For queries within the area of Lancashire between the Ribble and the Mersey.
This board covers the areas of all our Groups - Liverpool, Southport, Warrington, Skelmersdale, Leigh and Widnes.
Good morning all.
I have Recently, well about six months ago, been looking into my grandmothers records, her name was Eliza Fletcher nee Johnstone. She was supposedly a Catholic, practising or otherwise. There is a topic under Stella Bewley, I think on page 4 or 5 which relates to my question here. I was going to add to it but as it was getting rather lengthy.
Anyway my question. I have been for some time trying to find Eliza Johnstone in the baptism records to confirm her faith, practising or otherwise, without success. I remember some while ago one of the forum stated that she was baptised into the catholic church, but i could not find any record
Then this weekend I Received from ancestry, notice of a free weekend of searching for British records and giving some hints of possible matches.
And there and behold was her Baptism record. St Patrick. Elizabather Johnstone, Born 4-6-1886. Father Georgii Johnstone. Mother Catharinae Clarke. I believe St Patrick is in Toxteth. I knew Eliza's Parents were George and Catherine so it fits. I went back onto ancestry typed in the detail and the information would still not show up. I am not a member of Ancestry or find my past at the moment. Is it more difficult to find Catholic records than other faiths Or am I just unlucky?
Thank you. Gareth.
Perhaps just a hint for searching in Liverpool, as Ancestry does have a huge amount of databases, I go to the SEARCH button along the top, drop the list down to choose CARD CATALOGUE.
This shows the complete list of databases held by Ancestry. On the left there are two boxes, the top one Title just ignore but in the lower one KEYWORD, type in Liverpool. This narrows down the list of databases to those relating to Liverpool.
You will find one titled Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1802-1906. Catholic priests tend to make most first names sound Latin, so a good trick is to just use the first few letters of a name, such as Elizab* the asterisk on the end means that any letters after what you have typed will be recognised.
Sometimes there are names that are so different that it might be easier to leave out the first name completely and scan down the list, a couple are James = Jacobi or William = Gullielmus.
Hope this helps when searching the RC databases in future.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
Thanks for that.RT
It was down to me, I spelled the Elizabatha bit incorrectly . But you have confirmed the Catholic baptism by your own endeavours, well done.
Mary. That was a top tip. I cant try that out now as my free ancestry weekend has gone Would the records office have copy of the baptism?