Birthplace of the Titanic legend
The centenary in 2012 of Titanic, 
the most famous ship in history, is the inspiration for a world-class waterfront development in Belfast, city of her birth.
Plans for the multi-use Titanic Quarter, already taking shape on the exact site of the shipyard where she was built, include an imaginative tourist attraction with global appeal. One feature will be Titanic’s tender, her ‘little sister’ Nomadic, now being renovated after a dramatic rescue operation by the government.
In 1912, Belfast was a mighty industrial metropolis, the location, not only of the world’s largest shipyard, but also of the world’s most extensive weaving mills, the biggest processing factories of American tobacco and the greatest rope works ever built.
The pride of many thousands of Belfast craftsmen and women sank with Titanic when she hit the infamous iceberg en route to New York.
- Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 15,000 people during 1909-12
- up to 5,000 working on Titanic at any one time
- it took 26 months to complete
Almost everything, from boilers and propellers to elegant furniture and the carved-oak staircase -- made famous in the record-breaking movie "Titanic" -- were manufactured by representatives of nearly 100 local craft trades, from blacksmiths and cabinet-makers to the weavers of the finest bed linens and double damask tablewear.
It is this proud and positive aspect of her heritage that is particularly celebrated in her native Belfast, birthplace of the Titanic legend.
Northern Ireland’s Digital Film Archive (DFA) has what is believed to be the only authentic filmed material of the Titanic. The black and white 35mm film, shot on location in Belfast, shows the ship leaving Belfast Lough for Southampton on 2 April 1912. The film, almost 7 minutes long, also shows images of the Carpathia arriving in New York with survivors and crew as well as Father Hogue, a passenger on the Carpathia who sighted the Titanic lifeboats.
The DFA has some 60 hours of moving images about Northern Ireland from 1897-2000 including documentaries, drama, animation, newsreels and amateur film.
It also has the first film of American troops, popularly known as dough-boys, stationed in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. The wartime newsreel shows them marching through rainy weather and thick mud and making their huts look more like home. It also shows nurses watching a parade and inspection before Lt. General H.E Franklin and Major General Russell Hartle. Then the men do gas drill and bayonet practice.
There is also a short feature film, entitled “A Letter from Ulster”, of two American GI brothers who, through letters home to their parents, detail life in Ulster during the Second World War.
Sources for Genealogists
Anyone wishing to trace their roots in Northern Ireland will find plenty of advice and assistance from a range of organisations including:
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Belfast: The Public Record Office selects and preserves records that provide a legal and historic record of the past. The majority of its records are available for viewing by the public and these archives are used by a wide range of researchers as well as many people wishing to trace their family trees.
Public Libraries: The Linen Hall Library is one of the most prestigious in the region. Founded in 1788, it is the oldest in Belfast and the last surviving subscription library in Ireland. Best known for its Irish and local studies collection, the Linen Hall has a unique political collection relating to the ‘Troubles’.
