County Londonderry, Ireland Genealogy
Guide to County Londonderry ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.
| County Londonderry (Derry) Wiki Topics | |
 | |
| Beginning Research | |
| County Londonderry Record Types | |
| Historic Ireland (pre-1922) Wiki Topics | |
| Record Types | |
| Northern Ireland (post-1922) Wiki Topics | |
| Record Types | |
| Ireland Background | |
| Local Research Resources | |
Contents
History[edit | edit source]
County Londonderry or County Derry that was formerly County Coleraine until 1613, is a county in Northern Ireland and in the the province of Ulster. The main settlement is the city of Derry/Londonderry. The name over the past century has become contentious, with Irish nationalists seeking to remove "London" from the county and city name and unionists opposing this.
The county was founded in 1613 as part of the Plantation of Ulster by King James I of England, and twelve London guilds were contracted to develop it and also to rebuild the settlement of Derry. In recognition of their work, King James I named the new city and county after the London companies by adding the prefix "London" to "Derry".
Since the plantation, whilst the short form Derry was very commonly used over the centuries by all sides, in the past century Irish nationalists polticised the issue by trying to have "London" officially removed from the name.
Regardless of this controversy, many documents of genealogical value make use of either Londonderry and its short form Derry without any political connotations.
The population of County Londonderry is roughly 247,132 people.[1]
General County Research Information[edit | edit source]
Further information about County Londonderry is available at the GenUKI site.
Civil Jurisdictions and Parish Research Information[edit | edit source]
A map of the Civil Parishes of County Londonderry is available at Irish Times site.
Census substitutes[edit | edit source]
Abstracts of "The Muster Roll of the County of London Derry 1630," and the 1663 Hearth Tax of the City of Londonderry and its Liberties have been published and are available for free online:
- Mervine, William M. "The Men of Londonderry in 1630 and 1663," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 38 (1914):355-372. For free online access, see WeRelate.
Online Census Records[edit | edit source]
- 1901 - Ireland Census, 1901 at FamilySearch — index
- 1911 - Ireland Census, 1911 at FamilySearch — index
Church records[edit | edit source]
Please add information on county Londonderry about Church records
- Baptist
- Church of Ireland
- Methodist
- Presbyterian
- Roman Catholic - Daly, Edward. (former Bishop of Derry) Derry Diocesan Archive. The bulk of materials in this Archive relates to the latter half of the 20th Century. Each item has been read, catalogued with several subject headings, date, description, names of persons involved, subject matter and stored archivally. Article covers years 1846-1997. Article is to be found in Journal. Irish Archives: Journal of the Irish Society for Archives.Family History Library Ref. 941.5 B2ia vol. 12, year 2005-2006, page 10-11.
Online Records
- 1623-1866 - Ireland, Diocesan and Prerogative Marriage License Bonds Indexes, 1623-1866 at FamilySearch — index
- 1642-1703 - Ireland, the Register of Derry Cathedral, 1642-1703 at FamilySearch — index, images available at FindMyPast
- 1701-1845 - Ireland, Catholic Qualification & Convert Rolls, 1701-1845 at FamilySearch — index and images
Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
- 1845-1913 - Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913 at FamilySearch — index and images
- 1845-1958 - Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958 at FamilySearch — index and images
Directories[edit | edit source]
- 1880 - Ireland, Thom's Irish Almanac, 1880 at FamilySearch — index, images available on FindMyPast
- 1884 - Ireland, Thom's Irish Almanac & Official Directory 1884 at FamilySearch — index and images
Land and Property[edit | edit source]
- 1831 - 1856 - Ireland, Valuation Office Books, 1831-1856 at FamilySearch — index and images
Maps[edit | edit source]
1885 County Map: Courtesy of London Ancestor
Military[edit | edit source]
- 1914-1918 - Ireland, Memorial Record: World War I, 1914-1918 at FamilySearch — index and images
Probate Records[edit | edit source]
- 1595-1858 - Ireland, Diocesan and Prerogative Wills & Administrations Indexes, 1595-1858 at FamilySearch — index
Websites[edit | edit source]
- FHLFavorites.info for some great sites.
- The Londonderry, Northern IrelandGenWeb Project
- RootsChat Derry (Londonderry) Resources and Help pages. (Free).
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Wikipedia Collaborators, "County Londonderry ," In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Londonderry. Visited 21 October 2017.
