The North Dakota Catholic Church Records consist of a series of detailed questionnaires issued to pastors of Catholic parishes in North Dakota. Issued in 1908 by Bishop John Shanley of Fargo, the questionnaires include such information as: church construction and history, early missionaries, pastors, financial statements, religious education, schools, cemeteries and grounds, church organizations, noteworthy laypeople and size of parish. Parishes in both the Fargo and Bismarck Diocese were covered, although the questionnaires for Bismarck are incomplete. The records were originally microfilmed by the State Historical Society of North Dakota in the early 1960s. This microfilm set was originally part of the papers of Rev. A.A. Schmirler, OGLMC 779.

The time frame represented on the microfilm comprises the years 1818-1908. The first established Catholic parish was in Pembina in 1818, although many Catholic explorers, traders and missionaries had been in the area since the eighteenth century.