"Who do you think you are?" Asks Northern Culture Minister

The website features many new additions including tools to help research family and local history, look after your own personal archives including family photographs and documents, and information on private archives giving overviews and historical backgrounds.

At the launch of the new website, Culture Minister, Edwin Poots MLA noted that it contained "many fascinating records" which could previously only be "accessed by visiting the headquarters in person."

"Now, people from across the globe can view our records on line and trace their family and local history," he continued. 

"Researching your family history is more popular than ever, especially among the international audience.  The current website received almost four million page views in 06/07 from visitors as far away as the USA, Bermuda and Japan and the potential for this new and improved website to attract an even bigger audience is immense.

"If you've been intending to look up your family's history, why not kick start the new year by searching through the records kept by PRONI and perhaps you'll learn something new about yourself and your past!"

The new website also features the wills of over 148,000 people across the North, including the Titanic's chief designer, Thomas Andrews and Belfast architect Charles Lanyon, who designed Queen's University.

The index to wills, dating from 1858 to 1900 details the wills of people from all walks of life including farmers, labourers, grocers, blacksmiths, innkeepers and watchmakers.