The North of Ireland Family History Society

As you read the title of this post, you may read it as Northern Ireland Family History Society. If so, you have read it wrong. It is actually the North of Ireland Family History Society. There is a reason why it is so called that. It is because, as I said in my post about the Ulster Historical Foundation, the Province of Ulster is not just in Northern Ireland. Only six counties from Ulster make up Northern Ireland. The other three counties are in the Republic of Ireland. That being said, this family history society do have books, documents, databases, etc., from south of the border in their holdings.

The North of Ireland Family History Society are more than happy to open their research center at a time that they are normally closed in order to accommodate visitors from outside of their country, especially when they arrive in a bus and everyone wants to see the records. Their research centre in Newtownabbey, Antrim, is not very big. When I say not very big, it probably can handle about eight to ten researchers at a time, but not much more. To have more than fifteen researchers there will tax the room available if everyone is looking for the same type of information. I walked into the Randal Gill Library and found that there was really not enough room for me to go looking if I am not focused enough with others there. So, I left the room to those who knew what they were looking for and ended up in the computer room where I did some online research. Unfortunately, I couldn’t print out what I found.

The Society has a web page that seems to be well organized. Their home page is well laid out, showing where all eleven branches are located and give some general information about the Society itself. Surfing the website is easy and seems to be quite clear. Clicking on the buttons will take you where you want to go and are pretty much self-explanatory. Each button on the home page will take you to a different aspect of the Society. You can also go to the sub-pages for each of the buttons from the home page.

The Society’s holdings pertain primarily with the north of Ireland. They cover all of Ulster as well as some of the counties that border on Ulster. They have some holdings pertaining to England and the United States. A number of their databases are online, however, some of them are only accessible to members only.

There are eleven branches of the Society. They are: Ballymena, Belfast, Coleraine, Foyle, Killyleagh, Larne, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, North Armagh, North Down & Ards, and Omagh. The branches tend not to have research centres, but instead arrange day trips, monthly meetings, and other activities that enhance family history.

There are two types of membership in the Society. You can either belong to a branch where you pay your yearly dues which are in the neighbourhood of £22 a year. This would be a good idea if you lived in Northern Ireland. You would just need to find out which branch is closest to you. The other type of membership is an associated membership which will cost approximately £18 a year. This is primarily used by members who live a great distance from the locations of the Society. There are benefits to being a member, such as being able to access all of the online databases, and, of course, their newsletters. When I am at the point that I feel that they have information that I need for my research, I will be getting a membership. It really is a very small cost for the benefits that I will receive from it.

All in all, the North of Ireland Family History Society is much more than what I originally thought while visiting there. I can say, that it is actually a lot more than I saw and that it can prove to be a benefit to the family history world.