Locations of Search Engines and Using Online Resources for Searching Co. Down and Ireland
This is a tool to use in your online searching for your Co. Down and Ireland relatives. Sites are included that have the most known data on them and that will aid you in your search. By no means is this a complete listing of all possibilities. This is meant to be a basic tool in starting genealogy searches.
All of the web pages listed below have family names or lead you to locations that have helpful online data on them so that you can find your surnames in the locations you have chosen to search. Some sites listed cover more than Co. Down, but apply to Co. Down as well. To Maximize your ability to find your families data, join the message boards, mailing lists and surname lists and post your interests. You can also search these lists for previous posts on your surname and your specific locations of interest.
Web Sites With Online County Down Related Data Bases and Records that can be searched
Brian Killen?s Web Site
Brian's site is one of the best places to start your online search in Co. Down. Put your surnames (only) in the search engine and you will get a chart with all people in down with their tithes, flax growers, griffiths and 1901 census records in one nice chart. This site has some hard to find information and is the only online source for these records.
Ros Davies Web Site
Ros has much information here that can be very helpful. Her surname, place name, church, photo, and map index search engines will give you a lot of good things. This site has some hard to find information and is the only online source for these records
Jean McCarthy's Web Site
Jean has some detailed census abstracts here for 1901 and the quantity of data is growing daily. This site has some hard to find information and is the only known source for these type records.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jeanmccarthy36/Dave Jassie's Web Site-Central
This is Dave Jassie's Belfast, Down, Armagh & Antrim Mailing List Web Site for each of his Mailings Lists he is administrator for. His postings of searchable data, items of interest, and local histories, is growing rapidly.Jean Rice's Co. Down Landowners List
Jean has these Landowners Lists for each Co. in Ireland on the Rootsweb Co. Message Boards. These lists are for 1876 and include all landowners in the Co. with one acre of land or more.Raymond Kelly's Web Site Raymond's site covers primarily Kilkeel and Banbridge areas of Co. Down, but has other information on other areas in Down too.
Newry, Donaghmore, Loughbrickland, and Banbridge Genealogy Site
Norm's site covers the area of SW Down from Newry to Banbridge and the Eastern part of Co. Armagh. The Donaghmore Parish has Church Records up to 1900, Church History, Community Histories, Townland Lists, Cemetery Tombstone Inscriptions up to 1910, and other data.
The LDS (Mormon) Search Engine
This is the LDS Mormon web site where you can search for your particular surname or full name. LDS Main Site LDS Family History Center Locations LDS Library and their Resources LDS Online Searching Ireland Guide Rootsweb's Similar Search Engine Ancestry's Similar Search Engine Family Tree Makers Similar Search Engine
There are other sites such as this one with contributed records and can be found at places like Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeMaker.com, Rootsweb.com, and several other locations. Many of these sites require fees to be paid for searching. Some of the records offerred are available for purchase on CD Roms from these same sites.
Ancestry.com?s Search Engine for Finding Records Sources For Your Surname There are other sites such as Family Tree Maker's that do much the same thing.
Ancestry.com?s List of Message Boards
Message boards for U.K. and Ireland. These boards allow you to post your items of need for your surname or other topic of genealogy interest. You can also search these message boards by author, date, and subject. There is considerable information in these boards.
Rootsweb?s Northern Ireland's Mailing List (all types)
These sites allow you to subscribe and receive daily emails of the subscribers posts. You can also search previous posts by surname, author, date, and subject. These lists usually cover specific areas in Ireland such as Country, County or Large City.
Rootsweb's Surname List Finder for each of your Surnames
This site will allow you to find the right surname list for each of your family names.http://lists.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/findlist.plThe Belfast Newsletter Index
This is an excellent source of information from 1737 to 1800. There are many events, land exchanges, arrests, ship docking and sailing, church happenings, sales and exchanges (horses, land, etc.), and a good number of other items of interest.
Irish Passenger Lists
This is most of the current online ship lists that you can search for your ancestors going to various countries from various ports. They are by ship name, date, passenger name lists, usually where they are from, their previous occupation, and their ages.Web Sites With Excellent Reference Materials, Data or Links on Them
Jane Lyon's County Down Web Site
Jane has some good information here on county down.
Also Jane Lyon's County From Ireland Web Site This site is about as good as it gets for information & help.Lisa Carson's Co. Down Web Site
There is some good information and links here.http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ladyengineer/Genealogy.html
Cyndi's List
Cyndi has the most Complete List of Genealogy Information, Tools, Aids, Instructions, and Resources on the Internet or Anywhere Else for that matter.
Amazon.com's Online Genealogy and History Books Available
A good source of New and Used Books on Ireland and Irish Genealogy or History.Books Ulster Online Bookstore
An excellent source of Ireland Books, Maps, etc. that are reasonable in price. In particular the R.S.J. Cowan Books Cover Cemetery Inscriptions in many locations in Ireland and a good resource. This is one of many books of value to searchers.Other County Down Related Web Sites (Currently under development)
Down Family Oriented Web Sites (Currently under development)
Suggested Ideas for Maximizing Search Results, Using Online Genealogy Search Engines.
Search Engines That Can Be Used
Searching for Surname in a Specific Location
Use "Surname Genealogy PlaceName" Put in the search engines search box without the quotation marks. Put in your individual surnames one at a time. Place name can be Ireland, County, Parish, Townland, Ulster, etc.
Searching for Histories of a Specific Location
Use "PlaceName History Ireland" Place name can be Ireland, County, Parish, Townland, Ulster, etc.
To find Genealogy Related & Unrelated Families and other Helpful Information in a Location. Use "PlaceName Genealogy Ireland" or "PlaceName Genealogy Down". Place name can be Ireland, County, Parish, Townland, Ulster, etc..To find "online" records Use "Online Records Location" or "Online Genealogy Records Location" or "Online History Records Location".
Jane Lyon's Suggestions for Starting Your Search and Getting Results What can I say, just excellent!
A concerted effort was made to minimize commercialism in the above, but it is inevitable that some crept in due to the importance sites and offerings. Not all possible links or sites were mentioned, as the ones above are the main ones that have been found to have the most value in searching Co. Down. Others have value as well, but that list would be much too long to compile, so please excuse the omissions of them. If you have found other sites that have great online value in terms of searchable data and area histories, then making them known will result in their addition, if so agreed.
Your feed back would be much appreciated! If you have additional Down related sites, please let me know and they will be added to the list.
Norm Ruddock