I paid a visit to the lovely Linenhall Library in Belfast yesterday. It is a lovely old building which evokes the distant past but I learned only a few weeks ago that it is not actually from the end of the 18th century as I had supposed. In fact, te building was a warehouse and…

I have been learning about the murder of Hugh McKee and his family at Poagsburn near Boardmills on 9th June 1798, just before the Battle of Saintfield. Much of this has been from newspapers (thank you, Find My Past), some from a publication, or a copy of it, at the Ulster Historical Foundation and some…

Very exciting visit to PRONI today. PRONI hold the “original” Griffith’s Valuation maps for Northern Ireland and a kind member of staff helped me locate the two I needed for Barnamaghery. I was delighted to see that these rather dusty very large maps with very small detail do indeed have boundaries marked in red and…

I have had a couple of days at PRONI, with another anticipated, exploring the McKees from the Boardmills area of County Down. I have established through the will of a James McKee, proven in 1937, a connection between John Jackson McKee and the McKees of Poagsburn, and since then have been delving into the parish…

The Hanlon page now includes a Newry Reporter account of the funeral of John Hanlon in March 1935, taken from Find My Past.

Well, there I was working happily on the Jacksons, making progress with my research and adding information to the Jackson page when I noted a little detail on a wedding certificate. When John Jackson McKee married in 1926 he named his father as Hugh Graham McKee. No document shows this middle name for him but…

I have started to publish information on the Jacksons of Barnamaghery and thereabouts. If you are connected or have information you would like to share please do send me an email. I was disappointed not to learn in time of a meeting of the Crossgar Historical Society a few weeks back as it was to…

I had an interesting day at PRONI today. I spent my time researching mum’s Gibson and Coughran/Cochrane ancestors using the records for Loughgilly parish in County Armagh. This included the dreaded microfilm reader but also the computer to browse documents available to view for specific townlands and also to locate actual documents which I then…

I was shocked and saddened to read of the death last month of Peter Calver. Peter was a genealogist who ran the Lost Cousins website for many years and provided interesting newsletters with stories, offers of discounts and tips which were tremendously valuable to amateurs like myself. It honestly had not occurred to me that…

I know I’ve been inactive for a good while but I had my reasons. I now have my long awaited outdoor office so there is space to pursue my hobbies. Unfortunately genealogy will still be sharing brain and eye time with wargaming so I won’t be at this full time. I have been conducting research…