Additions to Findmypast's Exclusive Catholic Heritage Archive

https://www.findmypast.com/catholicrecords

• Findmypast.com adds indexes containing over 1.2 million records from the Dioceses of Cincinnati and Archdioceses Liverpool to its exclusive Catholic Heritage Archive
• Published online for the first time, family historians from around the world can now search for Catholic ancestors in these significant regions
• New records date back to 1800, span more than 130 years of Catholic history and cover 150 parishes across both regions.

The new index to the sacramental records in partnership with the Archdioceses of Cincinnati and the Diocese of Liverpool constitute significant additions to the rapidly growing collections of Catholic Church records from Findmypast.com. As noted above, this is the first time these records have become available. Here is a further explanation of the collections from an email from Findmypast dated March1, 2019.

Findmypast is today releasing indexes of baptism, marriage burial and congregational records covering 103 Catholic Parishes across the Archdioceses of Cincinnati and 47 in Dioceses Liverpool.  

The records shed new light on the history of Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic and will provide researchers all over the world with the opportunity to discover early American immigrants. 

Between 1830 and 1930 about forty million people left Europe in search of a better life and roughly nine million of them sailed from Liverpool, then the largest emigration port in the world. These people were mostly travelling to North America, Australia and New Zealand - the ‘New World’ - and the millions of Irish, English, Scottish, Italians, Germans, Polish and many others who settled in or passed through the city are captured in the Diocese of Liverpool’s registers. 

In 1850, Cincinnati was the 5th largest city in the United States. Its location on the Ohio River made it a popular stopping off point for immigrants and pioneers traveling west, many of whom stopped long enough to create a sacramental record. Early in the history of the Archdiocese there were large numbers of German and Irish immigrants spread throughout its counties and, by the end of the 19th century, there were joined by increasing numbers of Italians and Eastern Europeans. 

The Catholic Church holds some of the oldest and best-preserved genealogical records in existence. However, as many of these documents memorialize important religious sacraments, their privacy has long been protected and access to original copies has, until now, been hard to come by. 

In collaboration with the Diocese of Liverpool and the Archdiocese Cincinnati, Findmypast is helping to digitize these records and make them widely accessible for the first time. 

Today’s release marks just the latest update to a collection that will continue to grow throughout 2019 as additional updates from a variety of British, Irish, US and Canadian Dioceses will be added to the Roman Catholic Heritage Archive throughout the year. The millions of new records will complement Findmypast’s massive collection of British and Irish data, providing many more connections and a more comprehensive experience to family historians in North America, Britain and all over the world.