REL 328: U.S. Catholic Experience

Welcome to the University of Dayton Libraries' guide to REL 328: United States Catholic Experience with Dr. Moore. Use the left-side links to explore the many resources available to support your research in the course.

When searching in original primary sources such as historic newspapers, it's important to search using the terms and vocabulary that people at the time used. Using modern terminology will most likely cause you to find few, if any, relevant results.

Sometimes these historic terms may feel uncomfortable or even offensive, particularly when working on histories of racial issues, such as this project. It's okay to feel uncomfortable or offended! Encountering and reckoning with these terms is an often-unavoidable part of doing historical research. It's okay to pause your search and take a few minutes to process how these terms make you feel. We know now how harmful these terms are, but working with primary sources means encountering terms that were used during a time when they were considered acceptable.

With that in mind, here are some suggested terms to try in your keyword searches:

Holy Ghost Fathers 
Negro OR colored
St. John OR St. John the Baptist
St. James
Resurrection
Dayton

For the various parishes, you may find it most helpful to search for the parish name without including "Parish" or "Catholic Church" after, because there may be such variation in what terms were used. You can experiment with this.

You  may wish to try searches that combine several keywords, such as "Holy Ghost Fathers" AND "St. John" AND Dayton.

You'll likely come across names of people associated with the parish you're researching: these names can be important search terms, too! You may find more about Fr. Egbert Figaro, Dayton's first Black priest, with variations like "Father Figaro OR "Egbert Figaro" in your search. You can also try searching national and regional newspapers for "Dayton" to find more local history.