Boston Archdiocese creates online database to help Catholics trace family history

Thousands of records dating back to 1789 will be available to view online

by Associated Press
posted Wednesday, 11 Jan 2017

Two of Boston’s most venerable institutions are teaming up to create an online database of hundreds of thousands of Catholic Church documents to help people trace their family histories.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Archdiocese of Boston on Tuesday announced the project that was first talked about two years ago. It’s the first time a significant number of sacramental records from any US diocese have been digitised on this scale, the organisations said.

The plan is to digitise and index records from 1789 to 1900 from all the parishes in the archdiocese, even those that no longer exist. They are about 5,000 volumes to digitise, some as many as 500 pages, said Thomas Lester, the archivist and records manager for the archdiocese.

Lester noticed when he first took the job a couple of years ago that the parish sacramental records were among the most frequently referenced.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/01/11/boston-archdiocese-creates-online-database-to-help-catholics-trace-family-history/