Friday 20 June 2014

Back to School with PRONI's next online record set

Some interesting news from this morning's PRONI User Forum meeting has been passed on to me by Gillian Hunt of the Ulster Historical Foundation.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has begun digitising school grant-aid applications. Typically, these applications were for funds to meet the salary of an assistant teacher or for improvements to the school building fabric and facilities. Researchers with ancestors in the teaching profession will find these records particularly interesting, but those whose ancestors attended the school will also discover a lot of detail about their school years.

This record collection will be placed online in due course.

Another collection of future interest, although not in the digitisation pipe, comes from Belfast's Blackstaff Mill and includes records of mills in Doagh and Lurgan. This newly acquired material has yet to be catgalogued, so it's not currently available to researchers.

And finally, a date for your diary: PRONI will open on European Heritage Weekend, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September. On the Saturday, a full document service will be provided, which will be excellent news for those family historians unable to visit during normal Monday to Friday opening hours.

Many thanks to Gillian for sharing the information with Irish Genealogy News.