Robertsons on the move

The Robertsons were originally from a farming area west of Edinburgh. The earliest Robertson I found was James Robertson, a ploughman, who married Agnes Dowie in 1812 in Ratho.

James Robertson c 1781 (born in Ratho, died in Leith)

James and Agnes moved to Edinburgh and then Leith. I can track when and where they moved by looking at where their six children were born. Their first two children, daughter Christian and son William, were born in Ratho. The next two, sons James and Charles Bruce, were born in Canonmills in Edinburgh. The last two, daughters Jane and Ann Bruce, were born in South Leith.

Birth register of James Robertson 1817

1817 map of Canon Mills, Edinburgh

James Robertson 1817 was a laborer. He grew up in South Leith and married an Edinburgh girl Jane Haig. They had a son James in 1849 but didn’t register the birth - maybe they were too poor? We know his birth year as he was 2 in the 1851 Census:

1851 Census: Robertson family at 15 Burns Street Leith

My ancestor William Robertson c 1856 doesn’t have a birth record - statutory records came into effect in 1855 in Scotland but somehow he is missing. I know his age from several Census records that confirm he was born in 1856.

In 1861 the family were living at Crawley Court off the Kirkgate.

In 1871 William lived with his mother, now widowed, and brother Thomas at Waters Close by the harbor. He was a teenager and worked as a message boy.

By 1881 William had married Elizabeth Ann Hunter 1859 and they lived on the Kirkgate with two children. William was a “manure laborer” which sounds gross but he probably worked at the chemical manure factory on the shore.

In 1891 their family lived at 36 Trafalgar Lane with five children.

William died in 1901 at age 45 from pneumonia. He died at 43 Bowling Green Street.

The 1901 Census shows Elizabeth living there with their six younger children - and Matilda Workman age 20 who was the live-in girlfriend of George Brodrick Robertson 1882 known as “Dodie”.

1901 was a big year for the Robertsons:

2 January - William died

11 January - George Broderick Robertson’s first child Mary Ann was born (illegitimate)

December - Matilda finds she is pregnant with their second child

31 December - George and Matilda get married at St James Episcopal Church

In between census records (every 10 years) I can track where George and Matilda lived through their children’s birth records:

Mary Ann 1901 born at Bowling Green Street

George Brodrick 1902 born at Trafalgar Lane

John Henry Collins 1905 born at Newhaven Road

William 1907 born ?

Catherine Marshall 1909 born at 72 Pitt Street (home of Catherine Marshall)

Charles James Neil Jamieson 1910 born at 9 Lapicide Place

Lindsay Mathieson 1914 born at George Street

Thomas Workman 1922 born ?

In 1911 the census shows George and Elizabeth living at 48 Trafalgar Lane with their five eldest children (including my grandfather Charles James Neil Jamieson Robertson 1910). George was a sawyer - his first career that lasted 14 years.

Around the corner at 72 Pitt Street lived the Marshall family. George and Matilda’s daughter Catherine Marshall Robertson 1909 was named after the family’s babysitter Catherine Marshall 1891. Catherine Marshall Robertson was actually born at 72 Pitt Street, which makes me wonder if she was really Catherine Marshall’s child but raised by Matilda.

The census was done in April every year. In April 1911 Catherine Marshall (the babysitter) was pregnant with George Brodrick’s child, the first of five illegitimate children she would have with George.

In 1912 George switched jobs, signing on with the railway. This gave him the ability to work away from home and have irregular hours, something he needed as he managed two families in the same town.

By March 1915 when George’s second child with Catherine Marshall was born, George had moved his first family out to Polton south of Edinburgh, a small rural village developed around a paper mill. They were there when George got called up for WWI.

When George returned from the war he switched careers AGAIN and joined the merchant marine. The family settled at Wilkie Place in North Leith.

George had the most addresses of any ancestor, and the most children (8 with wife Matilda and 5 with Catherine Marshall). He married Catherine in 1934 after Matilda’s death in 1932. At the time of his second marriage he was living at Lorne Street (home of his daughter Catherine Marshall Robertson). He and Catherine moved with their children to North Leith where he was known as George Marshall.

George Brodrick Robertson’s addresses from 1882 to 1959 (excluding Polton)

Charles James Neil Jamieson Robertson 1910, my grandad, was born in Lapicide Place. He moved around with his family then married my grandmother Georgina Munro Greenan 1911 in 1930. They started out their married life with her parents in Lochend then moved to Granton and stayed there until 1961 when they moved to Corby in England to be near their daughter Janet.