Armagh Ancestry

[Rob P]

Hi all

I'm planning a trip to Northern Ireland in the near future and want to spend a bit of time catching up on my Armagh ancestors. Can anyone tell me whether the facilities offered at Armagh Ancestry are any good or would I be better off at PRONI in Belfast?

Do you have to pay to search the indexes at Armagh Ancestry, or is it free to the public?

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

Rob

[teap78]

Hi Rob I got an email from them here is a link to their site have a look and see what they offer or even contact them and ask 

http://www.irish-roots.net/armagh.asp




Colette

[Christopher]

Hiya Rob,

It's sometime since I was at the Armagh Ancestry place. They had a shop on the street level of St Patrick's Trian where they sold books and a few Irish items. There were a couple of girls who did searches for people who either posted them an email or a letter. They do not have the same facilities as the libraries or PRONI.

Ah ... they did close the shop and have an office upstairs at St Patrick's Trian.

I'd say you certainly have to visit PRONI. When are you coming over?

Christopher

[Rob P]

Hi Christopher

I was there in August and had a great time!!!

Armagh Ancestry is, as you say, an office over St Patrick's Trian. Although very friendly, the staff were unable to help without me handing over (what I considered to be) huge wodges of cash. Even then, there was no public search facility. A genealogist would do a search and mail me the details, I was told.

For those with money to spare, or for those unable to visit Northern Ireland in person, Armagh Ancestry might be worth a shot. For everyone else, take my advice and VISIT PRONI!!!

P.S. I must make mention of the staff at Armagh Public Library on Abbey Street, who were absolutely superb (and such a beautiful building too). I was even served coffee and scones whilst doing my research!!!

[Christopher]

Now you're talking, Rob.

People doing research in the Local Studies section at the SEELB HQ in Ballynahinch have been known to get similar hospitality as you got in Armagh. The libraries are excellent at assisting with research too.

Christopher

[peterk71]

Amragh Ancestry have a new online searching facility now that is quite useful. If you can find what you want then you pay for the full details.

http://armagh.brsgenealogy.com/

[moira55]

I had a look on the site and I feel the search options could be better. By comparison on Scotlands People you have the option to put in both names when doing a marriage search and this whittles down the possibilities considerably and it costs less than a pound for that.  To get a copy of the actual marriage record it will cost a further £1.25 which I think is very reasonable.

On this Armagh site it appears to me that you have to pay 10 euros for each basic search and this could prove costly.

So unless I was absolutely desperate or had loads of money I feel I would have to avoid the site.

Shame really

[Christopher]

Hiya Moira,

There may be a simple explanation for the reasons behind Scotland's People charging so much less than the thirty five Irish sites, like Armagh Ancestry, which are members of the Irish Family History Foundation.

Scotland's people is the official government source for genealogical data for Scotland whereas the thirty five members of the IFHF are part of a voluntary organisation composed of local genealogy centres. They have directors, committees and sub committees ... I'm not certain how many people are involved.

It would be interesting to know how many people are required to run the Scotland's people operation and how many are required to run the thirty five genealogical centres in Ireland.

Click here to read Emily Heinlen's article titled "Genealogy and the economic drain on Ireland: unintended consequences." There's so much information now on line it looks as though it is killing the Irish genealogical tourism industry. The article contains a table showing the number of Genealogy tourism visitors — 1999-2004. The figures were provided by Bord Fáilte (the Irish Tourist Board).

The centres were created in the nineteen eighties to assist tourists ... now although there are something in the region of 70,000,000 people throughout the world who are of Irish descent it seems that each of those thirty five Irish centres have an average of 500 visitors and 250 callers per year.

Christopher

[trish251]

Is this not the chicken and the egg Christopher. I have Irish ancestors that I have virtually given up finding because of the costs involved. I had thought a trip to Ireland might be an option, but if I have to pay for the trip AND the research, then this does not seem a good idea.

The Federation of family history centres in England using the site http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/ have been very reasonably chargers (less than SP) but I now see commercial interests are going to buy them out - which will probably see an increase in cost.

In the 70s and 80s in Australia everyone used the LDS Family history centres. Now everyone uses the internet. The LDS centres have installed internet access      and are developing their own world wide internet system. Things change.

Trish