Communities Minister Gordon Lyons launched a new PRONI publication titled 'Ulster American Treasures: The Migration Story' at Belfast City Hall.

The book marks another stage in the USA-NI250 programme marking 250 years since the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

It draws on PRONI archives to present documents and accounts covering 250 years of migration from Ulster to America.

Records include references to sea crossings, employment, the American Revolutionary War, the US Civil War and the Great Famine.

Lyons said the publication records the contributions of Ulster migrants including Charles Thomson of Maghera and John Dunlap of County Tyrone.

Thomson served as Secretary to the Continental Congress and his name appeared on the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence.

Dunlap printed the first copies of the Declaration of Independence.

US Consul General James Applegate said the publication covers the movement of more than 250,000 people from the region in the fifty years before the War of Independence.

Lyons said the book also aims to support current connections between Northern Ireland and the United States.