90k wills from 1858 to 1900 now available online

Culture Minister Nelson McCausland revealed a grand total of 93,388 images of wills have been released by the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI).

He was responding to a question from Foyle SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey who wanted an update on PRONI's efforts to digitise and publish online the three district probate registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry from 1858 to 1900.

The Minister said the latest development was the launch of PRONI's new will calendar resource.

"In total, 93,388 will images have now been made available for the three district probate registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry for 1858 to 1900," he said.

"That is one of two digital resources that PRONI has made available in recent weeks. The other is a series of wedding images that PRONI launched on the social networking site Flickr, and I direct the Member to www.proni.gov.uk, where he can search and browse both new applications from the comfort of his own home, as well as the many other online resources that PRONI provides."

The Minister said he wanted to make more online resources available and singled out for special mention Northern Ireland Screen's digital film archive, which he said contained over 70 hours of material from Northern Ireland's past and is accessible in 19 locations.

"Northern Ireland Screen also provides regular outreach presentations to display the archive to older people's groups, historical societies, community groups and schools," he stated.

Mr Ramsey further queried: "Given the interest from the community groups that the Minister named, and also from students, will online access be free to all those users?"

Mr McCausland replied: "If the Member is referring to the digital film archive, it is available at 19 locations.

The will resource is available, and my understanding is that it is free. I will confirm that with the Member."