From the Catholic Family History Society
This Society is planning the launch of a major new electronic database with a paper delivered by Br. Rory G Higgins FSC of Australia at a seminar on Saturday 7 October 2017 in the Conference Rooms, 24 Tufton Street London SW1P 3RB 10am-4pm.
An Index to the Names and Details of over 250,000 Catholics and their Friends in England 1680 – 1840
Rory Higgins has spent many years compiling this work with support from the Catholic Family History Society, his Superiors and others. The database will be a hugely valuable resource for church, social, political, local and family historians, both in England and around the world. On it are men, women and children from all walks of life, including priests and foreigners living in England. Where available there are details of age, of occupation and of location. References guide the user to the many sources which he has trawled, both original and printed, in order to collect the information together into this database. His earlier successful database is the Australian Nuns Index. Individuals and representatives of organisations involved in records and archives, as well as historians of all interests, will find his latest database to be the research tool everyone has been waiting for.
We hope you will not miss this opportunity to be amongst the first to explore the potential of this new resource. To express your interest and reserve a place contact: [email protected].
The period 1680-1840 covers the centuries when Catholicism was effectively outlawed. Records of Catholics are scattered in civil record offices, in Catholic and in Anglican Church archives throughout the country. We are pleased to have William D. Shannon, PhD, to speak on his research in in this era under the title:
Using the Records of the Forfeited Estates Commission (1715-1724) at TNA
to reconstruct Catholic Lancashire before and after the First Jacobite Rebellion.
Dr Shannon has delved into the fate of the Catholics involved in the 1715 Battle of Preston, not just those executed, imprisoned or exiled, but also those less directly involved.
Philip Gale will arrange a presentation on the development of The National Archives finding aid Discovery, with particular reference to Catholic records.
This promises to be an interesting day.