This was posted to another list and I thought it might be of interest. ---------------Original Message--------------- Taken from PRONI : Your Family Tree 1 Before beginning your search at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, you should try to discover as much as possible through your parents, grandparents etc. Check family gravestone inscriptions for names, dates etc. Find out if old photographs exist of your family. They often show, on the reverse side, names and dates. Family bibles are also a useful source as they often contain details of births, deaths and marriages. This sort of information will help to flesh out the picture which emerges from the documents. What you will uncover, here at PRONI, will depend on the quality of the documents which have survived for the area. In order to use the records to their best advantage three kinds of information are essential; names, dates and places. Dates of marriages, births, deaths and emigration; the names of grandparents etc; townland names, parishes and counties. The easiest way to begin a genealogical search is to use the Personal Names Card-Index in the Public Search Room. This card-index will give you references to the vast range of records which are in the custody of PRONI. When you have got such references you should then search the typescript Catalogues of the collections on the shelves in the Public Search Room. These will give you brief desriptions of the documents. If you have no idea where your ancestors came from in Northern Ireland, you can discover the distribution of any surname by looking in the Householders Index which is a guide to the names listed in the Tithe Applotment Books c. 1830 and the Griffiths Valuation c. 1860. From this index you can discover the localities where the name was the most common between 1830 and 1860. The letter G shown in the index, means that the name appears in the Griffith`s Valuation. The number following eg G2 means the number of times that surname is recorded in a particular barony. The letter T means that s surname appeared in the Tithe Applotment Books PRONI Reference Number FIN5A. If you know the area from wich your ancestors came you can search the records relating to that particular district. Ireland and its counties are sub-divided in a unique way; counties into baronies, baronies into parishes, and parishes into townlands. The computerised Geographical Index available in the reception area, is a handy way to begin your search. It lists the records available for the vast majority of the townlands in Northern Ireland. The townland is a unique feature of the Irish landscape and is one of the most ancient divisions in the country. They originally consisted of a number of sub-divisions such as gneeves and ploughlands but are now recognised as the smallest administrative division in the country. The easiest way to find the name of your parish, townland etc is to consult the Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland. These indexes were compiled during the 19th and 20th centuries after each census and lists all the baronies, parishes, towns, villages and townlands that existed at that time. They are available on the Search Room shelves. If you want to commission a genealogical search on a fee-paying basis, please ask the Search Room staff for a copy of our lsit of genealogists operating in Northern Ireland. 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----------