In researching Catholic ancestors, one often finds relatives with assorted letters after their names. Most of us can decipher MD, DDS, and PhD, but what do IHM, RSM or CP mean? Northeast Pennsylvania was a ripe area for Church vocations, and as young men and women most often joined orders with which they had familiarity, orders with a long standing NEPA presence are more likely to appear over and over in family histories.
Is there a reason that a relative would have chosen one order over another? What are the differences between orders? Learning the answers to these questions can be an interesting journey. Additionally, unlike society as a whole, religious orders tended to keep good records, including birth, baptismal and parental information, and much of it is still available today. While your great great grandfather's birth in Ireland may be a mystery, if a sibling was a member of a religious order it may be possible to learn more about your family through the sibling.
There are many orders that your relatives might have joined, making it impossible for a list like this to be inclusive, but this section includes some of the more common initials/acronyms that you'll see in NEPA research, and, where possible, web sites for additional information.
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