Places of Significance: Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

On workday mornings, George Findlay, Ella's father, would ride his bicycle down to the Aberdeen Harbour, on the east side of Aberdeen looking out over the North Sea. This was where he worked as a shipwright (a ship's carpenter), repairing the trawler fishing boats.

George's livelihood was significant to the local economy, considering that fish was such a staple of the Aberdonian's diet - Ella particularly remembers eating haddock and herring. 

And his work was especially critical during World War II: There was severe rationing of imported goods, with fish being some of the food that was more easily available. It was thus imperative that the trawlers be repaired that were damaged by mines planted off the coast. And the work continued despite blackout conditions: George would sometimes finish work long after the sun had set, and he and his fellow shipwrights would have to crawl down the planks back to the dock in the pitch black darkness.

A trawler being tied up to the quay at 
Aberdeen Harbour, 1923
Image Source

We're not sure of the exact location in the harbour where George worked, and perhaps it's changed quite a bit in the last 70 years. But it was somewhere near here, working up until he and his family emigrated in 1948/49. 

The harbour today
Image Source

There aren't trawlers in this harbour anymore for the fish industry (maybe a few that are privately owned), so we're told by the staff at the Aberdeen Maritime Museum.

Thinking of you George!

Looking out at the harbour from a vantage point outside the Aberdeen Maritime Museum

30 Sept 2014

..........

Would love to know:

• At what age would George have started his apprenticeship as a shipwright? in his late teenage years, in the early 1920s?
• Would George have apprenticed somewhere at the harbour as well?
• What company did he work for? (Ella thinks it might have been called Strath/Straths/Strath's? A Google search on that name doesn't generate any clear leads.)
• Is there a specific type of trawler he worked on?
• Ella mentions that one of her uncles, one of George's brothers, was was a ship builder. Which one?
• Any photos of the harbour from the early 1920s to late 1940s, the time period when George worked here?

Places of Significance: Duthie Park, Aberdeen

Whether with a picnic in hand, or to listen to music from the bandstand, or to participate in an egg-rolling contest at Easter, Duthie Park was a favorite spot for Ella and her family to visit. 

The park’s 44 acres, situated near the banks of the River Dee, boast fountains, statues, ponds, children’s play areas, and an indoor Winter Garden. When returning to visit in October 2014, we sure enjoyed leisurely walking, listening to Ella reminisce, and sampling ice cream from the park’s cafe. Next time we visit, let's pack a lunch and a toy boat!

Ralph and Ella near
an entrance to the park
1 Oct 2014

The bandstand on the expansive lawn
Image Source

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Sources:

• Video filmed on location, 1 Oct 2014
• Also this.

Places of Significance: Aberdeen Train Station, Aberdeen, Scotland

It's been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the case of Ella's family's emigration story, their journey of 5,000 miles began when they boarded the train at the Aberdeen Train Station in downtown Aberdeen.


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

Their family wouldn’t make the journey all together but in three different waves. Ella’s father, George, would depart first to pave the way for the rest of the family to come, leaving in late December 1948. Ella and her mother, Kate(1), followed in May 1949. Ella’s sister, Ina(2), would join the rest of the family in October 1949.

From the Aberdeen Train Station, Ella and her mother traveled to Southampton, England, where they boarded the SS Washington, which sailed them to New York City. From there they went to Salt Lake City, Utah, by train, and from Salt Lake to Mesa, Arizona, by bus.(3)

Ella remembers her dear grandmother, Charlesina Findlay, seeing them off at the train station, as well as her friend from the branch, Sheila, who was her same age (and who would eventually emigrate to the US as well). Two of her father's sisters were there, and also a cousin her age.(4)

On their last Sunday at church, the local branch members all sang, "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again." Such a loving anthem and a tribute to the many significant contributions that her family made to the Aberdeen Branch and the Church. And indeed, God has been with them as Ralph and Ella have been able to “meet again” with their homeland and heritage.

Ella in front of the train platforms - 30 Sept 2014

Ella and Ralph reminiscing - 30 Sept 2014 

Another view of the interior of the station - 30 Sept 2014

See also:

• Across Oceans and Continents: Blog post with more detail about the family’s emigration story

Sources:

• Video recorded on location 30 September 2014
• Phone conversation recorded on 6 July 2014. Also an additional conversation on 26 October 2014 (unrecorded, but notes taken).

Notes:

1. Known by her friends as "Kate," her full name was Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie Findlay.
2. Ina's full name was Charlesina Findlay, later Charlesina Slade when married.
3. Although we’re not sure which specific route George and Ina took on their journeys, we assume it was similar to the route that Ella and Kate took.
4. Ella didn’t mention her father’s sisters and cousin in the video here, but she did mention them in previous phone conversations on 6 July 2014 and 26 October 2014.

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.)

Places of Significance: Aberdeen

“It’s a beautiful city, because of the granite...when the sun comes out after it rains and shines on the mica in the granite. That’s how it got its name, ‘The Silver City by the Sea.’” And indeed, Ella’s hometown is beautiful, just as she describes.

Photo by KF - Sept 2006

Photo by KF - Sept 2006

Such stately buildings line the streets, creating an air of dignity and decorum. Much of the older/central part of the city was constructed from locally quarried granite in the 1700s and 1800s. And that stateliness is evident whether admiring the grand buildings on Union Street (such as the Central Library, St. Mark’s church, and His Majesty’s Theatre - referred to as “Education, Salvation and Damnation” by the locals) or the more humble tenement buildings.

The Central Library, St. Mark's Church, and His Majesty's Theatre (Photo Source) 

It’s so fun to visit Aberdeen with Ella, or to even have her describe it, as she remembers much of the city still. She can navigate through the streets in her mind, describing how one road turns to another, veers to the side, passes this or that landmark, until you get to your destination. It’s etched into her memory, obviously from walking and biking its streets so much as a youth. 

And what’s additionally so neat is that the the city's buildings are not that different today compared to the early 1900s, and perhaps even the mid to late 1800s, thanks to the durability of the granite. It was during those time periods that there was a surge in construction of buildings and public parks, thanks in part to technological advancements in granite working. (Source)

What this means is that the same buildings that were built a century or more ago are still standing, the exteriors virtually unchanged. It gives you a sense of history, a place in time. We can walk through the city and feel a connection to the past. After all, Aberdeen is not just Ella’s hometown, but the ancestral roots are deep there: at least 4 generations back on her mother’s side, and at least 3 generations back on her father’s. Our ancestors walked down those same streets and admired those same buildings and bridges and parks.

When Ella returns to Aberdeen, one thing that strikes her as a big difference between now and when she was young is the traffic. As a girl, her impression was that the only people who had cars were lawyers and doctors (who made house calls). Most Aberdonians took public transportation (buses or trams - many of the tram tracks have since been removed). Ella’s father would ride his bike to his job at the shipyards, and they also all did a lot of walking. “It was just fun to walk together.” Ella said, describing how she and her friends liked to walk home from school together, weather and time permitting.

What were favorite places to frequent or places of significance for Ella and her family? Here's a handful:

• 40 Merkland Road East - Where her paternal grandparents, George and Charlesina lived at one time, and where her father, George, was born.
• 26 ½ Bank St - Where her maternal grandparents, John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katharine Bruce lived; where her parents, George and Ursula ("Kate"), were married; and where her sister Ina was born.
• 10A Prospect Terrace - Where Ella was born. They lived here until Ella was about 5 years old.
• 311 Holburn Street - Where Ella’s family lived until they emigrated in 1949.
• Duthie Park - A beautiful public park where they would go to walk, enjoy outdoor concerts and picnics.
• The River Dee - Where her family was baptized.
• 4 Ferrier Crescent - The street that her paternal grandparents, George and Charlesina, lived on for many years in their later lives. This is the home where Ella and her family would visit them, especially for family dinners on Saturday nights.
• Ferryhill Library - Ella loved to read!
• The building downtown where the small branch of the church met. On George Street (now a pedestrian street), just off of Union Street in central Aberdeen. At the time of our visit, their rented space was above a Gap clothing store.
• The Aberdeen Harbour - Where Ella’s father worked as a shipwright.
• Allenvale Cemetery by the River Dee - Burial place of Ella's maternal grandparents, John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katharine Bruce Beattie.
• The Regent Cinema movie theater, on Justice Mill Lane, near Holburn Street- Where she would watch the Mickey Mouse Club on Saturday mornings. Later renamed to Odeon; currently it's a fitness center.

The Regent Cinema
Ella would watch the Mickey Mouse Club here on Saturday mornings. 
Image Source

Something Ella often says is that she’s grateful she was a little older (aged 15) when her family emigrated, rather than several years earlier, before WWII, like they had originally hoped. As a result, she’s able to remember and appreciate so many details of her homeland and hometown. We’re all grateful for that too!

Sources: 

• From a phone conversation with Ella on 8 Dec 2014. Unfortunately, the recording froze and was not captured (Argh!), though notes were taken.
• See also: A Brief History of Aberdeen, Scotland

On the Banks of the River Dee, Aberdeen

There was no warm-water baptismal font for those converting to the church in Aberdeen, Scotland, in the early to mid 1900’s. Instead, these soon-to-be Latter-day Saints were immersed in the waters of the River Dee, while supportive family and friends witnessed from the rocky banks.

The River Dee, with the Brig O' Dee in the background - Oct 2014 

This is where George Findlay and his wife Ursula were baptized in June 1932. (1) Grandma Ella was also baptized here in 1942 (age 8),(2) just south of the bridge Brig O’ Dee. Although her birthday is in January, she was baptized in September, a relatively much warmer time to be baptized in the river, but still chilly by most standards!

George Findlay's baptism in the
River Dee - June 1932

You could say that here, on the banks of the River Dee, is where their journey to America began. Now baptized, what was most important to them was their faith, as Mormonism was a relatively unknown Christian religion in Scotland at the time, and they wanted to be close to others who believed similarly. Also, there were not yet any temples in Europe; if they wanted the blessings of the temple, their only option at the time was to travel to America.

Wearing the daisy-chain crown that AG made her.
Grandma said she used to make daisy chains as a girl - Oct 2014

And this is where on our recent trip, I delivered a tribute speech to Grandma and her family, while Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and AG listened from a bench overlooking the river and bridge.

Although I have grown up as and am an actively practicing Mormon, I am in awe and humbled by the sacrifices our ancestors made to more fully live what they believe. 

Selling virtually all that they owned and traveling essentially with the clothes on their backs, they waved goodbye to family as they boarded the train that took them to the ship harbor. Grandma was now 15 years old. The journey was so expensive and they had saved for so many years, they didn’t know if they’d ever return to their homeland. These were one-way tickets.

KF and AG at the River Dee - Sept 2006

America didn’t necessarily offer them greener pastures, either literally (they settled in Arizona, after all) or figuratively: It’s no small task to start a new life from scratch. And they were sometimes ridiculed for their accents, and they were often treated as second-class citizens. 

Why did they do all this? I think about this often. The conclusion that I have come to is that I believe they had a vision of the future, of how their sacrifices would benefit generations to come. We are now standing on their shoulders.

We have that same blood coursing through our veins. And we can tap into that same strength and determination. We too can trust in God, and that he has a plan for our lives and that he will direct us as we seek to know that plan. We can have courage in the face of hardships, as we ourselves face oceans and continents that separate us from our final destinations, and as we may sometimes find ourselves as strangers in a strange land. 

We too can do great things, GREAT THINGS, that will influence, for good, generations to come.

Notes:

1. It’s unconfirmed who baptized George and Ursula. Was it John Freestone, a missionary who was prominent in their conversion and fellowship and who sponsored their emigration to America? Or was it another missionary or member of the mission presidency? Also, familysearch.org has Ursula’s baptismal and confirmation dates as 11 and 12 June 1932, repsectively while George’s are both as 13 June 1932 - would she have been baptized and confirmed the day or two before George? Or is this a recording error?
2. Ella was baptized by the Scottish District President Andrew B. McGowan on Saturday, 26 September 1942, confirmed the next day (27 September 1942) at the Aberdeen Branch Conference. (Source: The Latter-Day Saint Millennial Star issue from Thursday, October 22, 1942; scanned copy here. See the right hand page, 2nd full paragraph in the right column. A couple paragraphs later, George Findlay is mentioned also. :)