Northern Ireland Family History: Where to Start
I work from Belfast, so this is home ground. Northern Ireland has its own record office and its own registrar, but a family here before 1922 lived in a single Ireland, so the Dublin sources cover them too. The job is knowing which website holds which years. This is the short version, from the Northern Ireland entries in the Genealogy Resources Directory and the Ulster-wide ones beside them.
Two record offices, one history
Partition in 1921 split the records as well as the island. GRONI, the General Register Office for Northern Ireland, holds civil births, marriages and deaths for the six counties, and its website has indexes and images: births over 100 years old, marriages over 75 and deaths over 50. But the same births, marriages and deaths before 1922 are also held in Dublin, and those are free with images on irishgenealogy.ie. Start there for anything before partition and use GRONI for the years since.
PRONI, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, is the archive. Its free online collections are the ones to learn: the will calendars and copy wills from 1858, the valuation revision books that carry Griffith's Valuation forward year by year to 1930, the 1912 Ulster Covenant signatures, the freeholders' registers and the street directories. Its reading room holds microfilm of almost every church register in the north, of every denomination.
The 1922 fire in Dublin hit Ulster less hard than the rest of Ireland. Many Church of Ireland registers in the north were kept locally and survived, and the Presbyterian registers were never in the building.
The ten to open first
- irishgenealogy.ie. Births from 1864, marriages from 1845 and deaths from 1864, free with images, for all 32 counties up to 1921.
- GRONI. The six-county civil records after partition, and a second index for the years before it. Searching is free; images cost a small fee.
- PRONI. Wills, valuation revision books, the Ulster Covenant, freeholders and directories, all free, and the eCatalogue for everything else.
- National Archives of Ireland. The 1901 and 1911 censuses for the whole island, free.
- Griffith's Valuation. The Ulster counties were valued between 1858 and 1864. It gives you the townland.
- Catholic Parish Registers. The National Library of Ireland's free images cover the northern dioceses too.
- Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. The records of the north's largest Protestant denomination: which registers survive and where they are.
- Ulster Historical Foundation. The Belfast research charity. Databases of church, gravestone and directory records for Ulster, pay as you go or by membership.
- Belfast City Council burial records. Belfast City, Roselawn and Dundonald cemeteries from 1869, free.
- Lennon Wylie. Transcribed Belfast and Ulster street directories from 1805 to 1943, free. A family's address and trade, year by year.
Then go local
Eddie's Extracts transcribes birth, marriage and death notices from Ulster newspapers and church records. Ros Davies' County Down site and Bill Macafee's site for Londonderry and north Antrim are the work of individuals who have spent decades on one county, and they are free. The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum covers the Lagan valley. The RootsIreland centres for Armagh and Derry hold transcribed church records for those counties. The North of Ireland Family History Society has branches across the six counties and a research centre.
Three things that trip people up
Ulster has nine counties. Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are in the Republic, but the Ulster-wide sources, the Presbyterian records, the Ulster Historical Foundation and Eddie's Extracts, cover them. Do not stop at the border.
Townlands again. Every rural record is organised by townland. Griffith's Valuation gives it to you, and the PRONI valuation revision books then show who held the house for the next seventy years.
Denomination decides the source. Catholic registers are at the National Library of Ireland, Church of Ireland registers at the RCB Library or PRONI, Presbyterian registers through the Presbyterian Historical Society and PRONI. Find out which church first.
Frequently asked questions
Are Northern Ireland birth, marriage and death records online?
Yes. GRONI has indexes and images for the six counties. Records from before 1922 are also free with images on irishgenealogy.ie.
What is the difference between PRONI and GRONI?
GRONI is the registrar, holding civil births, marriages and deaths. PRONI is the archive, holding wills, valuation records, church register microfilm, estate papers and much else.
Did Northern Ireland's records survive the 1922 fire?
Better than most. The fire was in Dublin; civil registration was held elsewhere, Presbyterian registers stayed with the congregations, and many northern Church of Ireland registers were kept locally.
The other quick reads
All 13 Northern Ireland entries, with filters
Open the Northern Ireland view of the directory →Research done? See the 72 chart designs.