Downs and Antrim have a rich history, learn all about them
Common Surnames: Bell, Brown, Robinson, Boyd, Stewart, Campbell, Thompson, Wilson, Smith, Johnston.
Note: Although a lot of these names also appear in Scottish and English families, most of them are not exclusively Irish, Scottish or English despite popular belief which was quite often formed by pride.
Main Towns in Antrim & Down: Bangor, Newtownards and Larne, Belfast, Newry, Downpatrick, Kilkeel, Banbridge, Ballymena, Antrim and Lisburn.
The main industrial area in Ireland was Belfast; this drew a lot of people in desperate need of work. A lot of these people came from adjacent counties like Ulster. Due to the huge amount of people coming into Belfast; between 1841 and 1851, it’s population grew by more than a third to over 103,000.
Eventually when the great famine came in 1740, people immigrated to North America, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. It’s quite possible that if you live in one of these countries, if so, there are extensive records for each area that are not too hard to get a hold of. Some of the best resources are free, you’ll find a lot of them on our site so feel free to make good use of them.