Find My Past

If you happen to have been watching the Channel 2 evening news last Monday, you would have seen a parish photo of the Midnight Mass held at St. Helena on December 25, 1941. It was shown to introduce a new diocesam program. The Archives of the Archdiocese of New York has partnered with a family history company, Find My Past, to digitize and make accessible the historical sacramental records of the parishes of the Archdiocese. On Friday, March 2, Find My Past released the first set of data from the project, which consists of a searchable database for any records 100 years and older. The searchable fields include name, date, sacrament, and parish. Over the coming months, Find My Past and the Archives will be working together to digitize all parish original sacramental records. The records of the Archdiocese of New York, along with those from the Archdioceses of Philadelphia and Baltimore, will be available through Find My Past’s Catholic Heritage Archives, found at findmypast.com/catholicrecords. As one of the largest immigration hubs in the country, the Catholic roots of many Americans are tied to the Archdiocese of New York, and there has long been interest in accessing these records digitally. As we move forward with this project, we are committed to balancing access to the historical records with a respect for privacy for all of our parishioners, living and deceased. If you have any questions about the project, please contact Kate Feighery at the Archives: [email protected] or 914-476-6333.