Hi all,
Castlereagh No. 1 in 1885 - I'm not so sure about this. As discussed earlier districts change over time and as far as I can make out GRO only recorded the district as Castlereagh back then. The address is probably now in Castlereagh No. 1.
If you look at the GRO index they have a District and a Centre. The Centre I think has only been used since 1972 / 3 which is the date from which the current councils exist. So I presume prior to 1972 / 3 everthing was just registered as Castlereagh, and since 1972 / 3 it has been No1, No2 etc.
The exception to this is Belfast which has been recording 'sub-districts' for many many years, anything from BU1 to BU16. I presume this is due to the numbers in Belfast.
Interestingly, although frustrating, is the fact that GRO can tell you which Belfast District a street is in but they are unable to tell you all the streets in a given district.
While I'm on about it are we soon going to have 'Inner East', and 'North West' recorded as districts as the councils are due to become super councils in the next few years.
HMC