Randal Gill Library

The North of Ireland Family History Society has named its Library in its Research Centre after the late Randal Gill, who was for many years President of the Society and its Librarian; it was he who was mainly responsible for developing its collection. The Library holds a large collection of books and records of interest to Members researching families in the North of Ireland. Many books and records deal with individual people and many others can provide invaluable background information regarding historical context, places, occupations, military service and so on.

There is a free Look Up Service available only to Members who are unable to visit the Library.

Transcriptions & Indexes

Many Members contribute to our Transcribing & Indexing Projects.  Some compilations of records, as books or CDs, are available in our online Shop.  The Transcribed Records fall into the categories: Church Records, Graveyard Records and Newspaper Records.  Many of these are only available in the Library.  Subject to copyright law and to permission from the organisations supplying the material and to suppressing “recent” events, we plan to place more of the indexes and transcriptions online as complete records, abbreviated records or surnames only.  Some of these are freely available to any viewer; others are limited to Members only. In addition the Society has a large range of Other Records, the indexes to most of which are online.

Irish Section

The transcriptions are just a small part of the Library’s collection of books relating to family history in Ireland.  Click on Irish Section Books for a list of the headings under which these books are shelved.  These include church records, family histories, civil records, gravestone inscriptions, newspaper announcements, occupations, education records, photographic information and books covering many of Ulster’s towns and villages.  There is also the Special Collection, consisting of forty or so rarer works including, for example, a couple of dozen volumes of Preservation of Memorials of the Dead, the Annals of Ulster and the Rev. George Hill’s Historical Account of Plantation in Ulster.

General Information

There is a good collection of A5 format information books mainly published by the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS).  These are not specifically about Ireland but cover many aspects of family history research.

NIFHS – Randal Gill Library

Other Collections

Other collections in the Library include some solicitors’ records, some electoral rolls and the extensive genealogical correspondence of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland – this is on permanent loan to us and has been fully indexed.