Going Home to Ireland - Part 1

Keeping a travel journal on my trips helps me
remember everything.

In the spring of 2010, I had the honor of  seeing the places where my grandfather was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. I traveled with the Sew Many Places travel group led by Jim West. I am a quilter, so I was excited to see Ireland with a combination of my craft and family history interests. 

At the end of my nine day trip was three days in Dublin. One of those days, I hired a taxi driver, Peter, to take me to nine addresses within a 5-mile range around the center of the city. 

I prepared a guide on Google Maps with over thirty with the closet and most relevant finds for my driver. With my two hour limit, the list was reduced to nine locations. What an adventure I had seeing the places where my ancestors lived!

I have or will write about the ancestors associated with these places.

1. 12 Annesley Place is where my mysterious cousin, Sheelagh, lived in 1917.  She wrote her letter to her "Uncle Jack," my grandfather, John Carrick Cooper, filling him in with activities going on in the homefront during World War l. Jack had emigrated to the United States in 1906.

12 Annesley Place

2. 142 North Strand Road was the birthplace of first Elizabeth Cooper who was born on 4 April 1878 and died that same year to parents of Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

142 North Strand Road

3. 18 Leinster Avenue was the birth place of first daughter, Laura Jane or "Jinnie" Cooper Dawes born on 29 January 1876, to parents of Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

18 Leinster Ave.

4.  61 Charlieville Avenue was the birthplace of Austin Sisson Cooper born on 27 April 1879, to parents Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

61 Charlieville Ave.

5.  34 Carlingford Road. Home of Jane Carrick Boyd, mother of Laura Jane Boyd Cooper. Jane Carrick Boyd was found here in 1901. This is the same address listed for Jane Carrick Boyd's granddaughter, Elizabeth Cooper, when she married George Corcoran in 1900.

34 Carlingford Road

6. 17 Portland St. Home of the Cooper family on 5 November 1886, when son, John Carrick Cooper, was born in Rotunda Hospital, to parents of Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

17 Portland St.

7. 139 Ranelagh South. We could not find the exact location of this address. This is where Alexander Sisson Cooper and family lived during the 1901 Ireland Census.

8.  12 Poplar Road - This is where the Corcoran family lived in the 1911 Ireland Census. Today there is a modern apartment complex built in its place. 

9. 14 S. Frederick Street, today, hosts the Dunne and Crescenzi Italian Restaurant where the Boyds were living in 1875. This is the home address listed for the bride on the marriage record of Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

14 South Frederick St.

I felt this was a successful excursion seeing the places where my grandfather's family resided at the turn of the century over a hundred years ago.