Banbridge, home to the Star of the County Down, is, relatively speaking, quite a young town. The town grew up around the site where the main road from Belfast to Dublin crossed the Bann over an Old Bridge which was situated where the present bridge now stands.

The town owed its success to flax and the linen industry, becoming by 1772 the principal linen producing district in Ireland with a total of 26 bleachgreens along the Bann.

Banbridge Genealogy Services was set up about twelve years ago by Banbridge & District Historical Society to index old "Banbridge Chronicles" between the periods 1870 - 1890. It was soon decided to begin indexing birth, marriage and death records for the South Down area (Banbridge, Newry & Mourne, Downpatrick) as it was noticed that visitors to the area were coming specifically to trace their ancestors.

Banbridge Genealogy Services Premises in Banbridge

Records were obtained from the Registrar General's Office and from various churches in the locality, the majority dating from the mid-1800s, though some going back to the late 1700s.

In total there were some 750 000 records indexed involving hundreds of man hours, each record having to be entered manually on the computer.