Memorial searches are available by selecting Registry of Deeds from the Services menu.
If you know the memorial number/reference you are looking for, this will be sufficient to carry out the search. If a memorial number is supplied, any party or property details will not be used in the search.
If you do not have the memorial number/reference, you can search using the party details, or the property details, or a combination of both.
If your search based on party and/or property details does not return any results, you will still be charged for the search (you will be advised upon checkout that your search returns 'Less than 5 results'). You will be advised of this on the Search screen, and will be offered a Certificate of Search verifying that you obtained zero results.
Using property details
- Property details can consist of property number or name, street, town, townland, barony or postcode. If you do not select a county for the search, the search will include all counties by default. If you do not have complete property details or are not sure that the details are fully accurate, you can use a wild card in your search.
- Postcode details have not always been included in Registry of Deed updates, therefore it may be advisable to use Street names/Building numbers instead.
- If you are unsure of the exact format of the property details you wish to use, you can use a wild card to force the computer to examine a wider range of possibilities. When entered as part of property details, the character % is interpreted as representing any character or group of characters including a space or spaces, or the absence of any characters.
- Remember that a wild card may make your search too vague, and may lead to a very high number of matches
- Place names may include an apostrophe (e.g. Helen's Bay). Apostrophes would normally be included in the computer record, but in some cases, they may have been omitted (e.g. Helens Bay). If you enter Helen's Bay and the property has been recorded as Helens Bay, you will not find the property. Entering Helen%s Bay would find both possible entries.
- If you have only part of the property details, try a wild card. For example, to look for house number 102 in either 'Church Street' or 'Church Road', entering 102 Church % would find that house number in both streets. BUT entering such a common street name in this form is likely to result in too many matches unless other items, such as house number and town, are included in the search.
- Use a wild card to look for a property with a name but no number, as names can be written in different ways. A nursing home called "Abbey Park", might be recorded as any of the following: Abbey Park, Abbey Park Private Nursing Home, Abbey Park (Private Nursing Home), Abbey Park Nursing Home, The Abbey Park Private Nursing Home. Searching for Abbey Park % would find all of these versions except the last one. Searching for % Abbey Park % would find the last version too.
Using party details
- Party Role: Select either Grantor (the party that executed a deed to pass a legal interest) or Grantee (the party to a deed to whom a legal interest has passed). If you are unsure of the party role of the name being searched, it is advisable to select 'All'.
- Party: You have a choice of entering a 'full name' of a person/organisation/department/lender, or of supplying a surname (which can be used alone or which can be accompanied by a list of possible forenames). The wildcard character % can be used if there is any ambiguity in the party name e.g. SM%TH will search for parties SMITH and SMYTH.
- Using the 'full name' field: you can enter the name manually, using '%' as a wildcard to replace any characters. You can also choose to select from a list of commonly used party names (such as lenders, government departments, local authorities etc).
- When you have selected/entered the name, you can also use the option to 'View other suggested names for this search'. This option takes the name have selected/entered and finds other names that might have been used instead when the Registry was updated:
You can then select/deselect any number of those suggested names for inclusion in the search.
Using the 'surname' field: allows you to search for all memorials listed against a specific surname (by leaving the forename field blank), using '%' as a wildcard to replace any characters. Example: entering 'Jackson' will search for all memorials associated with that surname, regardless of the first name or initials, such as A JACKSON, DAVID JACKSON, S A JACKSON etc.
You can also choose to narrow the surname search by supplying one or more forenames. Again, '%' can be used as a wildcard to replace any characters .
County: Note that if the search affects property which is in the vicinity of a County boundary (for example, a property on the northern outskirts of Belfast may be registered with a County definition of either Belfast County Borough or Antrim), it would be advisable to select both counties. If you do not select a county, the search will include all counties by default.
Deed Type: You can opt to search all deed types, limit your search to Matrimonial Charges only, or create a custom list of deeds to include. The drop-down list contains two options - 'All' or 'Matrimonial Charge. Unless you are absolutely certain that the Deed type being searched for is a 'Matrimonial Charge', you should select 'All'.
To exclude certain deed types from your search, select from the various checkboxes shown under 'Exclude the following deed types from the search'.
Date of: By default, the search will be based on 'Registration', the date on which the deed was registered in the Registry of Deeds. If you know the date shown on the deed, change this value to look for the 'Date of Instrument'
Date range: The date fields will show the earliest and latest dates available for searching, but you can narrow these to restrict your search results.