My 3xg grandfather, Andrew Francis SIRKO, claimed to have been born in St George in the East or Shadwell c.1821. His youngest daughter, Mary Ann, claimed to have been born c.1821 in St Andrew Holborn. I have good reason to believe that they were both born as Catholics. Andrew Francis' father was said to have been a mariner. SIRKO is an Eastern European Jewish surname but, in this case, is probably an corruption of CIRCO or something similar, but it is the most common variant by which the family were recorded.

Neither appear to have been baptised in a London Anglican church although both married in Anglican churches and Mary Ann's only sibling, a younger half-sister Sarah, was baptised at St Giles Cripplegate. I suspect that this was because Mary Ann's mother, Mary KEATING, was Catholic. Whereas Sarah's mother, Sarah STUBBINGS, was not.

I should also like to find Andrew Francis' father's marriage [also named Andrew Francis or, perhaps, this is an angisised version of his name] and a possible, bigimous third marriage of Andrew Francis [junior] to a Mary 1822-1840.

I have been trying to find Andrew Francis and Mary Ann's baptisms without success. I have checked all the London Catholic baptisms in the SoG Library as well as all those on the three CFHS CDs: Registers of the Sardinian Embassy Chapel and Miscellaneous London District Transcriptions Volumes 1 & 2 without success.

I have studied Michael Gandy's "Catholic Missions and Registers 1700-1880 Volume 1" 2nd edition published 2002. So know that my next port of call needs to be the Westminster Archives. I will do this but the registers they hold do not look very promising.

Has there been any progress since 2002? Have, for example, the registers of Virginia Street Chapel, Ratcliffe Highway 1800-1832 come to light in the past 11 years? Have any additional registers been published, in any form, since 2002?

If anyone has any suggestions of how to identify London Catholics in the early 19th century, especially those for seamen, I should be extremely grateful.

Despite being the son of a mariner, Andrew Francis [junior] was a book and vellum binder and had a very good signature. Were there any Catholic charities in the early 19th century which may have educated the son of a poor mariner and, if so, do any records exist for these charities, please?

Sue