About this Project

This initiative was originally set up to provide a platform on which to accommodate clear and easy access to the local social, genealogical and environmental history and development of the Doagh area. In doing so, it was hoped that it would provide a means of recording for posterity the many stories, memories, documents and photographs still available but in imminent danger of being lost forever with the passing of generations. The implementation of the project was discussed at a public meeting in Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Mossley Mill and later at a meeting of the group, now known as Doagh Village Partnership.

This body, comprising members of local community organisations, churches, education, business community and local elected representatives, was set up to drive forward the local vision identified in the Doagh Village Masterplan published in 2011. A steering group of local historians was then formed to develop the Doagh Ancestry and Townlands initiative. Through the offices of Newtownabbey Borough Council a successful application was made to the local action group, GROW South Antrim, for Rural Development Programme funding. A grant of 75% of the costs required to set up the Doagh Ancestry and Townlands initiative was awarded. Newtownabbey Borough Council contributed the remaining 25%.

Exhibition of work undertaken by Doagh Ancestry, 2014

The local community provided the considerable voluntary input and expertise necessary to identify the various elements involved in the process as well as to develop the programme at the crucial early stages and into its planned future development.

Historian Dr William Roulston of the Ulster Historical Foundation was appointed to encourage and guide the group, research and collate available materials, and to co-ordinate and inform the development of the website content, production of the planned booklet and exhibition materials and the placing of townland markers.

The initial project was based on a similar, successful model launched in the Bready area of County Tyrone and has proved to be ideally suited for use as an interactive resource which will be freely available to members of the local Doagh community and indeed to any other interested individuals or students of local history.

The sharing and publication of accurate historical information as well as the anecdotal and cherished memories of local community members, or of those who have moved away from the area, will preserve for future generations a knowledge and understanding of their own heritage. It will also hopefully reinforce a real feeling of identity and belonging to a community which has played such a significant role in the evolution of local society.

Since the launch of the website and distribution of the booklet, ‘An Old World Place’ in 2012, there has been a growth of interest in the history of Doagh. The exhibition materials have been manned and on display throughout south-east Antrim and in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Families and individuals from countries such as Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand have visited the area in order specifically to seek the answers to questions that they may have had about the community in which their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents spent much of their lives before emigrating abroad.

Unfortunately the original website software is now out of date and is no longer compatible, therefore cannot be accessed online. The Ulster Historical Foundation team has offered an ideal solution by rebuilding the original Doagh Ancestry portal as part of its own website, providing ready access to all of the information available through the original Doagh Ancestry website. Because of this generous initiative the future of the project is now guaranteed.

Bob Adams
Chair, Doagh Ancestry and Townlands Steering Group

For assistance with the Doagh Ancestry project, we are grateful to the following individuals:

Bob Adams
Margaret Adams
Donald Alexander
Leith Burgess
Jim Cardwell
Noel Crymble
Alex Hill

Etta Mann
David McConnaughie
Annette McKee
Paul Richmond
William Roulston
Sandy Sherrard
Rev. Derek Weir