Places of Significance: 40 Merkland Road East, Aberdeen

40 Merkland Road East, Aberdeen: This is the home where Ella’s paternal grandparents lived, George and Charlesina Findlay, and where her father, George Findlay, grew up. And this is the street where her father likely learned to ride his bicycle. And where he lived until he got married. And just a block away (toward the east) is the Aberdeen Football Club (soccer) stadium where he and his brothers would go to watch “fitball” games on Saturdays (in "rain, shine, or snow, they'd be at that fitball game"). And not far from here (though we're not sure of the exact location), lived "Auntie Carrie", Charlesina's sister Caroline, whose home had a piano on which George Jr. learned to play.

Number 40 is at the end of the row, and today there are six units, two per floor (we assume as there are six doorbell buttons). We’re not sure which unit the family lived in.

We know that Ella’s father, George, grew up here and lived here until he was married in 1927.(1) He was the oldest of 11 children, the youngest being born in 1925; it’s likely that the other children were born here and living here as well. (2) I imagine they had some creative sleeping arrangements in this modest-sized flat!

KF's narrative. Filmed on location, 30 September 2014.

Ella's narrative. Filmed on location, 30 September 2014.

Notes:

(1) The marriage record for George and Ursula ("Kate") Findlay indicates this.

(2) George and Charlesina had 11 children (5 boys, 6 girls); however, 4 of them (2 boys, 2 girls) died at ages 2 years or younger, with 7 of the children growing to adulthood (3 boys, 4 girls).

Would love to research/know:

• Any census or other records that indicate how long George Sr. and Charlesina lived here? When did they move to their home on Ferrier Cresent in the Woodside area of Aberdeen?

Places of Significance: Bank Street, Prospect Terrace, and Holburn Street, Aberdeen

It was much more common, in previous generations, that births and marriages and other major events took place at home. Such was the case with Ella’s family as well. 

In Central Aberdeen, off of Bank Street, is a little close/alley way leading to number 26 ½ Bank Street on the right. It’s at this location, in the upstairs flat of that little cottage, that Ella’s maternal grandparents, John MacDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katherine Bruce lived. It was also at this home that Ella’s parents, George and Ursula ("Kate") (1), were married; and where her sister Ina was born.

Off of Bank Street, down this alley/close, on the right, is this little cottage.
Number 26 1/2 is on the top floor, the far right window - Sept 2006, Sept 2014.

(In this video, I said 28 1/2 Bank St, but it's really 26 1/2. Doh!)

Just around the corner from 26 ½ Bank Street is, 10A Prospect Terrace, the basement-level flat where Ella was born. At the time Ella’s family lived there, the home was nicknamed “Tornaveen”, which was inscribed in the transom window above the door to the upstairs flat (which has sometime since been removed).

Corner of Prospect Terrace and Bank Street
- Sept 2006, Sept 2014

Sept 2006, Sept 2014

Their basement flat was a modest home, with just 2 rooms (a bedroom and a living room), and an outhouse out back that they shared with the family who lived upstairs. There was no shower, but they would bathe when they’d visit Ella’s paternal grandparents (George and Charlesina Findlay) at their home on Ferrier Crescent for Saturday dinners.

Ella’s family had a close relationship with the family who lived upstairs from them, whom they rented the flat from - "We were almost like family." Mrs. Patterson, or “Ma Pat” as they called her, actually helped the doctor deliver Ella (she didn't have a background in midwifery, but she assisted), and Ella was named after Ma Pat’s daughter, also Ella.(2)

Ella, her older sister Ina, and Ma Pat, at their
home on Prospect Terrace - about 1938

Their family lived in that flat until 1938, when Ella was about 4 or 5 years old, then they moved at the urging of their doctor; Ella was often ill while living in that basement flat, perhaps due to the inherent dampness of the location. When the doctor came to the new flat, less than a mile away on the 3rd floor of 311 Holburn Street, and he had to climb all those stairs, he said, "My goodness, I told you to move, but not up to heaven!" He was an older man, and apparently didn't appreciate all of those stairs!

The home on Holburn Street was a tenement building, with two flats per floor of this building and a shared toilet on each level’s landing. There were 3 rooms: a living room to the left when which overlooked the back of the house; Ella was in a little bedroom off of that. There was a front bedroom that overlooked Holburn St, where Ina slept and where the family would often entertain friends and visitors as there was also a couch and chairs there. In the kitchen, which was in the middle, there was a little nook or cutout where the bed would go - big enough for a double bed, where her parents slept. As I mentioned, it was on the 3rd floor. And when no one was looking, Ella liked to slide with glee down the banister in the stairwell.

How did they do laundry? It was washed in a little building behind the house and hung up on clotheslines out back (if it was raining, the clothes would be hung on folding racks inside).

Their flat was on the 3rd/top floor of the end unit, the 3rd window from the left.

Not far from their home was the Ferryhill Library (Ella loved to read), Duthie Park, and the movie theater - all places that she and her family loved to frequent. Just a few buildings down the street (also on Holburn) was a newsstand where Ella would pick up papers for a daily paper route. This first job of hers was how she earned money to buy a bike.

Ella's family lived here until they emigrated in 1949, with a few months' stay with her paternal grandparents (George and Charlesina Findlay) at Ferrier Crescent while they were finalizing all of their preparations before moving overseas.

See also: Places of Significance: Aberdeen

Would love to add:

• A map that shows a pinpoint for each of these locations. Need to figure out how to make one of those!
• The photo of Ma Pat with her daughter Ella
• Ella thinks that one of Ina's sons (Ian?) drew a picture of the layout of the home on Bank St. Ella might have a copy of this filed away.

Notes:

1. See the marriage record of George and Ursula ("Kate") for record of their marriage on Bank Street (below).
2. Ella’s full first name is actually Isabella, which was not her parent’s intention. They had hoped to name her simply “Ella” after Ma Pat’s daughter, but when her father, George, went to the birth registrar, he was told that Ella was a nickname and not a proper name - it had to be Isabella. 

Sources: From video captured on location, September/October 2014; from a phone conversation recorded on 11 February 2015.

Marriage record of George and Ursula Findlay,
showing marriage location as 26 1/2 Bank St. (Click to enlarge.)