How do i trace my family back past 1840?

Question:

How do i trace my family back past 1840?

I've traced my family back to 1840 using the censuses and the brith records - how do i go about getting further back?

Parish records? If so how does this work, who do i contact?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Parish records in most countries are still in the possession and control of the individual parish. So you figure out which parish was in existence in that area during the time your family lived there and write to them requesting birth, marriage and sepulture/sepulcre records (now called Rite of Christian Burial). The records are not indexed, so you need to be as specific in the information you're seeking as you can be...names, dates, parents or spouse, etc.

There are some exceptions, such as records from countries that were under the control of unstable governments where bishops had them removed from the country in the last 50 years and microfilmed. Most of those records are in the LDS catalog and you can order them. For a country like Poland, this is wonderful. But the problem is you still need to find the name of the parish to get the records.

Another exception is when a parish closes. In that case, you need to contact the archivist for the diocese/archdiocese and ask where the records for that parish are now kept. Cities like Chicago have their archive records available for you to search in person. The Archdiocese of Detroit sent many to the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library.

I know that records in Britain are different. In that case, you're looking at the records being in a central records office. Others on the board who are from Britain can help you with that.

In the case of Quebec/French-Canadian parish records pre-1800, they are on the internet at the PRDH through the University of Montreal.

For most of Latin America and South America, the parishes will have the records. For Cuba, it's easiest to contact an Hispanic priest in your area to help you get the request through. They have methods of getting information that the rest of us don't have.

Catholic records are usually available back to 1400...sometimes earlier. In the Netherlands, you'll have to piggyback church and civil registers to get all of the records you need (they, for instance, do not marry in churches...they have a civil ceremony in front of a notary or magistrate, then have their marriage blest by the priest.)

Palatinate records are available on and off through the mid-1400s.

French records, except for Normandy, are generally available from the US through 1550. To go back earlier requires some creativity and ingenuity.

One last caveat. If your family was a pioneer family and lived where there were no churches, they used to have missionaries who had a regular circuit that they would follow to perform the sacraments. These records can be tricky to find, though they usually do still exist. If you run into that situation, drop a note and I'll walk you through it.

Good luck.