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Request Records
The Archives and Records Management office maintains confidential inactive records from parishes and institutions such as sacramental records (Baptism, First Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, and Death), school transcripts for closed schools, and orphanage records. These records may be requested by the individual to whom the record refers.
To obtain these records, identification of the individual will be requested, and other identifications may be requested depending on the request and record.
Sacramental Records
To get proof of sacraments, please contact the parish of baptism. The baptism records are considered the master record and should have notations of all sacraments administered.
To find a parish, use the Parish Locator.
Certificates are only issued by the parish to the person named in the record, or the parent of a minor child with proof of identification.
- If you are out of town, please ask the parish to send your records to a local Catholic parish near you to pick up the certificate.
- Sacramental certificates will not be issued for deceased persons, unless for a genuine need that no other civil document is available.
If your baptism parish is unknown to you, please submit a search request on the request portal online to the Archives and we will research your baptismal church.
Closed Parishes’ sacramental registers may be transferred to the Archives and Records Management office, except for those listed below:
- St. Stephen Catholic Church (please contact St. John Berchmans at 210-434-3247)
Certificates for Citizenship/Passport or other Civil Reasons
If you need an immediate family member’s certificate who is deceased for other reasons, please submit a request through the request portal online.
School Records
Archives and Records Management Office only maintains records for closed schools. Please search the list of records maintained by the archives by clicking here.
For closed school records we maintain, please submit the Student Transcript Request form and all documentation requested to the request portal online. Find the Student Transcript Request form on the Forms page.
School transcript verifications should be submitted online through the request portal online. Please upload the verification form and any other documentation to the request.
Orphanage Records
The records from St. Peter and St. Joseph Orphanage maintained by the Archives and Records Management office are from 1936–1988, 1993, 1996 and include the New Beginnings Mentor Program. Some records were lost in 1984 when a building was torn down for those records of last names starting A–F before the 1970s. Records can only be requested for an individual’s personal record.
Records will only be released to the following recipients:
- The client of the children’s home;
- The parents or legal guardian of the client, if the client has been adjudicated to be under legal disability;
- Other parties as designated in writing by persons (1) and (2) above;
- Other parties as designated or permitted by court order, subpoena, summons, or State or Federal statute;
- Deceased client’s next of kin (proof of death and proof of relation required).
