Like most people tracing their Irish roots there is a wall where the paper trail is severely disrupted. This is usually due to the family moving within one generation from one location to another and so if there is no clear evidence of where they came from finding the missing link is somewhat difficult.
In my case this happens around 1825-1850 where the paper trail starts in Belfast. The question is where was John Foster the farmer born?, where did he farm? and where were his sons born?
I have a working theory that I am researching (to be documented later) but I will publish some of my analysis and data as I work through it.