PRONI AND ITS FINDING AIDS ON THE INTERNET
PRONI can be found at its web site: http://proni.nics.gov.uk/index.htm
PRONI has been busy on a major ongoing project to make its resources accessible to a much wider public. It has published many finding aids including archives of landed estates, of the Encumbered and Landed Estates Courts, and of Land Registry. Now the Geographical Index of Townlands of Northern Ireland (six counties) is available on the Internet.
There are almost 9,500 townlands in the six counties of Northern Ireland which are Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. PRONI has collected together all the townland names and sub-denominational names and presented them in a number of useful ways on the PRONI web site. To go directly to this index use this address: http://proni.nics.gov.uk/geogindx/geogindx.htm
For researchers interested in townlands, the information is presented in four different ways: by county, by parish, within major estates and alphabetically. The list of townlands by county is presented as an alphabetically list in a table format whilst the parish index gives the names of all the townlands within that parish, the county in which they are situated (parishes do straddle county boundaries), the electoral divisions (for civil registration) and the Ordnance Survey map reference number.
The townlands by Major Estate are listed by landowner, and there are sub-divisions within this index, e.g. the Annesley family owned estates in Castlewellan, Banfield, Newcastle and Dunlady. Each townland is therefore listed under the estate or manor in which it is situated, but under the general heading of the landowner. The indices are searchable using your own browser or the PRONI home page search engine. Suggestions and queries to: mcveiga.proni@doeni.gov.uk
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