GRONI and PRONI closures in next two weeks

Some notes for your diary if you're intending to visit either the General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in the next couple of weeks...

GRONI's Public Search Room will be closed for refurbishment and maintenance from Monday 1 July to Wednesday 3 July inclusive. The public counter will be operating as usual.

Both GRONI and PRONI will be closed (all departments) on Friday 12 July and Monday 15 July. There will be no late-night opening at PRONI on Thursday on 11 July; closing time will be 4:45pm.

Templepatrick church census 1857 goes online

Emerald Ancestors has added the Templepatrick Presbyterian Church Census of 1857 to its Church Census Collection.

The record set lists more than 800 names from this County Antrim congregation and joins an earlier (1831) census for the same church.

Many family groupings can be identified in both censuses, 26 years apart.

In most cases, the census lists all members, including children, within a household. As well as identifying their townland, the maiden name of mothers is recorded.

Prevalent Presbyterian family surnames recorded in the census include: Agnew, Barnet, Barret, Bell, Bill, Birkmyers (Burkmyers), Black, Boyd, Bradford, Christy, Coulter, Courtney, Cowan, Craig, Finlay, Fulton, Garner, Gibb, Gormal, Graham, Greer, Hamill, Hamilton, Harper, Hawthorn, Henderson, Holmes, Hunter, Hutcheson, Ingram, Jamison, Kee, Kennedy, Kirk, Lawther, Lemon, Lynn, Magee, McClung, McComb, McCrum, McIlwain, McKeague, McKee, McKeen, McKenna, McMeekin, McMillan (McMillen), McNeil, McNight, McWilliams, Meneilly, Neill (Neil), Neisbet, Price, Rea, Robinson, Shannon, Shaw, Smith, Stevenson, Stewart, Tate, Wiley, Williamson & Wilson.

The residences of these families in and around Templepatrick Parish are recorded as follows: Ballycushin, Ballyhartfield, Ballymartin, Ballypallady, Ballyrobert, Carnanee, Clachanduff (Cloghanduff), Cotton Mount, Kilgreel, Kilmakee, Rickamor, Templepatrick, Toberagnew (Toberagnee).

More Welsh parish records added to FMP

FindMyPast has added 1.2 million parish baptisms, marriages and burials to its Wales collection, which includes records from 1538.

The newly added records include 522,011 baptisms, 96,286 marriages and 456,600 burials, and takes the total number of Welsh parish records to more than 5million.

Some Welsh parishes have opted out of the partnership that's bringing these records to the online environment. There's an explanatory note on this FMP page.

The Wales collection is available in FindMyPast's Britain and World subscription packages.

PRONI confirms National Register's FOI procedure

As advised in my news story on Monday about the next stage of the project to catalogue the 1939 National Register, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has updated its website with brief details about the resource and how to access it under Freedom of Information legislation.

You can read it here.

DIPPAM back online after technical hitch

If you've been trying to reach the DIPPAM (Documenting Ireland Parliament, People and Migration) website over the last week or so, you'll know it's been offline.

I'm pleased to say that the technical problem has now been sorted and the site, possibly best known for the searchable Irish Emigration Database, is now available once again.

This seems a good opportunity to draw researchers attention to this important resource!

DIPPAM is an online archive of documents and sources relating to the history of Ireland and its migration experience from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. It's a project developed by Queen's University Belfast, the University of Ulster, Libraries Northern Ireland and the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies.

In short, DIPPAM is a treasure trove that can only be appreciated when you dip in. Here's a taster of some of the surprising and incredibly useful content it holds, in addition to the Irish Emigration Database:

• Return of 1102 persons committed for Contempt of Court 1839–1849
  
• The Emigrant's Directory & Guide to obtain Lands and effect a Settlement in the Canadas, 1833
  
• Lists of convicts and vagabonds for transportation, 1737
  
• Return of staff employed as Stampers at the Stamp Offices of Dublin, Edinburgh and London, 1845-46
  
• Irish Immigrants to Atlantic Canada, 1832-1846, by Terrence M. Punch FIGRS
  

Irish Newspaper Archive grows online collection

Irish Newspaper Archive has seen a splurge of new titles and additional dates to its subscription database, as follows:

• Belfast Newsletter 1800–1890
  
• Donegal News: 1903–current
  
• Fermanagh Herald: 1903–1910
  
• Longford Leader: 1897–1949

Philip Martin, director of the family firm that runs the archive, told Irish Genealogy News some time back that the company hopes to have online at least one newspaper title per historical Irish county by the end of this year, and looks to be on target. By early autumn, the following uploads are expected to have been added:

• Longford Leader: 1950–2003
  
• Dundalk Democrat: 1849–1907
  
• Fermanagh Herald: 1911–1959

Free access to Irish bmds on FMP until Sunday

Just a reminder that a collection of Ireland's civil registration indexes of births, marriages and deaths is available, free, on FindMyPast Ireland, on FindMyPast USA and FindMyPast Australia/NZ until Sunday 30 June.

The collection covers the following dates:

• Birth indexes from 1864 to 1921 for the entire island; 1922 to 1958 Republic only.
• Marriage indexes from 1845 to 1921 for the entire island; 1922 to 1958 Republic only. (Non-Catholic marriages only 1845-1863)
• Death indexes from 1864 to 1921 for the entire island; 1922 to 1958 Republic only.

A gunner's WW1 – book launch, 1 July

A graphic account of a gunner officer’s experiences in the First World War will be launched at 12.00 on Monday July 1 in the gallery of the Northern Ireland War Memorial, 21 Talbot Street, Belfast.

Scarce heard amid the guns is an account of the war that's been drawn from the diary and letters home of Lieutenant Colonel Claud Potter, who fought in every major battle and served with the 36th (Ulster) Division. The story has been written by his son, Major John Potter.

The book, which costs £14, is illustrated by sketch maps of the front line and the location of the batteries of guns. Photographs depict the battlefield, then and now.

Colonel John Steele, President of the Royal Artillery Association in Northern Ireland, commented: “In his diary entries and letters, Potter holds nothing back, which helps to explain why they the accounts are so vivid and immediate.”

More details on the Northern Ireland Memorials site.

What's in a name?: PRONI 27 June

An entertaining and informative afternoon is to be held on Thursday 27 June on the subject of placenames and surnames.

In addition to music, poetry and drama, What's in a name? will explore the culture and historical aspects of placenames and surnames. The Lord Mayor, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, will open the event and expert speakers will provide an insight into how the Irish Language has contributed to this heritage.

The speakers include Aodán McPólín (Utach Trust), Jake MacSiacais (Forbairt Feirste) and Jim Bradley (Belfast Hills Partnership).

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland will be exhibiting its online web applications at the event.

What's in a name? will be hosted by broadcaster William Crawley in the MAC Theatre, Belfast, 2pm–4pm.

If you'd like to attend, book on tel 02890 515057.

County Clare archives to be placed online, free

Clare County Library’s entire archival collection dating back to the early 18th century is to be digitised and made freely available online. The collection includes land and lease records, marriage settlements, wills, electors' registers and other goodies of great value to historians and genealogists.

For more details, see Irish Roots Magazine Facebook page.