PRONI to add more Will Calendars on 13 March

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) will be adding to its online database of Will Calenders in time for St Patrick's Day.

PRONI, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast BT3 9HQ

This latest addition, PRONI's major release for 2014, will see 170,000 Will Indexes covering 1918 to 1921 and 1944 to 1965 released with free access online. These Wills were proved in Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry District Registries.

Together with the Will Calendars already accessible through the PRONI database, this upload of additional material – which will be on Thursday 13 March at 12:30pm – will mean researchers have access to more than 400,000 Will index entries dating from 1858 to 1965. That's what you call a great genealogical resource!

To mark the event, PRONI will host a lunchtime seminar at its offices on the subject of Wills and Probates on the launch date:

• The first presentation will be given by Wesley Geddis of PRONI who will talk about the range of testamentary papers held by PRONI and provide details of the information they contain. Wesley will also provide a demonstration of the Wills Application to those in attendance.
  
• Nigel Bloomer of the Belfast Probate Office will talk about the work of the Probate Office and will explain more about current probate processes.
  

The seminar is free to attend and everyone is welcome. You need to reserve your place, however. Book by email or phone 028 90 534800. The Heritage Café at PRONI will be open for refreshments before and after this event.