Finding aids assist the researcher in locating archival material relevant to their research. There is no single cumulative finding aid for the Diocese of Charleston archives. Rather, a user may have to reference multiple findings aids in various formats, depending on the time period and topic of their research. The following finding aids are available for diocesan archives:

Online Catalogue

Please note that the online catalog is not an exhaustive description of archival collections. A large number of finding aids are only available in a paper based format.

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Card Index and Calendar

Print finding aids for the earliest collection, Pre-Diocesan and Episcopal Records (1727-1951), include name/correspondent index cards and a calendar inventory. The correspondent index cards cross-reference all the items in the collection by the name of the correspondent (writers and recipients). They are currently only available for on-site viewing. The calendar is a chronological, item-level inventory of all items in the collection. It generally provides the date, names of the correspondents, and the location in which the letter was written. The calendar is available as a downloadable PDF scan (23.5 MB).

Archives calendar finding aid

Lowcountry Digital Library

The Lowcountry Digital Library has digitized the Lynch Family letters, 1858-1866. These letters to Patrick N. Lynch, third Bishop of Charleston, touch on a variety of topics including Catholicism, the Civil War, slavery, and convent and Southern life in the mid-19th century.

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