St Joseph Parish Baptism book now available

Vermont Catholic Tribune 28 January 2005

COLCHESTER – The sacramental record preservation effort begun last year by the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society based here has produced a St Joseph Baptism book with listings of baptisms celebrated at the Burlington Church. The compilation began 4 years ago. The society has many marriage books for the Diocese of Burlington in process. The Middlebury book is at the publishers, and the Richmond marriage book is ready to go. It is hoped that the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington marriage book will be next. There are about 7 other parish marriage books in various stages of activity.

The St Joseph book contains 25,409 baptisms performed by Priests and Missionaries assigned to St Joseph Parish, the First French National Catholic Church in New England. The book also includes more than 700 ‘See” records which point to “Other Family Names” used by families that were indicated in the margins of the baptism records.

From 1834 to 1855, the Priests and Missionaries traveled throughout northern Vermont to perform the sacraments of baptism and marriage. The Baptism Place or Residence of some towns follow: Colchester 318, Vergennes 194, Milton 143, Swanton 133, Winooski 132, Brandon 111, Grand Isle 109, Highgate 99, Williston 97, Shelburne 83, Charlotte 71, Ferrisburgh 71, South Burlington 63, Essex 53, Northfield 53, Montpelier 50, Hinesburg 48, Rutland 45, Middlebury 37, St Albans 33, Bristol 30, Jericho 28, Fairfax 26, Georgia 25, Westford 25, Pittsford 24, Shoreham 22, Orwell 19, Essex Junction 18, Franklin 18, Monkton 18, Goshen 17, Richmond 16, Woodstock 16, Salisbury 14, New Haven 13; Addison 11, Underhill 11 and Randolph 10; plus many, many other towns with baptisms in the single digit numbers. Persons might have wondered why these baptisms were never found in your ancestor’s hometown! These were all performed before these towns had their own resident priest.

Two Volumes of some 1,502 Pages with a Buckram hardcover, Copyright 2004, Cost: $120.00 US and $10.00 Shipping & Handling. Make CHECKS or MONEY ORDERS payable to VT-FCGS and order from: Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society, P. O. Box 65128, Burlington, VT 05406-5128. Direct any questions to: mail@vt-fcgs.org or see the publications web site page:

http://www.vt-fcgs.org/forsale.html . Save the shipping costs by picking up the books in Burlington.

Call John Fisher at 862-8082 to make arrangements.