Hello fellow listers, I wanted to pass along this very informative email that I received. I am sure there are others that will find this information about obtaining Catholic church records extremely helpful Thanks Father Hughes! Patti, I am not sure if anyone else has given you this info yet. I just picked up my email after about 5 days away. I am a Catholic priest who enjoys genealogy. My father's family came from Troy. Catholic churches keep five kinds of records: Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Death. All of these are usually only roughly indexed. Some parishes have parish census records going back many years, but these are usually not indexed. There might be donation records, particularly for the building of a church or school, but again, these would not be indexed There might be records of sick calls and the administration of the Sacraments to the sick, but again, these would not be indexed. Baptism records in a Catholic church typically, but not always, include the names of the parents and godparents, the date of birth and the date of baptism. Newer records normally contain the information about where and when the person was married and to whom, if that marriage took place in a Catholic church. Older records include this info only occasionally. Children were normally baptized soon after birth. Confirmation records typically include the church of baptism, the parents' names, the sponsor's name and the date of confirmation. In those years, Confirmation was normally received by children of 10-14 years of age. First Communion records typically include the church of baptism, the parents' names and the date of First Communion. In those years, First Communion was usually received after the age of 14. Marriage records typically include the date of marriage, the parents' names and the witnesses' names. Death records often include the date of death, date of funeral, place of interment and living next of kin. I have found old records consisting of a single line of information, and others which consisted of little stories that went on for a paragraph or more. The quality of the records depended upon the priest and/or the person who made the entries, if that was a different person. Complicating this is the fact that for a period of time in the late 19th century, the records were made in Latin. This meant that the names had to be translated (often poorly) into Latin. Translating them back is sometimes puzzling. For instance, is the "Anna" in the book really Anna or was it Ann--is the "Maria" really Maria or was it Mary, etc. Something else to be alert to: sometimes the Baptism records give a saint's name as the first name when it was a middle name or not even part of the legal name. Also, I have seen the same name of a parent spelled a variety of ways when I compared the Baptism records of all of their children. Some churches have very few genealogical queries and are happy to look up information. Other churches (particularly those which have been there for more than a century) are inundated with requests and are less pleased to look up info. Some churches ask for or expect a donation to cover the cost of their staff doing such research. Some churches simply refuse to give out information. In most cases, an inside person or parishioner of that church can be very helpful in negotiating with a church. In any case, I would suggest not inundating the church with requests. Try to ask for a specific record or records rather than ask that they look through all of their records for a certain name. I don't think it matters whether you call or write. If you are in the area and can drop in, that might be more productive. Unfortunately, I am not in the Troy area, so I would not be able to help. I live in Florida. Good luck. Rev. Dennis Hughes