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Ireland Antrim  Belfast

Ireland Belfast

Guide to Belfast history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
The name Belfast is derived from the Irish Béal Feirsde, which was later spelt Béal Feirste. The word béal means "mouth" or "rivermouth" while feirsde/feirste is the genitive singular of fearsaid and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river's mouth.

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant's Ring, a 5,000-year-old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills.

Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century which was initially settled by Protestant English and Scottish migrants at the time of the Plantation of Ulster.

Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries and became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers.

In 1920–22, Belfast became the capital of the new entity of Northern Ireland as the island of Ireland was partitioned. The accompanying conflict (the Irish War of Independence) cost up to 500 lives in Belfast, the bloodiest sectarian strife in the city until the Troubles of the late 1960s onward. Belfast saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups formed on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout the Troubles. The Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs within the confines of Belfast city center in 1972, on what is known as "Bloody Friday", killing eleven people. In all, over 1,600 people were killed in political violence in the city between 1969 and 2001.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Belfast has 3 active cemeteries, plus manages 5 graveyards that are not now in use. The following website from the Belfast City Council provides basic information on all these units.


 * Belfast City Council Cemetery link

Additionally there is one other cemetery that is not used today. It is the Milltown cemetery. The following links can help for this cemetery:


 * Ancestry.com: Milltown Cemetery


 * findagrave.com: Milltown Cemetery

Parishes
Because of the way Belfast was originally settled, there is a large Anglican community. The Diocese website has much information:


 * Connor Anglican Diocese

Specific parishes follow:

St. Thomas' Church


 * 1A Eglantine Avenue
 * Belfast BT9 6DW

St. George's Church


 * 105 High Street
 * Belfast BT1 2AG

Non Conformists
Belfast's other major Christian Fellowship is the Roman Catholic Church.

St. Peter's Cathedral


 * 8 St. Peters Square South
 * Belfast BT12 4BU

St. Patrick's Church


 * 199 Donegall Street
 * Belfast BT1 2FL

St. Mary's


 * Chapel Lane
 * Belfast

Other Christian Groups represented in Belfast follow:


 * Antioch Orthodox Church
 * Baptist
 * Church of Christ
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * First Church of Christ Scientist
 * Methodist
 * Seventh Day Adventist

Non Christian Groups include:


 * Belfast has an Islamic Center
 * Hare Krishna
 * Hindu
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Civil registration is the recording of births, marriages, and deaths, in England, and began in 1837. Civil registration records were recorded at the local registration office and the National registration offices. If you cannot find the civil registration in one index, search the other index as they are different indexes.
 * Belfast City BMD records office


 * Irish Statutory BMD records


 * Family Ulster BMD records

Local Histories

 * Local Histories: Belfast


 * Inyourpocket: Belfast History


 * Barnes and Noble: Belfast, a Brief History, by William A. McGuire


 * Amazon.com: The Belfast Troubles

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Google maps: Belfast


 * oldmapsonline: Belfast


 * visitbelfast.com: maps


 * Culturenorthernireland: Belfast Historical Gazetteer


 * Amazon.com Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer by Marcus Patton

Newspapers

 * The Belfast Telegraph


 * The Irish News


 * The Belfast Newsletter

Occupations
As Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast is host to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the site of the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. Belfast is divided into four Northern Ireland Assembly and UK parliamentary constituencies: Belfast North, Belfast West, Belfast South and Belfast East. The activities involved in the assembly means that employment is provided to a large part of the population.

In addition to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Belfast City Council offers many employment opportunities.

Belfast has been the fastest-growing economy of the thirty largest cities in the UK over the past decade. Today, Belfast is Northern Ireland's educational and commercial hub. Over the past 10 years employment has grown by 16.4 per cent, compared with 9.2 per cent for the UK as a whole. Belfast's unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, lower than both the Northern Ireland and the UK average of 5.5%.

The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding firm was created in 1861, and by the time the Titanic was built, in 1912, it had become the largest shipyard in the world. Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company based in Belfast. It was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. The company began its association with Belfast in 1936, with Short & Harland Ltd, a venture jointly owned by Shorts and Harland and Wolff. Now known as Shorts Bombardier it works as an international aircraft manufacturer located near the Port of Belfast.

Societies

 * Northern Ireland Family History Society


 * Emerald Ancestors: Northern Ireland


 * Public Record Office of Northern Ireland: Family History


 * Belfast Family History

Archives

 * Public Record Office of Northern Ireland: Archives


 * Ulster Historical Foundation: Belfast Archives


 * Ancestry.com: Belfast

Web Sites

 * wikipedia: Belfast


 * Belfast City Council


 * Northern Ireland Executive