The1921 Census is here!
The Scotland Census: Sunday 19 June 1921
The much awaited Scottish 1921 Census has finally been released, many months after the English one. My first search was for my grandmother Lizzie Millar 1885 to see where she was living the year before she met my grandfather. They married in Paisley in September 1922 and she gave her address as 27 Bruntsfield Avenue, Edinburgh, which was the home of her great uncle William.
The census confirmed that in spring of 1921 she was living at 27 Bruntsfield Avenue and serving as a housekeeper for William and his sister Jane (Jessie). When she got married she was seven months pregnant so she must have conceived the child in about January of 1922.
John McInnes Moffat 1890, my grandfather, was my second search. In spring of 1921 according to the census he was living at 9 Lady Lane, Paisley, Renfrewshire with his parents and several siblings and he was there when he got married the following year.
So the mystery is still where did Lizzie and John originally meet and how did they get together when they lived across the country from each other? John worked as a baker at the Paisley Provident Coop so would not have had a lot of time off.
The 1921 census gives information about where the people worked for the first time - I didn’t know where John’s bakery was and my dad never mentioned that it was in such a gorgeous building.
Paisley Provident Cooperative building, Causeyside, Paisley
Floor tiles in the building (designed by Robert Millar in 1907-8)
Wheat design - reflecting the bakery!
It’s so cool to see where our ancestors lived and worked.
Another exciting find was the address of the law firm where William Clark 1852 (Lizzie’s great uncle and her benefactor) worked in his later years. In 1921 he was 68 and a law clerk at the esteemed law firm Tods Murray Jamieson at 66 Queen St, Edinburgh.
2019 book about the history of Tods Murray Jamieson
I’ve ordered it on Amazon - if Alexander McCall Smith recommends it then I’m sure it’s a winner. Interestingly we stayed very near here this past summer when we visited Scotland. We may have walked past the building without realizing.
For those of you new to the blog: Great Uncle William was the mystery benefactor of my grandmother Lizzie.
As a young boy he watched his family go through a grueling court case in which his older sister pursued a paternity claim against a local farmer. This might have been the inspiration for him to pursue the law. William never married and left his entire estate to Lizzie.
The 2021 Census is the first to ask the question about employer in addition to occupation so there’s lots of new information to be gleaned.