Benefits of Membership

Why join the North of Ireland Family History Society?

Joining the Northern Ireland Family History Society means becoming part of a friendly, supportive community of people who share your interest in family history. Our nine Branches can provide invaluable local knowledge and whether you’re just starting out or have been researching for years, the Society will provide help and insights that you just won’t find anywhere else.

Members receive advance notice of upcoming courses and events giving them priority booking.

Research Centre

Our dedicated Research Centre, just north of Belfast is packed with books, transcriptions, maps and records. Some of the niche records we hold may very well help you to break down that brick wall! Members may request to visit outside of normal opening hours.

Look Up Service

As a Member, you can use the free Look Up Service if you cannot attend the Research Centre in person. You can request a Look Up for any indexed record.

Branch Meetings

You may attend monthly meetings of all Branches, most of which feature an interesting presentation given by a guest speaker.

Special Interest Groups

All Members are welcome to join our Special Interest Groups.

Our DNA group offers hints and tips, talks about news from the wider DNA world and helps its members to solve DNA issues. The group isn’t designed as an introduction to DNA so it’s best suited to those who already understand the basics and want to deepen their knowledge or explore more advanced topics.

Writing Family History Memories – Moving beyond names and dates into story-based writing to engage the next Generation using creative approaches

Profile Forms

Members may have your Research Interests and Queries listed in the Members’ Area of our website and in our Newsletter. Find other Members with the same interests and get in touch with them.

Ancestors Charts and Family Trees  

Members are invited to submit a Record of Ancestors Chart, which will be added to the Members’ Area of our website. Find other Members who potentially share the same ancestors and get in touch with them. Members may also submit their family tree which are made available at the Society Research Centre.

E-newsletter

The Society e-newsletter is emailed regularly to all Members and contains news about upcoming events, Society activities, updates on branch initiatives such as ongoing DNA projects and much, much more!

North Irish Roots

The Society Journal “North Irish Roots” is packed with articles, resources and stories about a multitude of family history related subjects.

It is published twice a year, usually in the spring and late autumn and is posted to those Members whose membership is current at the cut-off date for its publication.  (Joint members receive one copy between them).

A searchable digitised index of all past issues has been created to make it easy for you to locate articles of specific interest to you.

JSTOR

You have free access to the online JSTOR Ireland Collection of many digitised journals, including back issues of the Society’s Journal “North Irish Roots”.

Essay Competition

This competition is held every two years and run by the Belfast Branch. Members can enter a short essay based on a specified subject and be in to win a cash prize. Winning entries are published in North Irish Roots.

Volunteer

You do not need to be local to volunteer with the Society – lots of overseas Members take part too. There are lots of opportunities so find one that interests you and join the team!

Just two examples of ways you could get involved:

• Take part in the various DNA Projects run by the Society and some branches. Get involved with recording information or analysing data and learn lots along the way.
• Join our Transcribing and Indexing Projects and help us to make even more information available to our members.

Voting Rights

Members may vote at Annual General Meetings. The Members’ Area of the website contains Management Policies and Guidelines.