NorthernN Ireland

Track T down your Northern Irish forebears with these unmissable paid-for and free websites

The pay-per-view datasets from the Ulster Historical Foundation ( ancestryireland.com/searchirish-genealogy-databases/) include birth and baptism records for County Antrim and County Down (1660–1930). The collection totals just under 900,000 entries. There’s also equivalent marriage registers (865,501) and death and burial records (173,446). Both Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) and Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk) have indexes to the National Library of Ireland Catholic registers (see the box). There’s also RootsIreland ( rootsireland. ie) and Emerald Ancestors ( emeraldancestors.com); the

RootsIreland Armagh page, for example, has about 360,000 baptismal records.

The North of Ireland Family History Society looks after a large collection of transcriptions of registers in its Randal Gill Library ( nifhs.org/resources/ church-records-by-county), including records from Baptist, Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. There’s no index here, but there is a look-up service for members; annual membership starts at £18.

FamilySearch has recently added more parish records for County Antrim, and its Northern Ireland wiki ( familysearch.org/

en/wiki/Northern_Ireland_ Genealogy) mentions some useful paid and free resources. Collections often cover the whole island of Ireland, from where you can drill down to specific parts of Ulster. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland’s guide ( nidirect.gov.uk/publications/

guide-church-records) details ‘digital copies’ that can be viewed at PRONI. You can also find helpful links to societies and other resources via the websites of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies ( fuls.org.uk/links) and the Ulster Local History Trust ( ulht.org.uk/primary-sources).