Welcome to the Ballymoney Genealogy Blog

I'm an historian in Durban specialising in the Siege & Relief of Ladysmith KZN and during my 14 years of research I have built up a database(not on the website) of ALL known British dead, over 25,000 names, for the WHOLE war, not just Ladysmith. I have recently added a column for memorials as I believe that a man giving his life for his country deserves to be mentioned somewhere.

If you're looking for a lost relative that died in this war they are welcome to contact me with what information they have and I'll search my database, free of charge.

Regards
Brian Kaighin

Visit our website at www.ladysmithhistory.com

Come and join Ballymoney Museum staff as they lead a guided walk around the town centre. Hear the fascinating history of this ancient settlement and look at buildings of historic interest.

Contrary to what has been previously been published, the first scheduled walk will not take place on Thursday 3rd July. However the other dates will take place as scheduled: 17th July, 31st July, 14th August, and 4th September.

All walks are free of charge and will take place from 11.45am – 12.30pm, starting from Ballymoney Town Hall.

These walks are organised by Ballymoney Borough Council Cultural Services. For further details contact Tourist Information on tel: 028 2766 0230.

Ballymoney Borough Arts Committee and Ballymoney Museum regretfully announce that the tour of Balnamore Mill, scheduled to take place on Tuesday 24th June has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

It is hoped that the tour will be rescheduled for later in the year. Watch press for further details.

The next tour in the series will take place as planned on Thursday 24 July and features buildings and sites of historic interest in the Kilraughts area. This will be followed on 19 August with a visit to places of historic interest in the Dunloy area. Both of these tours will be led by local historian S Alex Blair.

For both of these tours, the bus will depart from Townhead Street Car Park, Ballymoney at 6.30pm returning between 9.00 and 9.30pm. Tickets are £5 and include refreshments, which will be served at the end of the tour in Ballymoney Town Hall. Numbers are limited to 30 so booking is advisable. Tickets are available from Tourist Information, Ballymoney Town Hall Telephone 028 2766 0230.

Ballymoneyancestry.com is considering establishing a database of suitably qualified researchers who would provide an research service to those users of the site who require additional significant and detailed research to be carried out on their behalf. Unfortunately neither ballymoneyancestry.com nor Council are not in a position to carry out this research.

There are an absolute myriad of hobby and professional genealogy researchers throughout Ireland who would only be too happy to take on commissions from interested parties to conduct research on their behalf. However we have no way of being able to assess the competence or skills of many of these.

Consequently we have consulted the National Library of Ireland’s commissioning website and have drawn up a list of potential researchers which we have invited to consider being listed on ballymoneyancestry.com.

So if you are interested in having some further and perhaps more detailed research carried out on your behalf and information provided which cannot be sourced through either Ancestry Forum or the BLOG, then watch this space for further details on who to contact and how they might be able to help you.

By way of trying to get some idea of the likely uptake of such a service we are keen to find out from users if this is the type of additional research facility which they would use. Consequently we would be interested to hear from you if you have already, or would consider using this service once it becomes available. We would be delighted if you would, without obligation, let us know by e-mailing us on feedback@ballymoneyancestry.com or responding via this BLOG site

Please note however: www.ballymoneyancestry.com would wish users to note that we are not recommending or commending any of the individuals which may be listed, rather the names are provided for information purposes only. Likewise ballymoneyancestry.com cannot become involved in any way with whatever arrangements may be entered into between the user and the researcher.

As regular visitors to the site will know, in the summer of last year we uploaded a redeveloped ballymoneyancestry.com site which, not only conforms with the latest internet security technologies and government accessibility legislation but which we hope is a more aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly site. The new platform on which the site is built gives us much more control of the look, feel and functionality of the site which in turn means that it is easier for you to access the information you are seeking and for us to respond to your feedback.
At the outset however a number of regular users identified some specific difficulties accessing certain aspects of the site and in participating in the discussions on Ancestry forum.
However following invaluable assistance from these members, in the form of detailed explanations of the difficulties encountered, our webmaster has been able to address all the issues identified and has resolved the problems.
The past few months have provided us with an excellent opportunity to test out the resolutions and no further problems appear to have been encountered. Consequently we now believe that the site is operating to its expected high level of performance and we trust that both regular users, and those accessing the site on an ad hoc basis, now enjoy engaging with our state of the art site containing significant amounts of highly sought after invaluable historical data on Ballymoney and the surrounding area.
However should you come across any other problems with the site or have identified any features which you feel could be improved please email feedback@ballymoneyancestry.com regarding the matter. By including in your email the address of pages concerned, details of the problems you are having, screen images (if possible) and error descriptions this will mean that we can quickly and effectively resolve any issues that you find.
We are still one of the few free genealogy websites available we are continually striving to make our site more accessible and to improve security.
Thank you for your patience and your feedback to date, we look forward to hearing from you again in the future.