In doing some genealogy research, I came across records that were put on microfilm by the LDS church. These were records of baptisms,marriages through 1915 from the various parishes in Chicago. I believe the cutoff was 1915 since for privacy purposes only records older than 75 years old could be used.

What I find strange is how did they gain access and cooperation from the various parishes. Through experience, the parishes that I would like to do family research at, will provide information if I provide specific names and dates, they would not allow me to sit in their office and go through their records looking for relatives.

This appears to have been a project as of a specific date since no updates beyond 1915 have been made.

My assumption is that the parishes were ordered to cooperate by the Archdiocese for so many churches to have participated.


Can anybody provide any information on the subject?

I do not know the answer to your question, but see the --- Polish Genealogical Society of America --- Marriage Index for Polish Parishes in Chicago through 1915.for Polish Parishes:

http://www.pgsa.org/index.php

Not sure if this will explain some of the problem, but here is a link regarding this matter:
http://catholicgene.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/catholics-mormons-and-genealogy/

I do believe though, that you can go to the Archdiocesan Archives in person and search the records, but it would be the same ones as are available through an FHC or on the familysearch site. If you wanted to search more recent ones, it would have to be your own unless you were a direct descendant and had proof of death. I imagine it all comes back to the privacy issue.