Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

Kafka was an optimist, genealogy is difficult for reasons you don't expect

I've had surprisingly uneven experiences with archives in doing family history. The historical society in my hometown was helpful and well organized, while a major city public library where my ancesto...

Good but could be better

Today (22 November 2023) was my first time in the Public Records Office. It can be quite intimidating and overwhelming going into a place like this. I had been meaning to go there for some time and to...

A historical jewel of an archive

I spend two days here recently, and wish it could have been more! Not just because I discovered my inner archive nerd, but really because of the quality of the staff and the building. Such a wonderfu...

For a major record office it could have been much better

I have now used all four of the major Records Offices in the UK -- The National Archives at Kew is by far the best for document retrieval and facilities, and the one for Scotland in Edinburgh undoubt...

Nice building, shame about how it works

I guess that nobody, but mostly the staff in the library, received the email about library etiquette. They must have searched high and low to find the noisiest staff with the loudest voices, babbling ...