, as is done automatically by the seasoned staff at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, now basicilia. I look forward to a response online from Rosemary Ardolino, about obtaining regional Roman Catholic records. Given the facts stated above, my hunch is that many researchers request church certificates without researching the church's present location and holdings. I also suspect many write letters which are too genealogically detailed, tangental, or unfocused, in contrast to the recommendations in my book. Barb NYC Researcher ============================ robert_babcock@hotmail.com writes: > > To be fair to the church and its' personnel... > Many of the old Brooklyn Churches were very large and performed many > ceremonies over the past 200 years. That translates to a lot of old hand-written > books to go through. > These same churches are often now considered to be "poor" parishes with > limited staff and resources (consider the number of Churches that are closed > every year). > I've spoken to the staff at my ancestor's old church, where they know the > family name, and they ware still not willing to try to find the records. > The staff works only limited hours and they simply do not have the time to do > the extra research. Remember that they are doing the research for current > religous purposes (proof required for burial in a Catholic cemetery) and > that consumes enough of their time. > A $100.00 donation would not come close to covering the "effort" that it > would take to fulfill the request that it is meant to cover. > If you gave them your credit card number and told them to bill you at > $25.00/hr, regardless of result, you might get their attention. >