Hi Richard, The PRONI catalog is not available over the Internet. The Linen Hall Library's used to be (www.google.com, folks: that's how I find it) and it would be likely to have more published parish histories than PRONI. Also Ryan "Irish Records" often identifies books on parishes. Also "Doing Irish Local History" by Gillespie. Also "Irish Towns: A Guide to Sources" Edited by WIlliam Nolan and Anngret Simms. Not all our ancestors lived in the country and hoed potatoes. Many were blacksmiths, merchants, and business owners. So its good to know the basics on researching town records. The catalog at www.familysearch.org often has local parish histories. Sometimes you can find copies at www.ulsterbooks.com, via abebooks on the Internet and British book sellers. "IRish Towns" has a great bibliography that lists items by town and includes articles. (The periodicals may be in FHL. I've ordered any number on fiche and film). We often remind people here that the ports used in the past are not the ones we use today as many smaller ships could use much smaller ports. For example "Portaferry, Co Down: an article by J Blaney "Portaferry shipping in two centuries" in the Upper Ards Historical Society Journal, xi (1989), pp. 100 -105. Very best! Linda Merle ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: RKMacmaster@aol.com Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 11:24:26 EST >Thomas H. Mullin, Aghadowey (Belfast, 1972) is an outstanding local history. > It may be hard to find in the States. > >Aghadowey was mainly in the Ironmongers Company estate from the Plantation >of Londonderry. It was leased to various parties in the 18th century. The >Jackson family, who leased the Clothworkers estate as well, held some townlands >in Aghadowey Parish on a long-term lease. There is a good collection of >their leases to their tenants, rent rolls, etc. at the Public Record Office of >Northern Ireland in D/668 (Jackson Papers). > >The Church of Ireland records for this parish prior to 1870 were among those >sent to Dublin and destroyed when the four Courts burned. > >Records of Aghadowey Presbyterian congregation begin in 1845 and are >apparently complete since then. > >If you check the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland website at >_www.proni.gov.uk_ (http://www.proni.gov.uk) >there is a geographical index that will tell you what records from Aghadowey >Parish can be found in PRONI. You can call up individual townlands on their >in-house computers and discover what is available, but I'm not sure that >this can be done from the website. > >All the best, >Richard MacMaster > > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net