Visit Belfast

Lyn Mc

I plan to visit Belfast in 2025. I cannot find any online records for my ancestors. I would like to contact a local LDS FH consultant in Belfast to guide me and offer suggestions. My ancestors Robert MARTIN and Jane BRUCE left Belfast around 1840 to serve with the military in India. From there they went to Australia. Looking for suggestions of how to make the most of a visit to PRONI.

John Curran

@Lyn Mc

You will enjoy visiting Belfast. Beautiful city. I was born there and thus know it well.

You do have quite a challenge on your hands finding records of your ancestors, given the dates you are interested in. Civil birth records did not commence in Ireland until 1864, thus well after Robert MARTIN and Jane BRUCE would have been born. So, there will be no birth records to find.

Given their names, I would assume they were Protestant. That can help with some marriage records, as Civil marriage records for those in the Church of Ireland commenced in 1846 (Civil marriage records for Catholics and other faiths commenced in 1864). However, again that is after the couple left Ireland. So, there will be no Civil marriage record to find.

Parish Church records are where you would have to go in looking for both baptismal and marriage records. These can be of vary variable quality, both in readability and in the level of information they contain. Additionally, many have not survived until the present day.

I would suggest your best approach would to be armed with as much information as possible about the couple. Do you know where in Belfast they lived? Where they got married? Names of any relatives? What particular religious faith they followed? These will all help you narrow down your search.

One potential opportunity is with their British Army records. The British Army were particularly good at keeping records. I am no expert on these, but if they did marry when Robert was serving in the army, I believe he would have had to get formal permission from his commanding officer to marry. Records of this may be findable and could contain parents' names. Additionally, his service records will likely detail his home address and details of next-of-kin, who may have been his father or mother before marriage. This next -of-kin data should list name and address of the person.

Having gathered this information before arriving in Belfast could be of great benefit to you. If there are addresses, you may be able to visit those same locations.