Library & Information Services

SOCIETY OF SAINT EDMUND ARCHIVES
LOCAL ADMINSTRATION

The Local Administration Collection of the Society of Saint Edmund Archives was originally created to distinguish records created by the general administration of the Society (Superior General Office, General Council, Treasurer General…) from records created by or for a particular house or apostolic work. Over time however, this distinction blurred. Records about a local house created by the Superior General were interfiled with records created by the house itself. Additionally, clippings, travel guides, and other collected materials related to a place were included. In many cases, this interfiling occurred in the Generalate offices themselves, especially as a local house closed or a work ended. Personnel would transfer records back to the Generalate and the Generalate would add their own files to the boxes or vice-versa. Due to the complexity of the task, no attempt was made to separate the files when they arrived in the archives. Where possible, files that have large amounts of records created in a local work or with a local house have been identified in the Finding Aid.

Local Administration files are arranged into Record Groups. These record groups are, in most cases, based upon distinctions used by the SSE either formally or informally. Entities outside the United States are placed into their own record groups, regardless of whether the apostolate formed its own canonical house. The Vermont record group is a geographic record group that encompasses entities located within the Vermont Pastoral Region as well as records from defunct chaplaincies and parishes located in Vermont (A notable exception of the Saint Michael’s College House, which forms its own record group). Houses of Formation are placed into their own record group to aid in retrieval. (This is particularly important for the Novitiate which retained many of the same record books through location and name changes)

The following Record sub-groups are available: