MARY'S COTTAGE: ONE POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION
Created 21 September 2026 for the McPadden Project using the built-in image generation tool.

This is an AI-generated painterly illustration, NOT an original photograph, architectural survey, measured reconstruction, or verified 1904 view.

Source basis:
SRC-025: 1911 Form B.1, census house32, Mary McFaddin, Tullynascreen. One occupied room, one front window, durable walls(category1: stone/brick/concrete), perishable roof(category0: thatch/wood/other), one out-office, third-class census classification.
SRC-017: 1911 Form B.2, house32. One fowl house.

RESEARCH ADDENDUM — 21 September 2026
The matching 1901 forms have now been recovered from the National Archives: B1 nai000978469 and B2 nai000978472, house10, Mary McPadden. They record two rooms occupied by the family, two front windows, and three outbuildings (cow house, calf house, piggery). These differ from1911. Room-category code2 means2–4 rooms, but the separate occupied-room count is explicitly2. A classification change alone does not explain the difference. Physical changes, a different dwelling, occupation or recording differences remain unproven explanations. This illustration remains a1911-informed interpretation ONLY, not an accurate1904 reconstruction. Census house numbers are enumeration identifiers, not permanent addresses.
These later records do not prove an unchanged appearance in1904 or throughout James's childhood.

Artistic choices, NOT recorded facts: masonry, whitewash, thatch, door and window positions and designs, chimney, dimensions, roof shape, fowl-house position and appearance, stone boundaries, lake and surrounding landscape. The exterior does not establish a one-room floor plan. No location or present private property is identified by this illustration. Please retain this distinction when sharing.

Generation prompt:
Use case: historical-scene
Asset type: landscape3:2 editorial illustration for a McPadden family-story website.
Primary request: A modest single-storey, one-room rural Leitrim dwelling, presented as ONE POSSIBLE artistic interpretation informed by Mary McPadden's1911 census. This is an illustration, not a verified portrait of her actual house or a reconstruction of its appearance in1904.
Scene/backdrop: Quiet open rural ground with low green-grey Leitrim hills and generous surrounding landscape.
Subject: A very modest small cottage with whitewashed rough masonry walls and weathered thatch, exactly ONE small front window and ONE plain door. A tiny, separate, plain poultry shelter stands nearby. Cottage front is readily inspectable, viewed almost frontally at a slight angle, slightly off-centre in the landscape. Do not add any second front window.
Evidence boundary: The census supports one front window, a durable wall-material category(stone/brick/concrete), a perishable roof-material category(thatch/wood/other), and a separate fowl house. The depicted whitewash, masonry, thatch, door material and position, dimensions, roof shape, and poultry-shelter position are artistic choices, not recorded facts. Express the scene visually without adding any labels.
Style/medium: Beautiful restrained painterly gouache and graphite editorial illustration, visible brush texture and tactile lived-in surfaces. Dignified modestness. Obviously hand-painted, no photorealism and no falsely aged photograph.
Composition/framing: Wide landscape3:2 image, cottage front fully visible with ample landscape around it, no cropping of buildings.
Lighting/mood: Quiet gentle daylight, calm and unshowy.
Color palette: Muted green-grey, earth tones, soft cream.
Avoid: People, faces, carts, livestock, poultry, smoke, dramatic weather, postcard flowers, romantic luxury, signage, text, watermarks, maps, modern features, ornamental architectural additions.


PUBLICATION SCOPE
This is a project-authored research or interpretation note, not an original historical record. Its publication review covers this text only, not the linked images, maps or documents. Keep source credits and uncertainty labels with any permitted reuse. Original project-authored writing in this note is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), to the extent the project controls the rights. Credit Ed McPadden / The McPadden Project, link to this original note and the license, and indicate changes. Quoted third-party passages, linked media and source datasets or route geometry retain their own terms and are not included. Publication assessments are not additional restrictions on licensed writing; retaining evidence limits is research good practice.
Current per-file decisions: ../downloads/founding-edition-asset-register.json