Belfast - Antrim or Down?

[daval57]

Is there a site or any records that show which parts of Belfast are in which County?
Has the border changed over the years?

[TheWhuttle]

Hi,

The townland maps on the PRONI site might provide a good starting point.

[But then they are under active refurbishment ... maybe ...]


Be aware that Belfast occasionally jumps continents!

I was much intrigued by possible (unknown) family members listed on the LDS as having been born in Belfast during the 19thC.

I eventually worked out that this was the name given to a port in South East Australia.

It had changed its name to "Belfast", for a short time during the 19thC, eventually changing it again to "Port Fairy".

Jock

[daval57]

Thanks for that Jock.  I'll have a look at PRONI.
Interesting what you say about the Oz Belfast.  Never knew that but I'm confident my lot are from the Belfast closer to home.
Dave

[Sunnyhill]

We went there on hols a few years ago - I had a photo taken outside the council building with a sign 'Shire Of Belfast' and got a t shirt from the Belfast Bakery.

Hi,

The townland maps on the PRONI site might provide a good starting point.

[But then they are under active refurbishment ... maybe ...]


Be aware that Belfast occasionally jumps continents!

I was much intrigued by possible (unknown) family members listed on the LDS as having been born in Belfast during the 19thC.

I eventually worked out that this was the name given to a port in South East Australia.

It had changed its name to "Belfast", for a short time during the 19thC, eventually changing it again to "Port Fairy".

Jock

[TheWhuttle]

So, Belfast was a county then?!

I reckon it was an attempt to establish Belfast at either end of a line through the centre of the Earth, around which the globe would then spin.

[Some of us think the World of Belfast ... probably something to do with having been born there! ]

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There are many Belfasts around the world.

A search with e.g. www.multimap.com will throw up 17 off, most in America.

[The one in Oz was interesting 'cos it is no longer extant - took a while to track it down. The town of Penshurst lies inland.]


You can also use that online tool to look at the 1:100,00 or 1:50,000 scale maps of Belfast.

The County border seems to be a dashed green line, running mostly down the West bank of the Laggan.

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The latter scale map is available in physical form on ...

Sheet 15
DISCOVERER SERIES
ORDNANCE SURVEY OF NORTHERN IRELAND

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Much earlier, the 6" OS maps accompanying the 1830s OS Memoirs of Ireland are available in huge volumes at PRONI in Belfast and at The National Archives in Kew, London.

The ones covering the County border through Belfast are nos. 61, 64 & 65.

[N.B. Very very large & very very expensive to get reproduced.  Not sure whether they show the border explicitly.]


Unfortunately the OS Memoir for the parish of Shankill on the Co. Antrim side was never published.

The one for Knockbreda on the Co. Down side would be in the Co. Down 2  Vol. 7 volume.

www.booksireland.org.uk

However, these memoirs tend not to mention boundaries much, nor indeed even townlands.

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There were many squabbles about boundaries between CHICHESTER, HAMILTON, MONTGOMERY et al after the Plantation.

One contentious area (not Belfast) was the subject of one of Nicholas CRANE's recent "MAP MAN" programmes on TV.

----

John

[TheWhuttle]

There are some cracking "Belfast Maps" on Jean McCarthy's web site!

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jeanmccarthy36/

[geniecolgan]

There are some cracking "Belfast Maps" on Jean McCarthy's web site!

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jeanmccarthy36/

Have to agree with you Whuttle, they are good. Wish there were some half as detailed for my end of Antrim.
jc

[r1b1c7]

I was born and brought up in Belfast and my understanding was that the whole of Belfast was declared to be in Antrim, even though the rest of the west of the Lagan is in Co Down. You can see this in the 1901 Census where most people in Belfast are said to be born in Antrim, with a few saying City of Belfast (presumably depending on the enumerator's idea of where Belfast was). For a long time - probably the Fifties - Belfast has been a city borough - i.e. for administration purposes it is its own "county" and is neither in Antrim or Down.

I am talking about the "real" Belfast here not its overseas clones.

[TheWhuttle]

So, is the pub quiz book's "trick" item wrong then?!

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Q: What is the county town of County Antrim?
A: Belfast.
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