In the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) all religious houses of women and
men were closed. There was a small revival under Queen Mary (1553-1558)
but at her death the few nuns who wished to remain so went abroad.

In 1598 a congregation of specifically English nuns was established in the
Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium). Many more followed and for nearly
two hundred years Catholic nuns lived out their lives in the Catholic
countries of Europe. Many of their records have been published by the
Catholic Record Society and the relevant volumes contain more detailed
histories. All these orders were enclosed and the ladies within them lived
lives of prayer.

With the advent of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792 most of these
convents were expelled. Fortunately they were able to return to England
where Catholicism was now legal.

With the great expansion of Catholic numbers in the United Kingdom, and
especially of poor urban Catholics from the 1840s, many new Orders came to
England from the continent to do active work - mostly teaching or nursing.
By 1900 there were over 90 religious orders of Catholic women working in
the UK.

In the early 1990s the Catholic Family History Society circulated all the
organisations of Catholic religious women working in England to ask about
the records of individuals. A great many lists were received and
computerised. The following database - listing about 14,000 individuals
from about 60 orders - is the result. The Catholic FHS has no further
information about the women listed here.

In many cases religious orders had a centralised structure and an
archivist for the whole order was able to supply a copy of a complete
list. The Carmelites and the Sisters of Mercy, however, had no such
central structure. Lists were received from particular houses but not from
others.

The abbreviations for each order will be found at the end of this introduction.

Note that England, Wales and Scotland, with which this index is concerned,
formed a quite separate province from Ireland. This index contains a great
many Irish women but they have all joined the English Province, not the
Irish Province, of their Order. The cut off date was entry in 1914 so very
few women born after about 1895 will be found here. However a very few
orders sent later material with permission to incorporate it.

Further information on individuals may well be available from the
Religious Order concerned. The address of the current religious superior
will be found in the Catholic Directory. Most orders have archivists and
many of those are members of the Catholic Archives Society. Many have
published articles describing their holdings in that society's journal
Catholic Archives of which SoG has a complete run.