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You've got questions about discovering, preserving and celebrating your family history; our experts have the answers.
"Flying" Irish Nuns
A. The religious orders of Roman Catholic sisters, or nuns, have kept
very good records of their members. Often, this information will include the
birth place of the nun and her parents' names. Sometimes even the parents'
birth places are given! In order to find records for your great-great aunts,
you need to first find out what religious order they belonged to. If you can
find an obituary for one of them, it should state this information. You can
also tell by the initials after their names, such as with "Sister Mary
Joseph, OCD." Religious sisters usually took on new religious names when
they joined the order. The initials at the end of the name refer to their
particular order or "congregation" (in this case, OCD stands for the
Discalced Carmelite Nuns).
Once you have the religious order identified, then you can look up their
national or provincial motherhouse/headquarters address in a modern edition
of The Official Catholic Directory (P.J. Kenedy & Sons, available in libraries), which is published annually. This directory also gives the
abbreviations corresponding to each religious order. Usually each order (or
province of that order if it has a large membership) has an archivist who
will assist with enquiries like yours.
By the way, the same excellent biographical information can generally be
found for Roman Catholic priests and religious brothers, in the archives of
their religious orders, dioceses and seminaries. So in your research, don't
ignore your ancestors' sisters and brothers who went into religious life!
Their records may hold the key to important facts about your family, such as
their place of origin abroad.
—Kyle J. Betit
Kyle J. Betit is a professional genealogist, author and lecturer residing in
Salt Lake City. He specializes in Irish, French, Roman Catholic, and
immigration research. Betit is co-author of the new book A Genealogist's Guide
to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors. He also leads the American research department for the online genealogy courses offered by the University of Toronto and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies at www.genealogicalstudies.com.
Pose your questions to our family history experts.
Q: I have several great-great aunts who came to Cincinnati from Ireland, possibly County Cork. They were Catholic nuns. How do I begin researching to find more about them?
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