Anyone going to PRONI?

[chinakay]

Would there be some kind soul making a trip to PRONI sometime who'd be willing to do a small lookup for me, I'd be very grateful indeed!

I've just discovered the Allison Collection. Allison and Allison were photographers, first in Belfast, then in other towns. They inscribed a number on the backs of their photos, which corresponded to entries in their day-books. These numbers would identify the photos.

PRONI has those day-books.

I have two Allison portraits, numbers 34328 and 18735. I would be most appreciative if someone were able to find the day-book entries for me! The Allison Collection's call number is D/2886.

I do have a very kind offer of a lookup in 2010, if nobody else can do it before then

Thanks and cheers,
China

[murraymints]

I'm off to PRONI tomorrow as it happens, so I'll see what the records are like - if it's not too time consuming to look at the numbers I'll check them out for you. I have a mountain of stuff to look at!

[chinakay]

Much obliged, murraymints. There are a bunch of us at the photo board just dying to find out!

Cheers,
China

[murraymints]

Just a quick note for now - I'm just in! I've got the info on the 34328 photo. The other one is too early for the records at PRONI. I'll post again in a bit when I've had my dinner and explain exactly what they've got at PRONI for your future reference.

From the names of the people it sounds like a lot of church people??

[murraymints]

Ok - here we go then. First off, PRONI only have the records from 1900 to 1953 - nothing earlier. The Day Book I looked at first had the 34328 entry - that was lucky! The date is 15th August 1902 (and they all paid 3s each on 20th!) The earliest plate number in the PRONI records is 31957, which is January 1900. So the other photo you have must be a lot older.

There is no town given for the addresses.

The spelling of the names is as good as I could read the writing!

Mrs. McCaldin  )
Mr.  McCaldin   )           The Diamond
Rev. Patterson
Mr. Ed. Kimmitt             Dobbin Street
Mr. Dowds                    Scotch Street
The Ven. Archdeacon King-Irwin
Mr(s) Armstrong           Deans Hill
Very Rev. Dean Shaw-Hamilton

I wouldn't mind a glance at the photo myself!

Sorry I couldn't get the other one!

[chinakay]

Oh, thank you very much indeed, murraymints! I'm not too sure what to make of the information but I will ask the crowd that hangs out at the Photo Restoration board if they can help sort it out! I am very appreciative of your help!

Odd that there wasn't anything prior to 1900...their catalogue says the collection is 1889 to 1953

Anyway, if you would like to see the photo it's posted over at the Photo board, here:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,219070.0.html

The other photo thread is titled Another Allison!

I'm going to copy your remarks and repost them in the original thread on the Photo board, if you don't mind. We'll see if anyone has more to contribute!

Thank you again, so very much!

Cheers,
China

[murraymints]

No probs!! It was good to look at something other than Census data and Wills! I think the catalogue probably means that SOME of the data is earlier, like other ledgers, but the Day Books only go back to 1900. I did query with a member of staff - but they turned the pages of the Catalogue and showed me!!!

For your future reference, the Day Books are D.2886/1 and I looked at D.2886/1/1A so it was the first one in the collection. The /numbers are consecutive up to 1953.

Going to look at the photo now!

[Christopher]

Hello China,

I've linked your 6000 miles from PRONI thread to this one.

Christopher

[chinakay]

Thanks, Christopher

C