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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Searching the Ulster Covenant


Nigel Marshall

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Hello all,

For those with an interest in service personnel from the north of Ireland, the Ulster Covenant is a great tool for finding home addresses, providing your subject signed the covenant that is.

The Public Record Office for Northern Ireland has had a digitised version online for a number of years now and it is full searchable.

Since my last use of it the URL has changed, so for any first time users or occasional users, here is the current address.

Search the Ulster Covenant

Cheers,

Nigel

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Can anyone add a bit of background to the difference between the Covenant (men) & the Declaration (women) - is this just down to the emancipation issue or was there more to it?

I am presuming the emancipation dates for Ulster were 1918/1928 as elsewhere?

Thanks

Brian

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As I see it, quite simply 'the way they did things then' ... males to one side, females to the other! Might sound simplistic but I don't think the overall emancipation issue had that much to do with it.

Des

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If you read the Covenant and the Declaration, the wording is different, the womens declaration supports and agrees with the men, rather than the mens erm disagreement with the govt..

Barbara..

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Guest KevinEndon

Is there any way of doing a LUCKY DIP search. On SDGW you enter A* in the surname search and you get all the A*s who died. How can I do a luck dip search for North Ayrshire please

Kevin

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You should be able to do a search by parliamentary boundaries if that is any good.

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I note one heck of a lot of guys over in North Ayrshire working at the Eglinlin iron Works!

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As I see it, quite simply 'the way they did things then' ... males to one side, females to the other! Might sound simplistic but I don't think the overall emancipation issue had that much to do with it.

Des

Des - Thanks, I suspect you're right - but I will see if I can find anything in my NI/Ulster books on the background.

Barbara - Yes, I had seen the variations in the wording.

Regards

Brian

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Guest KevinEndon
I note one heck of a lot of guys over in North Ayrshire working at the Eglinlin iron Works!

a google search doesnt bring anything up on the Eglinlin iron works but what I have is a few men on the Kilbirnie war memorial from NI who worked for the Glengarnock Steel works aka David Colleville and Sons. Can you enlighten me as to where the Eglinlin Iron Works were situated please Desmond

Kevin

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Kilwinning ... if you go on and simply use the drop down menu for North Ayrshire .. do a search and lots of boys from that foundry sign up.

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Des - Thanks, I suspect you're right - but I will see if I can find anything in my NI/Ulster books on the background.

Barbara - Yes, I had seen the variations in the wording.

Regards

Brian

I got the impression from the PRONI website that the original association with the Ulster Volunteers meant that the men were signing something that originally was intended to have quasi-military associations - and therefore, in those days, would not have been suitable for women.

David

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Quote Bpc59: Des/Kevin - It's EGLINTON that's near Kilwinning

Cheers - bad transcription - have looked at the original writing, you are, of course, correct!

Quote David Faulder: ...quasi-military associations - and therefore, in those days, would not have been suitable for women.

Covenant signing does not equate to membership of Ulster Volunteers .. now, as for the women scenario, see below:-

This is Captain Clifford Orr, SLI, KIA December 19, 1914 with the UV Nursing team, North Antrim Regt. of which he was adjutant.

Women also played role in oroginal UVs as drivers etc. In a way you could say they were ahead of their time in those terms!

post-1582-1233348059.jpg

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David,

Amazing, even the PRONI can't get it right, in the link you provided it says the Ulster Volunteer Force were formed in January 1912,

It was January 1913.

Another slight misleading belief is that you had to have signed the Covenant to be a member of the UVF. Not true!

I have some enlistment papers for the Antrim UVF where they clearly state 'I did not sign the Covenant'.

Can't find my grandfather's signature either, although his parents, brothers, sisters did sign and he was a member of the Derry City UVF.

There was no direct tie between the Covenant and the UVF, although they basically stood for the same thing. Big cross over of personnel of course.

I believe the only difference between the mens and womens signing was old fashioned etiquette.

Men pledging to fight and their ladies to support them.

In fact the Covenant was quite a unique document in the British Isles.

There was no class/gender distinction, at a time when the vote was restricted. You will find the signatures of landed gentry on the same sheet as their estate workers, social status made no difference, you were still eligble to have your say.

Good bit of PR overall.

Rob

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