Down Genealogy Tours
My Ireland Heritage find your Ancestors and exact house location from the 1700’s to the late 1800’s, and all available records in Ireland. We are an Irish family business dedicated to assisting you in your Irish Genealogy research for your roots and records of your family history of past generations in Down, as well as providing you with a once in a lifetime Irish Genealogy tour experience to visit your families original family house and Walk in the Footsteps of your Irish Ancestors.
Sean and the Team at My Ireland Heritage are a Government certified & approved Genealogy & Touring Company, and will personally guide you on the journey into your Irish ancestry to any County in Ireland.
Many companies are genealogy research only, many companies are touring companies only, we at My Ireland Family Heritage are proud to be able to encompass your research and tour together enabling us to work with you throughout the process to customize your tour with you and for you. To achieve a full genealogy tour experience consider adding one of our one-day historical tours.
Our Tours
Our Ancestral Townland Experience Tours
County Down pairs a strong Plantation-era Presbyterian and Church of Ireland heritage with older Gaelic roots, all set against a landscape of the Mourne Mountains, Strangford Lough and the fertile farmland in between. It shares Belfast with neighbouring Antrim and has long been one of Ulster’s more prosperous farming counties, which shows in the density and quality of its surviving parish and estate records compared to some of its neighbours.
Down’s tradition of strong local record-keeping is a real asset for research, but it also means there’s often more than one likely source to check, church registers, estate rentals, gravestone inscriptions, before we can say with confidence which specific townland and family we’re dealing with. We work through these in sequence, always aiming to move past the civil parish named on an official document to the actual congregation and graveyard your ancestors used day to day.
A tour of County Down can take in the dramatic Mourne coastline, the quiet lanes around Strangford Lough, and market towns like Downpatrick, closing with a visit to your own family’s townland. For descendants of Down emigrants, walking that same ground, fields their ancestors farmed, a church their family attended for generations, is often the most meaningful part of the whole trip.
- Down has 12 Baronies
- Down has 78 Civil Parishes
- Down has 0 Electoral Divisions
- Down has 1278 Townlands
- Down has 2 sub townlands
County Down is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the southeast shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,448 km² (945 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 531,665. It is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland and is within the province of Ulster.
It borders County Antrim to the north and the Irish Sea to the east and south. The largest town is Bangor, on the northeast coast. Three other large towns and cities are on its border: Newry lies on the western border with County Armagh, while Lisburn and Belfast lie on the northern border with County Antrim.
The Irish Celtic Tribes By Ptolemy 1st Century 500BC-500AD
- County Down – The Darinoi & The Woluntioi
Family Dynasties 1500-1600 AD
- Irish – O’Neill,O’Hanlon,Magennis,McCartan
- Norman- De Courcey,Savage,Walsh
- Scottish -MacSweeney
- Viking – None
County Down- Things to do and may be possible to include within your Ancestral Townland Experience Tour
- Irelands Ancient East
- Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
- Tolly more Forest park
- Mount Stewart House
- Titanic Exhibition
- Down cathedral and St Patricks, St Columba’s & St Bridget’s Grave
- Bangor Castle and Walled Gardens
- Castle Ward
Frequently Asked Questions
Does County Down have particularly good genealogical records?
Generally yes, Down has a strong tradition of church and estate record-keeping, though this means careful cross-checking is still needed to identify the correct source for your specific family.
Can you trace ancestors connected to the Strangford Lough area?
Yes, we regularly research families from around Strangford Lough and the wider Ards Peninsula and Lecale areas.
My family was Presbyterian in Down, is that a common background here?
Very much so. Down has a substantial Presbyterian heritage from the Plantation period onward, and we’re well versed in tracking down the relevant congregational records.
