Sacramental records of the Roman Catholic Church are an exceptionally valuable resource for genealogy because of the amount of detail they tend to include\, both with regard to families and to personal events\, and because of their long extent &ndash\; starting wi th the Council of Trent in the mid sixteenth century. \; \;These r ecords can also be frustratingly unavailable\, depending on who their gate keeper is. \; \;Take a closer look at the records and archival pra ctices of the Catholic Church throughout the world\, what resources are av ailable\, where they can be found\, and what one is likely to discover\, a s well as some possible ways around recalcitrant ecclesiastical bureaucrat s.
\nThe Rev. Dr. W. Becket Soule studied at Davidson College\, the Episcopal Divinity School\, the University of Dallas\, and Harvard Univers ity\, and holds the professional Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. \; \;Becket has taught at the Catholic Univers ity of America\, the Dominican House of Studies (Washington\, DC)\, the Po ntifical College Josephinum (Columbus\, OH)\, and Oxford University\, and is currently Emeritus Professor of Canon Law at St Paul University in Otta wa\, Ontario (Canada). \; \;He has been visiting lecturer and fell ow at other institutions of higher studies in the United States\, Great Br itain\, and the Ukraine\; Becket has served as pastor of Anglican and Cath olic parishes in Texas\, New Hampshire\, North Carolina\, Pennsylvania and England. \; \;He is now pastor of St Margaret of Scotland Catholi c Church in Maggie Valley\, NC.
\nProud of his Mayflower heritage\, Becket is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants (currently Depu ty Governor and Elder of the Canadian Society\, and Governor and Historian of the NC Society)\, editing \;The Descendants of George Soule of the Mayflower \;and \;The Descendants of Philip Delano of the Fortune . He is an active member of the Society of Colonial Wars\, the Military Or der of the Stars and Bars\, and the United Empire Loyalist Association\; h e is currently President of Soule Kindred in America\, and chairman of the research committee of Delano Kindred. \; \;Becket is the Secretar y and Historian of the North Carolina Genealogical Society and Book Review Editor of the NCGS \;Journal\; his current quest (or obsession) is tr acking down his ancestors in Proprietary North Carolina.
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