Chapter 4: Online Repositories was an especially helpful chapter, particularly for those of us who are unable to travel abroad. For someone doing research on foreign-born relatives, this is something that I, and other readers and researchers, definitely need because in order to conduct research, one has to know where to look to find those documents. This was so important to me because as an American, I am utterly unfamiliar with the laws of that region. Then author then reveals how the various peoples of Belfast (Irish, Scottish, and English) were administered throughout time. Paton takes readers and researchers by the hand, beginning with the first chapter, which is a superb condensed history of Belfast from the ancient times until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Some of my maternal ancestors hail from Northern Ireland, and although I can conduct basic research on that area of the world, my skill set is woefully inadequate. With a concise summary of the city's history, a tour of some of the city's most amazing archives, libraries and museums, and a detailed overview of the records generated by those who came before, he expertly steers the reader towards centuries of ancestral exploration, both through online resources and within the city of Belfast itself – and with a wee bit of craic along the way! In Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, genealogist and best-selling author Chris Paton returns home to provide a research gateway for those wishing to trace their ancestors from the Northern Irish capital. Along the way it has experienced the darkest of times, including the Belfast Blitz and the recent Troubles, to some of the most enlightened developments across Ireland and the UK. From its humble beginnings as a ford based settlement between two tributaries of the River Lagan, it grew following its grant of a charter in 1613 to become a corporation town, and expanded dramatically when later made a city in 1888. Straddling parts of Counties Antrim and Down, the city of Belfast has seen its fair share of history across the centuries.
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