School Records

From the nineteenth century onwards going to school became more universal for children. The result is that there is often a record of children in the School Registers. The earliest registers date from the 1850s and record the full name of the pupil, date of birth (or age of entry), religion, father’s address and occupation (but unfortunately not his name) plus other details such as  academic progress and, sometimes, a comment on where the children went to work after leaving school or if they emigrated.

The availability of registers, both in terms of date and place, can be patchy. However, as a general rule, the later the register you are looking for, the better the chance of success.

PRONI holds a vast collection of school records. These are listed alphabetically in a Guide to Educational Records, available on the shelves of the Public Search Room in PRONI

There are quite a few school records available for the Ballymoney area and some of these can be accessed through the Ballymoney Ancestry site. As you can see below I found my grandfather in Seacon School, the same school that I attended.

Here is a photograph of the school today. It is now part of the outbuildings on a farm. When I was at school the farm belonged to the Hanna Family and Mrs Hanna also had a shop beside the school.

Here is a photograph of the pupils who attended the school in the late 1940s. The teacher in the photograph is Mrs Morrison.