Dublin Castle – 1204 to 1922

Posted on 25 March 2014 by Shane

Plan of Dublin Castle c1940

Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath / Dublin Castle from 13th Century to the 1920s, extract of timeline and plan from booklet published c1940

1204 Mandate for erection of the Castle.
1228 Completion of towers by this date.
1242 Hall to be completed; windows of the Chapel to be made; two chaplains to be provided to say Mass in the Chapel-one Mass of St. Edward and another of the Blessed Virgin-every Saturday with fifteen wax candles, on other days with four.
1243 King Henry III gives instructions for building the hall.
1244 Suspension of this construction.
1267-8 Expended on fortifications, etc., £342.
1320 Great Hall repaired ; taking down and rebuilding walls.
1330 Glazing of the windows of the Hall with stained glass.
1381 Enquiry into the defects of the buildings.
1422 John Coryngham appointed to be Keeper of the King’s Palace within the Castle of Dublin with a fee of 100s. per annum.
1430 The hall, towers and other buildings reported to be in a ruinous state and records damaged by rain. 20 marks per annum allotted for reparation.
1459 A mint opened in the Castle.

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City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. – 1834 Advert

Posted on 19 March 2014 by Shane
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company - 1834

City of Dublin Steam Packet Company – 1834

Advertisement from Pettigrew & Oulton’s Almanac & General Register of 1834.

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Grafton Street 1848

Posted on 14 March 2014 by Shane

1848 Map of Grafton Street Dublin City, recreated using directory entries – see : link

Grafton Street map 1848

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History of the Civil Registration Service

Posted on 14 March 2014 by Shane

Interesting article on the History of Registration in Ireland from GRO/Dept. of Welfare (pdf document)

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Mystery Solved

Posted on 21 February 2014 by Shane

The mystery of a 1920s photo of Rose Decker’s visit from the USA to her Irish relatives was solved with input from researchers in diverse locations including Dublin, Brooklyn and Cork, and her ancestor Tom is now planning to visit the house depicted and chat to the new occupants.

(Updated – see below)

The following photo was posted on the Ireland section of forum Reddit by Hudson (lludson) on Wednesday 19th February, and asked if anyone could find the location on behalf of friend Tom, a Policeman from Michigan, who was on his way to visit Ireland, on his first trip ever outside the USA.

1920s Photo including Rose Carson

The photo shows Tom’s ancestor on a trip from Michigan to visit relatives in Ireland, however the location has always been a mystery. Stories seemed to indicate that this was somewhere in Dublin so this seemed the place for Tom to start his search.

The Reddit post was mentioned on the online newspaper ‘The Daily Edge’, and numerous suggestions were put forward of houses as people scoured around Google maps and looked at streets near to their location. Whilst a number of these looked very similar none was a good match and it turns out that this type of house is quite common not only in and around Dublin, but also in other parts of Ireland.

Various searches in Census returns and directories of Dublin addresses for possible Carson households showed nothing promising. The crucial starting clues were posted to Reddit by posters Scamallnaoi and ptegen, and the first of these was a Michigan marriage record for Rose Carson, her maiden surname, to Horace Decker. This showed Rose’s parents as Charles Carson and Mary Mullen.
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