Lots Happening In UK Research

New at RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

 Recently uploaded 32,000 baptism records for County Monaghan in Ulster, meaning that all of the Ulster counties now have some representation on the database Irish Ship Passenger Lists. The Centre for Migration Studies, Co. Tyrone, has provided over 227,000 names of Ship Passengers. The records are of passengers, mostly of Irish origin, on ships travelling from Irish and British ports to ports in North America (United States and Canada) from 1791 to 1897.

New Research Facility for Irish Research

PRONI opened a new research facility in Belfast on March 30, 2011. Similar to the Scotland’sPeople Centre in Edinburgh, the new PRONI Centre provides on-site research and assistance. Here’s just a peek at what is available in Belfast:

•New copying facilities including a self-service digital camera

•Interactive, touch-screens with visual and audio content

•Free WiFi

•Enlarged Search Room with internet access and laptop capability

•Reading Room with 80 desks

Merging of Services in Scotland

The NAS & GRO have merged in Edinburgh. From the NAS website: “From 1 April 2011, the National Archives of Scotland merged with the General Register Office for Scotland to become the National Records of Scotland (NRS). This website will remain active until it is replaced in due course by a new website for NRS”

And in Glasgow, the Genealogy Centre has moved into it’s new home on the third floor of the Mitchell Library. Like Scotland’s People Centre in Edinburgh, the new Genealogy Centre facility has 20 computer terminals where research can be done. What this means of course is that whether you live in the west or the east, there is a research centre where you can go and access the records as well as some assistance. It also means less time travelling when in Scotland to do on site research. I am looking forward to visiting both the Scotland’sPeople Centre in Edinburgh and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, complete with the new Genealogy Centre, when I take a group of other researchers “home” to do research this fall.