Visit the County Clare Library Website

Clare County Library is the recipient of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations’ 2010 Award for Excellence in Genealogy. The Award is made not only in recognition of the facilities provided in the Local Studies Centre at Ennis (which includes a magnificent collection of Clare newspapers and the recently acquired microfilmed parish registers), but particularly for the online genealogy section of the Library’s website, which includes invaluable transcriptions of Tithe Applotment Books, gravestone inscriptions (with photographs), school rolls, and indexes to newspaper extracts, etc.

www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm

Public Records Office of Northern Ireland to Open in March, 2011

PRONI is pleased to announce that it will be opening to customers at its new premises, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ on 30 March 2011. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our new state-of-the-art building. For further details please see the PRONI website - www.proni.gov.uk

Armagh, Belfast & Londonderry Wills

If you have ancestors from Ulster, you'll be happy to know that the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland(PRONI) has made several of its research resources available to you on their website. They include the Ulster Covenant, Freeholders Records, Street Directories and Name Search. As of 29th November 2010 an updated version of the Wills Calendar search was launched. 93,388 digitised images of copy wills covering the period 1858-1900 have now been added, along with over twenty years worth of calendar entries.

This application now provides a searchable index to wills proved in the district probate registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry during the years 1858-1919 and 1922-1943. Part of 1921 has been added, with remaining entries for 1920-1921 to follow in the near future.

Digitised images from copy will books covering the years 1858-1900 have now been linked to the corresponding will calendar entries. A total of 93,388 will images have been added to the database. These documents are a valuable and widely used family and local history resource that will now be readily accessible via the internet. Users will be able to search the online index, read the will calendar entry and view an image of the will for many of the entries.

This project will help facilitate easy access to archives and is an additional resource available to the public during PRONI’s closure and relocation to its new headquarters in Titanic Quarter, Belfast.

The site can be accessed via PRONI’s main website:http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/will_calendars.htm