Ulster Historical Foundation re-opens

From The Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com):

The Foundation is open again

We hope you and your families are keeping safe and staying well. What a long, strange 18 months we have experienced. We realise it is not over yet, but we hope the vaccines and ongoing improvements in treatments will continue to keep communities safe and allow us to resume some sort of ‘normal’ life.

We would like to thank everyone who continued to support the Foundation through the course of the pandemic from March 2020 till now, or who asked after the well-being of our staff and the organisation. Your care and support is very much appreciated.

End of furlough and resumption of service

As you will be aware most of the Foundation’s staff were furloughed due to the pandemic. With the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) closed for most of the past 18 months, or working under very severe restrictions, the Foundation was unable to undertake much of our work.

That said I am pleased to say that all our staff have now returned to work. The furlough scheme ended on 30 September and the Foundation has been open since 1 October 2021.

Hybrid working for staff

Just so you are aware, as with many organisations the staff have returned to work in a hybrid format: with some time spent working in the office, and some from home. We have taken this step to try to keep staff safe and to try to ensure the office is safe for visitors: with social distancing measures in place and other mechanisms – masks, sanitiser, screens – available, so that those who wish to visit us can do so.

Thus, while the numbers working in the office on any given day will be lower than before the pandemic, visitors are now welcome to call at the Foundation, Monday–Friday, 10:00am to 4:00pm.

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)

We are also pleased to report that the Record Office started to relax their restrictions for individual visitors in early September. Researchers still need to make an appointment in advance, but documents can now be ordered during the visit as per the system that operated before Covid. Moreover, further relaxations of the regulations are planned: individuals will be allowed to book up to two visits per week and more daily slots will be made available.

While group visits are still not permitted and PRONI is a long way from ‘business as usual’, the removal of the very tight restrictions does mark a major improvement in access to PRONI for users.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.