Index of Wills & Marriage Licenses for Dublin Diocese up to 1800

  • ISBN13: 978-0-9539974-8-0
  • 440 pages
  • illustrated (b/w)
  • CD
  • Price: €16.50 · - Prices including Post and Packing: £16.30 to UK; $25 to USA; CAD$25; AUD$24; NZ$32

Sample

Content of CD and Background Information This index refers to persons who had dealings with the Dublin Diocese Consistorial Court from 1200 to 1800. It dealt with marriages, and Wills and Administrations concerning property in counties Dublin , Wicklow and parts of Kildare (see map above). It also includes entries from other minor sources described on pages v to viii in the introductory text on the CD. The pages contained are in the format shown in the illustration. The images on the CD are of high quality and each line can be magnified for ease of reading.
Column 1: shows the person or persons to which the court action applied. Some of these include an address, trade or other particular about the person.
Column 2: Shows the year in which the court action took place
Column 3: Shows the nature of the court action in the form of an abbreviation. The vast majority are one of those are in the list below (abbreviated and full names). An explanation of the other abbreviations used is on page viii in the introductory text on the CD.

  • M.L. Marriage Licence: A licence allowing a couple to marry
  • I. Intestate. Where a person died without making a will, the court would decide on the distribution of an estate, and appoint an administrator to carry out their decision
  • M.L.B. Marriage License Bond: When a marriage licence was issued, the court could require that a sum of money be deposited as a surety that there was no impediment to the marriage.
  • O.W. Original Will. These refer to (usually older) Wills which were not already entered in the Will Books available in the Public Record Office. There is no essential difference to the Wills indicated as ‘W’.
  • W. Will. This simply indicates that a will was granted or proved.


    • Column 4: Shows the page of the will book (or other record) on which the details of these items would originally have been entered. These originals were, in almost all cases, destroyed in the Public Record Office fire of 1921. This index is therefore the only information that remains. The Will Indexes in the National Archives of Ireland (www.nai.ie) may be consulted to check the possibility that any record of these wills, or other document, has survived. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Background to the Index From 1636 to 1858 the administration of wills was under the jurisdiction of the Church of Ireland , which established specific ecclesiastical courts for this purpose. A Consistorial Court in each Diocese was responsible for matters which related to property within the diocese. Its responsibility included proving wills (or ‘granting probate’) and appointing executors. This court also dealt with situations where the deceased had died without making a will (or ‘intestate’), in which case it issued letters of administration.