Getting in touch with your roots

LURGAN Library boasts a new information-rich computer programme to help you trace your ancestry.

The programme, Ancestry Library Edition - which is only available on computers in local libraries, allows you to search for distant relatives based on archived records.

Your search takes in birth, marriage and death records, Parish records, phone books, immigration records and census material.

Alternatively you can search through stories and publications or photos and maps.

While the archived documents are plentiful for mainland Britain and America, one of the areas where the system is lacking is information on Ireland.

It’s therefore a more beneficial tool for family tree gatherers who are seeking relatives overseas.

The search engine allows you to input surnames and first names, year of birth or death and which country the person you are looking for lived or died in.

You can fill in as few boxes as you like, however, it’s best to go armed with some level of detailed information rather than just a surname so as to narrow down search results.

From there you can preview all the documents relating to your search which are rated according to their relevance.

Ancestry Library Edition is definitely worth a look for those who are clued in to their family tree, but for the more casual family finder it could prove a tad daunting.

In terms of local history, Lurgan Library also has an impressive range of archived documents about the town collated under headings such as The Workhouse, The Linen Industry, Master McGrath and The Famine.

The majority of the documents in this section are unavailable online and as such it has become a popular reading spot within the library.

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