Church Records

Because the civil registration of births deaths and marriages did not take place before the second half of the nineteenth century it is necessary to search church records for details of baptisms, burials and marriages. And, even after 1864 when civil registration of births, etc. was compulsory it is often easier, and cheaper, to use the church registers of baptims, burial and marriages to find information on particular persons and families.

The most recent church registers are, understandably, still in the custody of local churches. Anyhow, these are probably not the registers you would wish to consult. Many of the earlier registers for the nine counties of Ulster have been microfilmed by PRONI and there is a published guide to Church Records which will tell you what is available for a particular parish. The guide is organised alphabetically by civil parish and within each civil parish the churches are arranged alphabetically by denomination which are in turn arranged alphabetically.

I have databased the records listed in the PRONI Guide for the civil parishes in North Antrim - see map. Before using this database - read more.

Note that the details of the Church of Ireland records and most of the Roman Catholic records for North Antrim have been entered in the UHF database of births for Co. Antrim - see below for a list.

Church of Ireland - Ballymoney, Ballywillin, Finvoy and Layde [Cushendall].

Roman Catholic - Armoy, Ballintoy, Ballycastle [Ramoan], Ballymoney & Derrykeighan, Culfeightrin, Cushendall, Cushendun, Dunloy & Cloughmills, Glenariffe, Loughguile, Rasharkin and Rathlin.

Note that, at the moment,  there are no Presbyterian births in the database.