Sacramental Records

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Sacramental Records

In the Diocese of Manchester, each individual parish keeps records of baptisms, first communions, confirmations, marriages, and deaths. These records are not centralized in the Diocese of Manchester. To contact the parishes in the State of New Hampshire, please utilize our online directory. Parishes that have been merged or unified with another parish are listed under closed churches and will indicate where the sacramental records are maintained (namely, in the unified or merged parish).

Sacramental records are historical, ecclesiastical documents, and the information in them is confidential. Sacramental certificates are available only to the person listed in the sacramental record or his/her direct relatives, i.e., parents, children, grandchildren, legal representatives, and ecclesiastical authorities. As a result, the person who requests the records may be required to produce documentation to substantiate the familial relationship.

As the Diocese of Manchester was not established until 1884, it is possible that some records may be maintained by predecessor dioceses (the Diocese of Portland, Maine or the Archdiocese of Boston). In addition, some limited sacramental records are maintained in the Diocese of Manchester archives.