The Historical Archives of the Chancery maintains a master set of Catholic sacramental records, on microfiche, for the nineteen (19) county area of Southwestern Ohio over which the Archdiocese of Cincinnati currently presides. However, these records are not opened to the general public, and may only be handled by authorized personnel. A small part- time staff, limited facilities, and the confidential nature of the sacramental records combine to make this restriction a necessary one. Individuals seeking genealogical information are required to submit requests by mail (NO EXCEPTIONS !) to the address listed above. Your requests must contain the following four items for us to be able to search our records:

1. The full name of the individual whose record you are requesting.
   
2. The type of record you wish researched (baptism, confirmation, first communion, marriage, and/or death).
   
3. The approximate date (within three to five years) that record was created.
   
4. The exact parish in which the above record was recorded. If you don't know the exact parish, then the address or neighborhood of the individual concerned may help us determine the exact parish. (If you're researching a 19th century marriage, we need the brides parish or her parent's address at the time of the wedding).
   

There is a twenty five dollar ($25.00) fee to help cover the expense of the office and staff for one hour of research. In this hour we can do eight to ten records. That is records not names, you can ask for baptism marriage and death on three people with and extra baptism thrown in, or eight to ten baptisms. However you want to mix and match the records. If you have more than eight to ten records you want research please submit the first set of eight to ten records with the twenty five dollar fee, then wait until you receive a reply from us and submit the next eight to ten requests with another twenty five dollar fee. This fee is also our minimum fee so if you are requesting only one record it will still cost twenty five dollars, so it is more cost effective to wait until you have several records to request.

Please make your check or money order (DO NOT SEND CASH) payable to the Historical Archives of the Chancery. Please allow six to eight weeks for a reply. We regret that due to the volume of requests, and limited staff time, we are unable to do extensive research for genealogists. We can spend no more than one hour of staff time per letter.

Please note that 19th century sacramental records often omit information which we consider standard today. For example, marriage records do not always give the date and place of the spouses' births, or the name of their parents.