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Welcome, fellow genealogists! My blog will teach you about U.S. land records and United Kingdom research. My family has roots in Niagara County, New York; Norfolk, England; and northeast Germany.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Wisdom Wednesday: Research in Northern Ireland

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has moved to the Titanic Quarter of Belfast. In an effort to revitalize the former shipbuilding area, new housing, offices and a museum about the ship called Titanic Belfast are being developed. The doomed Cunard vessel was built on one of these very docks.

Although the move was in 2011, many books and lists still give the old address while the website remains the same, www.proni.gov.uk
                    2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ

PRONI can help you flesh out an ancestor's life. They have church records, the 1901 census, wills, national school records, and valuation records, including the famous Griffith’s Valuation.  The church records have the baptisms, marriages and burials before 1864.
On the home page, click on the choice ‘Research Local and Family History.’ (Lower left side with photo) Then click on the highlighted words in paragraph three ‘Your Family Tree series of leaflets’. You will find a list of free pdf files on about 50 topics including ‘Latin Terminology in Roman Catholic Church Records.’ I mention this one because it has translations for Irish/English names not often found on other lists, like Cecil (Caecilius) and Winifred (Winifrida).
However, PRONI is not the place to find Indexes and BMD certificates. Records of events since 1864 are found at the General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI), www.nidirect.gov.uk, 49/55 Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 4HL. To order a birth certificate online, for example, you will need:

-full name of the child
-date and place of birth
-parents’ names, including the maiden name of the mother

-mother’s address at time of the birth

£14 plus postage
At the GRONI website home page, click on ‘Ordering Certificates’ and follow the instructions.  On the 'Ordering Certificates' main page, click on the phrase ‘Leisure, Home and Community Online’ in the right hand column. A long list should come up with links to other research sites under a subcategory ‘Family and Local History.’ One click will take you to the:

-PRONI Online Records
-PRONI ecatalogue
-National Archives (Kew)

-National Archives of Scotland

-1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland (www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search)

-World War casualties (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

©2012, Susan Lewis Well

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