Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)  

66 Balmoral Avenue

Belfast, Northern Ireland

BT9 6NY

Telephone:  (028) 9025138;  Fax:  (028) 9025 5999

E-mail:  proni@gov.uk

Website:  www.proni.nics.gov.uk

The first port of call for any family historian in Northern Ireland should be PRONI.  Based in the suburbs of Belfast, it has been the main repository of records, both governmental and private, since it opened in March 1924.   PRONI differs from other archival institutions in the United Kingdom because of its unique combination of private and official records: it is at once Public Record Office, Manuscripts Department of a National Library, and County Record Office for the six counties of Northern Ireland.  Among the series of records held by PRONI are many special collections including tithe applotments records; valuation maps, plans and surveys; poor law records; school records; and church records (mostly available in a self-service microfilm facility); landed estate records; business records; solicitors’ records; records of private individuals; and photographic records.  It is a tremendous asset to family historians that archival material of whatever provenance from within Northern Ireland, and in some cases from outside Northern Ireland, is all gathered together, preserved and made available in one place.

 Linen Hall Library   

17 Donegall Square North 

Belfast, Northern Ireland

BT1 5GD

Telephone:  (028) 9032 1707;  Fax:  (028) 9043 8586

E-mail:    info@linenhall.com

Website:  www.linenhall.com/Home/home.html

The Linen Hall Library, founded in 1788 as the Belfast Reading Society, is the oldest library in Belfast and the last surviving subscribing library in Ireland.  The library houses more than 250,000 volumes, 75,000 pamphlets, plus significant holdings of periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, microforms, photographs, films and recordings.  Of particular interest to the family historian is the ‘Genealogical Collection’ made up of some 5,000 volumes, including 350 volumes of registers of births, marriages, deaths, gravestone inscriptions, will indexes and 200 volumes of army, navy and militia lists giving local and national information. 

National Archives, Dublin

Bishop Street

Dublin 8

Ireland

Telephone:  (02) 407 2300;  Fax:  (01) 407 2333

E-mail:  mail@nationalarchives.ie

Website:  www.nationalarchives.ie

 The National Archives was formally established in 1988 with the amalgamation of the Public Record Office of Ireland and the State Paper Office.  The NAI is the official depository for the records of the Irish government.  Amongst among the most consulted records; Census 1901; Census 1911; Cholera Papers (board of Health); Customs and Excise; Famine Relief Commission; National School applications, registers and files; Valuation Office and Boundary Survey records.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND

 Kildare Street

Dublin 2

Ireland

Telephone:  (01) 603 0200; Fax:  (01) 676 6690

E-mail:  info@nli.ie

Website:  www.nli.ie 

The National library is Ireland’s major public research library, established ‘to collect, preserve and made accessible materials on or relating to Ireland, whether published in Ireland or abroad, and a supporting reference collection’.  To this end it seeks to build a comprehensive collection documenting the history, culture and life of Ireland.  The library houses a collection of some 1,000,000 printed books, including pamphlets; approximately 17,000 linear feet of manuscripts; some 150,000 maps, in either print or manuscript form; about 2,500 current periodical titles; around 10,000 reels of microforms; 300 current newspaper titles, plus complete files of many non-current titles; about 3000,000 photographs, which are held in the library’s National Photographic Archive; and some 90,000 prints and drawings, including significant holdings of architectural records.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF HERALD/GENEALOGICAL OFFICE

2-3 Kildare Street

Dublin 2

Ireland

Telephone:  (01) 603 0230;  Fax:  (01) 662 1061

E-mail:  herald@nli.ie

Website:  www.nli.ie

Founded as the Office of the Ulster King of Arms in 1552, the Office of the Chief Herald is the oldest office of State in Ireland.  The Chief Herald is the Heraldic Authority for Ireland, responsible for the regulation of heraldic matters and the granting and confirming of coats of arms.  Documents deriving from the functions of the office include the Registers of the Chief Herald, armorials and ordinaries of arms, funeral entries, lords’ entries and records of knights dubbed.  Roger O’Ferrall’s Linea Antiqua is the most important source for ancient genealogies of Gaelic families and also contains exemplifications of arms. 

 PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Room 218

Church House

Fisherwick Plac

Belfast, Northern Ireland

BT1 6DW

Telephone:  (028) 9032 2284

The Presbyterian Historical Society was created in 1906 to promote public awareness of the history of the Presbyterian Churches in Ireland.  It is largely supported by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.  The society possesses a library of some 12,000 books and pamphlets.  These are mainly concerned with ecclesiastical history and in particular Presbyterian history.  The collection includes a large number of congregational histories.  Manuscript material includes session minutes, baptisms and marriages from individual churches as well as some presbytery minutes.