Roman Catholic Parish Registers - Carfin and Glasgow

[Matt R]

Hello all,

Has anybody tried to access Roman Catholic Parish Registers for either St Francis Xavier, Carfin, or for St. Patrick's, Glasgow (Anderston). I have looked on the website of the Scottish Catholic Archives and could not find Carfin on their list, and the holdings for St. Patrick's only go up to 1886. I am interested in looking at PRs for both parishes during the 1884-1941 time period and would be grateful to hear from anyone who may have accessed these records before.

Thank you kindly,

Matt.

[Lodger]

My guess would be that as they are both still working parishes, they will have retained their records. Carfin (parish founded in 1862) is in the diocese of Motherwell and of course St Pat's is in the Archdiocese of Glasgow, so they may have different rules.

You could try asking the archivist at Drummond Place in Edinburgh.

archivists[replace with 'at' symbol]scottishcatholicarchives.org.uk

[ITBookworm]

Lodger, Does that mean that, for some of the more recent records, (early 1900s) they are not on the Scotland People site because they have been retained by the parish? If I restrict my search to 1900 to 1930 there are only 3 churches listed for Glasgow which I always thought couldn't be correct 

[Lodger]

That may well be the case, although it may be that Scotlandspeople are just working through the registers, begining with the oldest. Not having the need to use Scotlandspeople I don't know which three churches are listed.

[Matt R]

I have sent an e-mail to the Catholic Archives...thank you for the address Lodger.

I am curious about St. Patrick's in Glasgow as the holdings of the Scottish Catholic Archives come to a stop at 1886.

When I hear from them, I'll let you know what they have to say. Thanks again!

Matt.

[ITBookworm]

I have looked at birth/baptism's only (so marriages etc might be different) and when you first look at the list you get the following listed as "Glasgow, <parish>".

Immaculate Conception
St. Aloysius'
St. Alphonsus'
St. Andrew's
St. John's
St. Joseph's
St. Mary Immaculate
St. Mary's
St. Mungo's
St. Patrick's
St. Paul's

When you put the dates in and then do a search the list is shown as shorter.

Having had a look at the Scotlands People help I can see they do tell you which years each Parish covers but there is no way that Immaculate Conception, St. Aloysius', St. Joseph's and St. Mary Immaculate are the only catholic churches still around 1900-1930.

It will be interesting to see what reply Matt gets about more recent records.

I want to see if one of my Dad's uncles has a baptismal name listed which would explain a middle name he used later in life but isn't on his birth certificate. Oh well I will just have to wait. 

[Matt R]

Hi all,

I came home today from a reply from the Scottish Catholic Archives.

"Dear Matthew,

Columba House does not hold parish registers for St Francis Xavier, Carfin, which should still be retained by the parish.

And we do not hold registers for St Patrick’s, Anderston after 1886. These should be held in the parish.

The parish registers in Columba House were brought in to be digitised, and should be available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk".

Therefore I think the next port of call will be to contact Carfin and St. Pat's and kindly ask if I can rummage around in old, dusty registers. They can only say no, right?

Matt.

[scotmum]

They can only say no, right?

It would be amiss of them if they did......surely they must know that 

[Matt R]

Trying to contact some churches/parishes in relation to accessing their holdings feels like applying for a job sometimes scot!

Even still, Ii'll be in the area in a couple of weeks...I can only try!