Hello: Could anyone tell me if there was one (or more) institutions that might have been frequented by Catholics before St. Luke's was founded? More specifically: pre-1850 marriages, deaths and births. Thank you. Michael E. Donnelly

Aloha Michael, I came back yesterday from a week in Franklin County where my main goal was to assemble information on where to locate sacramental records...baptisms, weddings and burials...for those of French-Canadian ancestry who settled in communities in northwest VT before Catholic Churches were established in or near those communities. It makes a little difference whether you are searching for sacramental records of Irish or Franco-Catholics because the Franco's were sometimes served by missionaries from French-speaking Quebec parishes and some went back to Quebec for the sacraments especially baptisms. There was an Irish priest stationed in Burlington in the first half of the 19th C who did considerable missionary work in VT. The first Catholic Church in VT was St. Mary's (now the cathedral, the Immaculate Conception) established in 1830 at Burlington. You might write them: Immaculate Conception, 20 Pine St, Burlington, VT 05401. Failing that, try the diocesan archivist: David Blow, Chancery Office, 52 Williams St, Burlington, VT 05401. St. Mary's Church (an Irish church which like the Burlington church is now called Immaculate Conception was established in St. Albans in 1847. Address: 45 Fairchild St., St. Albans, VT 05478. Separately four individuals with considerable early Northern VT French-Canadian genealogical experience told me that at least 1/3 and maybe as high as 1/2 of the Franco-Catholics had their marriages performed by a Protestant clergyman or Justice of the Peace if they couldn't get to a Catholic priest. I'm not sure if those numbers apply to the Irish Also you can e-mail me with a specific request because I have an alphabetical surname listing of about 2,000 sacraments performed in Quebec parishes near the border that involved U.S. residents. Not all were Franco-Americans. (Isn't it interesting that a Franco-Hawaiian can do this sort of thing but ALL of my ancestors migrated from Quebec to the U.S on either side of Lake Champlain in the 19th C). Jerry Lesperance, Aiea, Hawaii ----- Original Message ----- From: jayne donnelly <jcd2@tds.net> To: <VTFRANKL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 5:24 PM Subject: [VTFRANKL] Catholic records before St. Luke's > Hello: > > Could anyone tell me if there was one (or more) institutions that might > have been frequented by Catholics before St. Luke's was founded? > > More specifically: pre-1850 marriages, deaths and births. > > Thank you. > > Michael E. Donnelly