This was posted to another list and I thought it might be of interest. --------------Original Message--------------- Taken from PRONI : Your Family Tree 3 One of the most important collections held in the Public Record Office is of church records. Of particular interest to anyone tracing their family tree are the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. Many of these for the nine counties of Ulster have been copied by PRONI,or have been deposited with us. In order to identify which records exist in a particular area researchers should consult the Guide to Church Records. This guide lists alphabetically, churches of the main denominations who have records deposited at PRONI, and is available on the search room shelves. The Public Record Office does not hold records for all churches in Ulster and, in some cases, these may still be in local custody. The guide to Church Records is also an invaluable method of discovering the name of the Parish to which a particular church belongs. The parish was originally an ecclesiastical administrative unit which became the basis geographical unit in early census records, land surveys and tax records. Anyone interested in finding out the name of the townland to which a particular church belongs should consult the Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland, which is also available on the Search Room shelves. The quality of the records themselves will vary from denomination to denomination, and in some cases from church to church. For example, Catholic baptismal records usually include the following information: date; child`s name; father`s name; mother`s maiden name; name of godparents; residence of parents. Church of Ireland baptismal records, however, usually supply only the following information: child`s name; father`s name; the mother`s christian name; the name of the officiating clergyman. It is also important to note that the majority of Church of Ireland clergymen recorded burials as well as baptisms and marriages, unlike their Catholic counterparts. These burial registers include the name, age and townland of the deceased and often include local families of different denomination. Alex Hughes >from Ayrshire, Scotland Searching for Duncan,Bruce,Kilpatrick,Campbell,Fairley,Milne,McKechan, Jamphray,Strathern,Kelso,Smith & Auld in Scotland Searching for Hughes, Graham, McCutcheon, Donaghy, Irvine, Dorian, Kelley & Black in Ireland ----------End of Original Message----------