National Records of Scotland Customer Advisory Panel meeting

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) has recently had its first Customary Advisory Panel meeting, for which Emma Maxwell from Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com) has kindly written up a brief summary of proceedings at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/national-records-scotland-listening-responding-emma-maxwell-euzwe/, as one of the attendees. I am unclear if the NRS will be publishing minutes from the meeting, although to its credit minutes from various other meetings are available to read in its Publications section at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/, the last being from a meeting in June 2025 - if so, I will share the link in due course.

Emma's post discusses how the NRS believes it not to be a "secretive organisation" and that it "wants to develop a clear strategy for change", one aspect of which is Emma's ability to actually report on the proceedings, which is definitely progressive. Following a recent survey of users carried out by Emma through her Scottish Indexes platforms, she raised the problems experienced by people turning up at the NRS's Historic Search Room without the relevant documentation to register, as well as other user issues. 

As it evolves it will be interesting to see how the remit of this new panel differs from the previous ScotlandsPeople User Group. As a user of historic records, I would be particularly interested to know what new records are being acquired by the archive, what is being catalogued, what is being digitised, what conservation issues might be underway with particular records, if there are any issues with the infrastructure preventing access to particular collections, and what partnerships the NRS might be undertaking to take its remit beyond Edinburgh. 

Fingers crossed NRS has indeed crossed into a new more open era!

* Don't forget that the next free-to-attend Scottish Indexes Conference will take on Saturday 22 November - details via the team's website.

(With thanks to Emma Maxwell) 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

National Records of Scotland seeks to create 'customer advisory panel'

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) has announced that it is seeking to create a 'customer advisory panel', with representatives from the general public. I have no idea if this is a genuine effort to become more transparent, or an effort to create a body with which it can say that something has already been run past its customer advisory panel, should further criticisms be levelled its way, but I would sincerely hope that it is the former.

From the archive's blog post at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/latest-news/customer-advisory-panel-applications-open/ the following is what they are seeking representation for:

The purpose of the panel is to give our customers the opportunity to get involved in planning and decision making at a strategic level. Panel members will also provide vital feedback to inform improvements across a wide range of services.

The panel should represent a wide range of NRS services from statistics, extract services, historical search room, archive depositing, Scotland’s Census, the Scotland’s People service and the Scottish Register of Tartans.

There are no further details as yet on how the panel would work, how frequently it would meet, or indeed where it would meet (i.e. online or at the archive). Compared to the archive's former ScotlandsPeople user group, which dealt with the platform and search room exclusively, the remit does seem much larger, and so it will be interesting to see whether concerns for the family history and academic communities will be adequately catered for. For what it is worth, the following are issues that I would wish to see it deal with:

• NRS and ScotlandsPeople search room issues
• Website issues (functionality, advance testing, new releases)
• Customer service issues 
• Archive cataloguing and deposit updates by NRS
• Key stakeholder engagement -  the general public, academia, ASGRA, SAFHS, the media, the Scottish archive sector
• Implementation of a Gaelic Language Plan (it doesn't seem to have one, unlike the National Library of Scotland). 
• How the archive plans to promote itself to the public - and not just from the comfort of Edinburgh (it is a national archive after all - the NLS can illustrate good practice here) 
• Regular publication of minutes 

This is a great opportunity for NRS to try to mend some of the reputational damage that it has endured in recent years, and I wish it the best in achieving that goal. 

The closing date for applications is August 8th 2025 - please click on the NRS blog link above for details on how to apply.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Latest news from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

It was great to finally get a chance again this morning to attend the stakeholder forum meeting of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni), the first time in months due to my recent Gaelic studies in Glasgow unfortunately clashing with recent meetings. As always, there is plenty happening in Northern Ireland's national archive, with the following some of the key recent and future developments that may be of interest to family historians.

Strategic review

Following a recent strategic review of PRONI's services and set-up, five new posts have been proposed for the archive, which will soon be advertised and filled. These include a director, deputy director, and heads of communications/marketing, outreach, and digital. Some further posts will also be advertised in support of services.

Cataloguing

Lorraine Bourke spoke about a new archive collaboration project with the Nerve Centre, which has attracted significant project funding, and which is entitled Now You're Talking. It will catalogue the papers, manuscripts, scripts and other documents relating to two men who spent a considerable amount of time in their lives collecting folklore relating to the north – Sam Hannah Bell, novelist, theatre historian, and BBC features producer, and Michael J. Murphy, who spent forty years as a folklorist who worked for the Irish Folklore Commission, and gathered stories, anecdotes, words and phrases, from almost every part of Ulster (with the exception of Donegal). Both came from different traditions on the island, but regularly corresponded with each other. Murphy's papers are being catalogued under D4642, whilst Bell's materials are being catalogued under D4643. There is also additional work being carried out beyond cataloguing to share the riches found in the collections, including a monthly blog and v-log, with entries already available via PRONI's social networks.

Also on the cataloguing front, at the next update in August over a century's worth of Church of Ireland records from Ballymacarrett will be made available on-site at PRONI. 

• 102 parish volumes and 170 magazines from St Patrick's from 1827 onwards will be accessible under CR1/122; 
• 21 volumes for St. Christopher's will be made available from 1932 onwards at CR1/141; 
• 55 volumes from 1922 onwards for St. Martin's will be available under CR1/142.

Also available both online and on-site through the catalogue will be 3000 photographs taken by Albert McAlpine of Belfast mainly documenting East Belfast life in the 20th century, but also other parts of Belfast and the island of Ireland. These have all been meticulously indexed, with the collection available under D4977.

A further set of photographs supplied by the Diocese of Down and Connor, from glass plate negatives dating from 1890-1940, will be available on-site only under DIORC/4/1. All the buildings imaged have been identified, and most of the individuals featured.

Cataloguing work also continues on the Chichester papers, concering the family from Shane's Lodge, Chichester, Co. Down. Amongst the latest work is cataloguing and digitisation of 100 glass plate negatives, which will be accessible on-site and online under D4563. 

A milestone has also been reached on the cataloguing of deposits to the archive, with catalogue number D5000 hosting papers of the Bangor Amateur Operatic Society, marking the 5000th deposit to the archive.

Catalogue 

With regards to on-site access to records, the former Calm based catalogue was finally switched off two months ago. There has unfortunately been a slight issue with its Axiell based replacement, meaning that at present the search rooms are using the eCatalogue (the version available from home), and ordering of materials is being carried out on-site on a manual basis. This is a temporary measure, with no problems currently reported, and it is hoped that the new system will come into operation in early summer at the archive. 

Opening hours 

For the rest of the financial year at PRONI, there will be Saturday opening at the archive from 10.00am-2.00pm on every first Saturday of the month, and late night opening at PRONI until 7.15pm on the third Thursday of every month (further details at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/getting-proni-and-opening-hours).

Themes 

From April of this year, and until 2026, PRONI's annual theme is Celebrating Creativity and Innovation, with various programmes in place. From July to September, a series of history of photography workshops will commence, led by PRONI's reprographics team, looking at the different types of photography since the 1840s to the present day, and featuring examples from the archive's photographic collections. There will also be some late evening and Saturday sessions on book-binding and other skills to make your research look like archive material. 

For next year, PRONI is considering a 'collection day' for people to visit the archive with interesting items, and to learn how to conserve them better, whilst plans are also in place for PRONI's next themed year, which will look at Our Place in the World, and the story of the Irish diaspora and emigration.

Plans are also in place for PRONI to help commemorate the US 250 celebrations, which will include a publication similar to the recent PRONI 100 book, and which will feature about seventy documents from the archive's collections to help tell the story of Ulster's involvement in the history of the USA.

Accreditation 

In other news, congratulations to PRONI on being re-accredited as an archive. It first gained accreditation six years ago, which has to be renewed every six years, which the archive has just completed.

New PRONI website

A new public website is being developed for PRONI, to replace the current offering which has not been signicantly updated in many years. 

Forthcoming events:

Next week at PRONI, in partnership with heritage body HERONI, there will be an on-site exhibition looking at Irish high crosses. 

On June 12th PRONI will be doing a workshop at Warrenpoint Library to talk about its work. 

On August 23rd there will be a Family History Day at PRONI in partnership with the NIFHS, with stalls and talks on-site. The archive's canteen will also be open throughout.

We also heard briefly from Martin McDowell and Ann Robinson from NIFHS, who mentioned that there will also be an Ask the Experts Day at Ulster University on June 14th, and the society's new website has also now been launched, although an on-site search engine for this is not yet available in this soft-launch phase, but will be coming soon. Further details via the website

(With thanks to PRONI's Stephen Scarth, Lorraine Bourke, and Lynsey Gillespie, and other attendees)

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

PRONI Stakeholder forum meeting notes, including the new on site PRONI catalogue

I'm just out of the latest PRONI (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni) stakeholder forum meeting, chaired by Stephen Scarth, who reflected both on current developments and on the most extraordinary year for the archive experienced in many a year, with it celebrating its centenary as Northern Ireland's national archive.

The big topical news item was a presentation by Janet Hancock on PRONI's new onsite Axiel based catalogue system, which it is hoped will be rolled out in the search room in January/February, pending some last minute tweaks. This will replace the current Calm based system, as a more modern catalogue system, with additional functionality. Some key points:

• To log in you will need to use the details on your visitor pass (which you would currently use to order up specific items to consult on site). If you arrive for the first time at PRONI and get a user pass, you should be able to access the new catalogue system straight away. I did also ask about a scenario where someone might forget to bring a pass (it's happened to me once, travelling from Scotland!), and how might someone gain access then? I was advised that that is something they will still need to look at in terms of offering full search functionality (e.g. digital records) - for the moment, just make sure you bring your pass!
• When you perform a search in the catalogue, results will be displayed with an option to view the archival hierarchy within which an item sits (i.e. the piece, the folio, etc). 
• There will be some ability to filter results - for example, to only orderable items, to digital only items, to entries that can only be viewed at a table ("Table") or those on microfilm ("Booth").
• As is the current limit, a maximum of five entries can be lifted out at a time, but once you return them a further five can be ordered, and so on. 
• If an item is already out, this will be identified.
• There is a separate "Request a Will" screen, to allow you to order up copies of historic wills on site, but this remains based on the current calendar set up from 1858-1965. (The suggested update to this calendar may still be some time off due to other pressures on PRONI just now)
  

The online PRONI catalogue will remain the same, and any updates to the onsite Axiel system will be immediately available online, within the restrictions of the online system (e.g. you can't view some digitial items online, such as church records).

From what I have seen, the new Axiel system does look considerably more user friendly, with the current Calm system being very much an archivist's catalogue. A genie colleague, Gillian Hunt, asked if this would be rolled online at any stage, and the short answer is no. Down the line it is possible that the online catalogue may well be looked at as a separate exercise, but it is not on the cards for now.   

Stephen then gave a round up of PRONI's activites this year. From the Good Friday Agreement going on tour around the Province (on loan from TNA in England), and the archive's attendance at the Balmoral Show for the first time in eight years, to centenary celebration events for both the public and staff, at which comedian Tim McGarry's description of the archive will forever go down in history (if not in this blog post, for those of a sensitive disposition!), it has been one hell of a year for PRONI. Amongst other big events there was the Archives and Records Assopciaiton (ARA) Conference at the end of August/start of September (first time in Belfast since 2007, with 300 attendees, all well filled with curry!), a first ever royal visit (from the Duke of Gloucester), and with more to come, including a carol service at PRONI next week, at which a song celebrating the archive's centenary will be performed, amongst others.

PRONI has learned a lot from this year that it intends to take forward for future themed years (and for which we had a brief preview of subjects), including the coherence of a branded programme, effective messaging to partners and paymasters, strengths and weaknesses of social media, the importance of partnerships and collaborations, and much more. There will also be a book next year looking at PRONI's one hundred years, and ongoing articles and press coverage of PRONI's activities (including a forthcoming article on the history of PRONI in the next Familia journal from the Ulster Historical Foundation, and an article by yours truly in the next edition of WDYTYA magazine). I commented that from here in Scotland, we can only look on in envy at how all of this can be done, a lesson that other facilities can easily be inspired by, and learn from in terms of best practice.    

Congratulations to PRONI, and here's to the next century! 

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Latest news from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland stakeholder forum

On Friday I attended the latest Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) stakeholder forum meeting in Belfast – it was actually held online via Zoom, but I had mistakenly assumed it was on site again, as per the last one (which I missed as I had to go to a funeral in Dublin), and ended up attending it virtually alongside Stephen Scarth, whilst on the office floor of PRONI! (A big tip of the hat here to Gavin for setting me right!). This was my first visit back to PRONI since January 2020, and it all worked like a dream, including a very quick and simple update of my Visitor's Card.

HERONI library relocation to PRONI

By far the biggest news item is the announcement that the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland, aka HERONI (https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/topics/historic-environment/historic-environment-record-northern-ireland-heroni), is relocating much of its library content to PRONI's Public Search Room in the next few months. (For those in Scotland, HERONI is NI's equivalent of Historic Environment Scotland). The plan is to essentially relocate the current PRONI microfilm area further along the search room floor, and for HERONI to then colonise that space to provide access to its own library collection.

This is not a merger of HERONI and PRONI – 15 members of HERONI's staff are due to relocate to the PRONI building, and it will be operationally independent to PRONI. HERONI has its own library catalogue, with about 10,000 publications and journals, with library holdings arranged by county and topic, and access will be via an appointments based system. There will be some work carried out in the Public Search Room to accommodate this relocation, including an extension and re-orientation of the enquiries desk on the floor. The PRONI library itself may be integrated with the HERONI offering, although this has not been confirmed yet.

HERONI staff are expected to be up and running on site by January of 2024, so this is all happening fairly quickly in the next few months. In terms of the affect on PRONI's offerings, there may be a very small reduction in the availability of computers, although this is not seen as a serious impact, with most folk now arriving with their own laptops and phones to gain internet access, not something that was necessarily the case when the premises at Titanic Quarter opened over a decade ago.  

New PRONI catalogue system

With regards to the computers on site in the Public Search Room, a new system is shortly to be rolled out on site for the PRONI catalogue. The on-site catalogue currently uses a system called 'Calm', this is to be replaced by 'Axiell Collections', a more modern set up. Some last-minute work is still ongoing to get this to optimum use for PRONI's requirements, but it is expected to have been rolled out by the end of October. The online catalogue accessible via the PRONI website, which differs in look and function (but which covers the same collections), will not be affected.

Records

On records, the latest update to the PRONI catalogue of accessible digitised images took place in August. A major offering now is the Madill Archive (D4790), with surveys, photos, drawings etc of old sailing vessels and boats from around Ireland. There is a new page on the PRONI website about the collection at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/madill-archive-project.

On private records, The Legacy of Past Family reports is now being worked on, for the Ulster Human Rights Advocacy Service, tied in with the Troubles (D4791). Work is also being carried out on records for Swift's Alley Dublin, Ireland's first Baptist church in 1653. There are 5 volumes of accounts, members lists etc, from 1698-1799.

New accessions:

• Papers of former Unionist MP for North Belfast., Stratton Mills, from 1951-2000 (CR11/1/131).
• Family papers of Jordan Reid, who lived in NI and relocated to the USA, with letter books from Pittsburgh, diaries etc, covering 1851-1951 (D4907).
• Lady Mary Peters' papers from 1973-2022 (D4919).
• The papers of SANDS, a Christian charity established in 1869, which dealt with military bases in the UK and Ireland, as well as overseas in places such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Materials include photos, glass plate negatives, minutes and more, from 1893-2023 (D4095).

Cataloguing:

• Cara Friends Archive (D4437)
• Michael J. Murphy papers – his note books, drafts, plays, etc (D4642)
• Sam Bell, broadcasting career (D4603)
• Church Registers for Donagheady have been digitised 1830-1874 (CR1/26)
• Robert Laverock, UTV career (D4825)
• East Belfast Historical Society (D4750)

Annual PRONI release:

This is in two tranches. On August 25th 2023, 2000 files were released under the 30 to 20 year rule change. The next release will be at the end of December 2023.

PRONI Review

PRONI has not had a formal review of its operation since 2004, and so a full blown review is now being carried out independently by Deloitte, which is currently carrying out a desk based exercise as a part of that, plus workshops. The purpose is to determine what PRONI does and how it helps to make lives better, etc.  

Collab Archive
(https://collabarchive.org)
The Collab Archive's current project funds continue until the end of September, trying to find new ways for volunteers to engage with PRONI's holdings. 

There have been several events, including a digitisation open day, an exercise transcribing records from the Cara Friends Collection, and two transcriptions events to do with PRONI 100 collections examples, such as vaccination registers (including from the Shankill), and passenger lists. There are two forthcoming events on September 14th (Conservations demonstration for volunteers), and on September 20th a half day conference celebrating achievements.

PRONI 100:

Stephen Scarth gave an update on the PRONI 100 years centenary celebrations, including the success of the PRONI branding for the year's events, as well as the events themselves, such as the Good Friday Agreement Conference, and the loan of a copy of the US Declaration of Independence from TNA and exhibited at PRONI. In May, PRONI went to the Balmoral Show for the first time in eight years, and the archive also successfully recently hosted the Archives and Records Association Conference in Belfast, the first time it has been in Belfast since 2007. In September there will be a half day event looking at the work of the first director of PRONI. The Depositors Day event is moving from September to February next year. There will also be a closing event for the centenary in March 2024.

As part of the centenary, PRONI partnered with Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) to make many collections online. These were third party indexes for collections already hosted on the PRONI website, but by far the most useful is the Northern Ireland, Valuation Revision Books, 1864-1933
index at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62658/, which means the Valuation Revision Books are now name searchable for the first time.

As ever, there's plenty happening in Belfast!

Also, a quick shout out to the Ulster Historical Foundation's Wiliam Roulston (pictured below) and Gillian Hunt, who I managed to catch up with yesterday, and to have lunch with. I had a great chinwag with William and former PRONI staffer Ian Montgomery over lunch, and there are some exciting things happening with the Foundation imminently, including the launch of its new website, and a forthcoming book project that William is working on which is very exciting - keep an eye out at www.ancestryireland.com, and its social media channels, for more news on these soon!

(With thanks to Stephen, Janet, and everyone else who contributed, and to William and Gillian of the Foundation)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Latest news from PRONI stakeholder forum in Belfast

On Friday I attended the latest virtual stakeholder forum meeting with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni). As usual, it's all happening in Belfast!

Cataloguing

I unfortunately missed the first few minutes due to a computer issue, but managed to arrive in time for the latest cataloguing update from Lorraine Bourke. Some highlights:

The personal papers of the Reverend Alexander Cairns of the Methodist and Congregational Churches, including diaries, letters, scrapbooks, draft sermons and more, are being catalogued.

Papers from the East Belfast Historical Society are being digitised, and will be made available under D4750 by the end of this month.

Some further church records being worked on (with catalogue numbers, which may not be live yet):

• Derryvullan North in Co. Fermanagh, CR1/37
• Seagoe Parish Church, Co. Armagh, including some transcribed materials going back to 1660, CR1/49
• Annalong parish church, Co. Down, including burials from 1857 onwards, CR1/12/1
• Donaghcloney vestry records from 1872, CR1/103/4/1
• 3 notebooks of births, baptisms etc from Downpatrick Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church
• Athlone Baptist, marriages and minutes, CR11/1/5

Materials from the recently completed Colab project (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/06/latest-news-and-developments-from-proni.html) will be added to the PRONI catalogue under D4844.

Transcriptions of some interviews and photos by Marcus Patton, as part of his architectural history PhD of buildings in Northern Ireland from 1945 onwards, will be available on site under D4831.

A thousand glass plate negatives from Galgorm Castle will appear under D3027/8/C/1-3 for on site access. A hundred images from this are currently on display at the Braid Museum in Ballymena (http://www.thebraid.com/museum.aspx), until February 4th ; from Feb 20th-April 7th they will appear in an exhibition at PRONI itself.

Ailbhe Nic Lochlainn then informed us of progress on the cataloguing of the papers of Irish language body the Ultach Trust (Ulster Language, Traditions And Cultural Heritage; aka Iontabhas Ultach). There are 120 boxes of papers, and for the first time PRONI will be providing bilingual catalogue entries for these in both Irish and English. (I'm delighted to see the trust's papers will be available; many years ago I interviewed its late leader Aodán Mac Póilin for a student documentary I made in Bristol about the language, and am glad to see it is still thriving in its work).

We also heard from Lucy Wray about the Madill Archive Project, looking at the maritime archaeology work of Harry Madill who has been studying Irish traditional boats across the island of Ireland (and influences from them extending to Newfoundland, the USA and New Zealand). The work includes 33 surveys of traditional boats, research notes, 4500 photos and more. There are 9 interviews being transcribed from this, some 25 hours of recordings, available soon in 2023. Catalogued under D4790.

2022 annual release records 

Stephen Scarth paid tribute to the late Dr. Eamonn Phoenix before we were briefed on the current sensitivity review from records being released shortly from 1999 under the 20 years rule. 512 files are being released unredacted, 220 will have some redactions, with a further 29 remaining fully closed (mainly for personal data reasons). Issues discussed include devolution, the North-South implementation body, the Belfast to Dublin rail link and military property. The National Archives of Ireland is also doing a major release from the same period (see https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/annual-release-of-state-records-2022/).

Other snippets

Janet Hancock advised that late night opening on a Thursday will likely return in the new year, but not to the extent that it previously was – it will be likely just an hour or two extension on the main opening time, tbc.

There will be an event on June 22nd 2023 commemorating PRONI's centenary.

PRONI will also be at the Balmoral Show in May 2023.

PRONI is continuing its involvement with Beyond 2022 and the Virtual Records Treasury project.

PRONI will be hosting a 'Disability on the Record' exhibition, showing how language has changed across times with regards to disability issues, how far society has come, and how far it still has to go.

PRONI's Reading Room is closed this week for the annual Preservation Week, although the Public Search Room will remain open.

The four machines in the Public Search Room offering access to GRONI's Geni service need to be replaced, the machines have been ordered but have not yet arrived. There are also new TV screens on order for the documents ordering system.

Events Jan-Mar 2023

• Jan 26th 2023: Holocaust Memorial Day – Eve Kugler, Story of a Holocaust Survivor, 11am. (On site)
• Feb 16th 2023: Ulster Society of Irish Historical Studies, Annie Tindley (Newcastle University), 7pm. (On site)
• Feb 23rd 2023: Mary Alice Young Launch Exhibition. (On site)
• Mar 8th 2023: Western Front Association, Dr Tim Bowman, the Disbandment of the Southern Irish Regiments (Zoom)
• Mar 9th 2023: Ulster Society of Irish Historical Studies, Bronagh McShane (National University of Ireland), 7pm (Zoom)
• Mar 23rd 2023: 'A Tale of Three Books : Explorations in Belfast's Art History 1760-1888' by Eileen Black, 1pm. (On site)
• Mar 29th or 30th 2023: (TBC) Anniversary of Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement, Conference focusing on records, resources, accounts & publications. (On site)

Finally, Roddy Hegarty, Director at the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library & Archive (www.ofiaich.ie), informed us that there will be a conference event in April 2023 commemorating the birth in 1922 of the Cardinal.

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.