Northern Province, Sri Lanka Genealogy

Guide to Northern Province family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

History
Parts of present-day Northern Province were part of the pre-colonial Jaffna kingdom. Other parts were ruled by Vanniar Chieftains who paid tribute to the Jaffna kingdom. The province then came under Portuguese, Dutch and British control and in 1815 the British gained control of the entire island of Ceylon. On 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and  the North-East Province was born. On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect.The North-East Province was formally de-merged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007.