I can understand why some priests believe that they are supposed to be the only people who protect the parish records. And I understand that there have been allegations that unscrupulous "researchers" may have cut out pages of church records. And I understand that parish priests may be inundated with requests from all over the world. However, I don't understand why the church doesn't do at least one of two possible solutions: 1. There are laypeople who serve in various capacities within the church. As you've mentioned, many family historians are willing to pay buckets of money for online services, professional researchers, or their own time and travel expense to do first-hand research. With the high rate of unemployment (especially in rural villages), wouldn't it be helpful for churches to provide an opportunity for some of their trusted yet unemployed members of the church to work with researchers for a fee? It would bring a little revenue to the operations of the church and provide a stipend to the unemployed parish member. The initial funds could even go to making full-sized reproductions of the records so the actual church records would not be disturbed from their dusty shelves. 2. I understand the philosophical differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints; therefore the churches disagree on issues of microfilming the records. We also understand that these important church records are deteriorating badly while being improperly (from an archival perspective) stored in parish offices. It's clear that several commercial services are successful with their paid online services that make a variety of official documents available (for a fee) to family historians. The benefits are clear -- the important church records will be digitally preserved. The parish priests are freed from answering requests from around the world. Unemployed parishioners can be recruited to help with the microfilming. The Roman Catholic church can get into an entrepreneurial program that provides family historians an opportunity to establish closer roots to the church through their ancestors, and earn enough income to underwrite the program. To me, this is a no-brainer, but perhaps someone may know of some reason why the Roman Catholic Church hasn't found a solution to the issue of church records and genealogy. Other churches seem to have reached some kind of solution to this situation. -- Alan On Jul 4, 2008, at 6:34 AM, singmore wrote: > Re: searching in parish books. The church, as a general rule, does > not do > the genealogical searches. They may answer a direct question. You > have to > ask specifically giving the correct names and at least a year of the > event. > But, I have to stress the word MAY. It is their good will. Most > parishes/archdioceses will not answer. Last time I was in Poland, I > talked > to the local priests and their reasoning for not answering was that > with the > flood of correspondence requesting genealogical info from all over > the world > they simply do not have the time nor the resources unless they spend > 24/7 > answering those requests. And how tedious is the searching and > deciphering > old church books - we all know very well. > > The only place where they will do the genealogical research - for $$ > $ (and > lots of it) - are the Polish State Archives. Also, hiring a private > researcher is an answer (also lots of $$$) or going there yourself > (even > more $$$). > > Re: Austrio-Hungarian censuses. Yes! They were taken regulary at the > interval of 10 years for every province of the empire incl. Galicia, > with > the last one - I believe (but don't quote me on this) done somewhere > between > 1910-1918. Most of them are available only at the Vienna State > Archives. > Google is your friend here. > > Ella > Toronto

My experience is quite different. I went to the church at Skrwilno Poland, St. Anne's. I went to the rectory and asked if I could look at the records. The lay person there said that I could not but if I gave him the information I was looking for he would do the search. We went into the rectory and I gave him the approximate dates of birth for my grandparents. He had to look through a couple of books until we found the entries. We sat and watched as he did the search. I tried to give him some money for his efforts and he refused to take it. Like everything else in this world there are exceptions to every rule. Jim On Jul 4, 2008, at 9:17 AM, Alan Kania wrote: > I can understand why some priests believe that they are supposed to be > the only people who protect the parish records. And I understand that > there have been allegations that unscrupulous "researchers" may have > cut out pages of church records. And I understand that parish priests > may be inundated with requests from all over the world. However, I > don't understand why the church doesn't do at least one of two > possible solutions: > > 1. There are laypeople who serve in various capacities within the > church. As you've mentioned, many family historians are willing to pay > buckets of money for online services, professional researchers, or > their own time and travel expense to do first-hand research. With the > high rate of unemployment (especially in rural villages), wouldn't it > be helpful for churches to provide an opportunity for some of their > trusted yet unemployed members of the church to work with researchers > for a fee? It would bring a little revenue to the operations of the > church and provide a stipend to the unemployed parish member. The > initial funds could even go to making full-sized reproductions of the > records so the actual church records would not be disturbed from their > dusty shelves. > > 2. I understand the philosophical differences between the Roman > Catholic Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints; therefore the > churches disagree on issues of microfilming the records. We also > understand that these important church records are deteriorating badly > while being improperly (from an archival perspective) stored in parish > offices. It's clear that several commercial services are successful > with their paid online services that make a variety of official > documents available (for a fee) to family historians. The benefits > are clear -- the important church records will be digitally preserved. > The parish priests are freed from answering requests from around the > world. Unemployed parishioners can be recruited to help with the > microfilming. The Roman Catholic church can get into an > entrepreneurial program that provides family historians an opportunity > to establish closer roots to the church through their ancestors, and > earn enough income to underwrite the program. > > To me, this is a no-brainer, but perhaps someone may know of some > reason why the Roman Catholic Church hasn't found a solution to the > issue of church records and genealogy. Other churches seem to have > reached some kind of solution to this situation. > > -- Alan > > > > On Jul 4, 2008, at 6:34 AM, singmore wrote: > >> Re: searching in parish books. The church, as a general rule, does >> not do >> the genealogical searches. They may answer a direct question. You >> have to >> ask specifically giving the correct names and at least a year of the >> event. >> But, I have to stress the word MAY. It is their good will. Most >> parishes/archdioceses will not answer. Last time I was in Poland, I >> talked >> to the local priests and their reasoning for not answering was that >> with the >> flood of correspondence requesting genealogical info from all over >> the world >> they simply do not have the time nor the resources unless they spend >> 24/7 >> answering those requests. And how tedious is the searching and >> deciphering >> old church books - we all know very well. >> >> The only place where they will do the genealogical research - for $$ >> $ (and >> lots of it) - are the Polish State Archives. Also, hiring a private >> researcher is an answer (also lots of $$$) or going there yourself >> (even >> more $$$). >> >> Re: Austrio-Hungarian censuses. Yes! They were taken regulary at the >> interval of 10 years for every province of the empire incl. Galicia, >> with >> the last one - I believe (but don't quote me on this) done somewhere >> between >> 1910-1918. Most of them are available only at the Vienna State >> Archives. >> Google is your friend here. >> >> Ella >> Toronto > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots- > admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the > list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this > list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message jimpres1@mac.com