RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland Resources => Topic started by: maggbill on Wednesday 21 January 26 03:42 GMT (UK)
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Returning to my Irish research, also doing Irish Genealogy Essentials course with Ulster Historical Foundation. 15 years after my initial research, am excited to know about lots of alternative options for records... PRONI has sooo much available, but so disappointed - seems majority are not "viewable" online. - Trip from Australia is beyond me! PRONI website gives a link to view list "10,000" records online - but the link seems to tell me only about records added this past year or two... Waste of time trawling through masses, to find most not viewable (even when I ask for "digital" only). Can anyone advise or give links to help me with this basic issue of how to use PRONI?? For us who just cannot visit? Am contemplating using their researcher options, but $$$ - and a lot to be searching for!! Comments anyone?
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Sorry, when I said "Their" researcher service, I meant Ulster Historical Foundation... not PRONI...
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Part of the issue when using PRONI online, is having to wade through pages of info and links via the NIDirect website. Whilst those are helpful for explaining what is available, they can slow down actual research if you know which type of record you are specifically looking for. It helps if you can navigate firstly to:
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni.
From there, I have copied below, the direct links to the search forms etc., I would mainly find useful, to save lots of clicking through between pages on the above link (albeit you can read the pages at the above link to better understand what each record set contains, or doesn't, and which can be viewed online etc.):
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/eCatNI_IE/SearchPage.aspx PRONI e-catalogue search form.
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/freeholders/default.aspx PRONI Freeholders' records search form.
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/ProniNames_IE/SearchPage.aspx PRONI Name search form.
https://streetdirectories.proni.gov.uk/ PRONI Street Directories search form.
https://streetdirectories.proni.gov.uk/ PRONI Ulster Covenant search form.
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/Val12B/Search.aspx PRONI Valuation Revision Books search form.
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/WillsCalendar_IE/WillsSearch.aspx PRONI Will Calendars search form.
https://webarchive.proni.gov.uk/#!/ Web archive
https://osni-spatialni.hub.arcgis.com/apps/3a4d3f74d60540f590df7bdfce983a27/explore Historical Map viewer.
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/search-londonderry-corporation-records has sub links to various Londonderry Corporation records.
Hopefully this helps you a bit, in your return to Irish research.
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There’s no getting away from the fact the vast majority of PRONI’s records are not on-line. They are usually either on microfilm or in paper format eg old estate records, church records etc. They have a small range of heavily used records that are on-line eg the Valuation Revision records but the majority are not.
If you can’t go yourself you can either pay a researcher or pay PRONI. However PRONI will only do simple searches. So no trawling, eg for “all Smith marriages and baptisms 1750 -1900.” And PRONI are very expensive. Something like £20 per 15 minutes work.
UHF are very good and thorough but not cheap either. And they sometimes have quite a backlog. If using them check the costs and likely timescales in advance.
For professional researchers in Ulster, try the Society of Genealogists:
http://sgni.net/
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Have you looked at this post in Derry/Londonderry Resources?
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=753389.0
Although it's almost 10 years old I think most of the links work (see also Sinann's list).
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Oh thank you everyone!! I knew that Rootschatters would come to the fore with ideas - as you have done for many a year of my researching! Busy day today - but will be right into your ideas later on... How annoying it is when life gets in the way of researching!! Cheers!