Help please with Grieve family brickwall

claudette · Post by **claudette** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:58 pm

Hi Andrew

Thank you very much for looking up the MIs for me in the Central Library - I am so grateful. It is really nice that people you have never met are prepared to go out of their way to help and has made my day.

I now have no idea where Charles Grieve is buried and will have to ponder that one. I know he is not buried in Tranent where he lived for so many years as we have already checked that churchyard. I had presumed that he would be buried with his wife Isabella who died in 1922 in Morningside as they both died in that area. It is possible that they were buried there and that the headstone has not survived.

About 14 months ago, I did a trip up to Fort William where my maternal grandparents are buried at Killmallie Old Cemetery. At that cemetery I was very fortunate to find their grave as the headstone was still there and it looked to be in good condition. There have been no family members living locally to look after the grave for over 50 years. However, there were a lot of graves that had no headstone at all. The local District Council had also done a survey to check which headstones were unsafe and had cordoned off these graves. You don't necessarily think about the upkeep of all your ancestors graves until you try to track them down.

I did contact Mortonhall regarding Charles Grieve some time ago and hopefully they will reply in due course. Your search does save me what would be a wasted journey to Morningside Library when I come to Edinburgh later in the year, so many thanks again.

As regards John Grieve (1907), I do think that Portobello Cemetery would be a good starting point as it is the closest cemetery to where he lived on Joppa Road. So I think another query to Mortonhall is in order!

We went round Duddingston Kirkyard on our last visit to Edinburgh - there was a grave for an Agnes Grieve in there, but I don't know of an Agnes Grieve in my particular Grieve family.

As regards James Grieve who started all this on the forum- do you know if there's anywhere in Edinburgh where I can search ship passenger lists to see if he did go abroad?

Many thanks again for all your help.

Best wishes
Claudette

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:04 am

claudette wrote:As regards James Grieve who started all this on the forum- do you know if there's anywhere in Edinburgh where I can search ship passenger lists to see if he did go abroad?

Hi Claudette,

I am not aware of anywhere in Edinburgh with ships passenger lists. There are a number of online sites for passenger lists. Have a look at the posts at the top of TalkingScot's seafaring section.

All the best,

AndrewP

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:55 am

Hi Claudette
When you mentioned Coillesdene I was immediately taken back more than half a century to my childhood when friends used to stay in Coillesdene Drive. It is a short steep hill which looks over the Forth just at the end of Portobello Promenade. There is a modern (well fairly modern!) block of flats at the foot of the brae but in my childhood days there was a large mansion which I remember as a reddish building, with rather square towers.
I have not been able to find out the house numbering for Joppa Road but that big house is the only major building I know which has been demolished. The other houses are grey sandstone villas which were built around the end of the 1800's, and look as though they are good for another 50-100 years yet.
It was very near the original Edinburgh cable tramway terminus so there may be a photograph of it somewhere in the Edinburgh archives.

Russell

claudette · Post by **claudette** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:08 am

Hi Russell

I will certainly try to see if there's a photo of Coillesdene in the Edinburgh archives - would that be in the Edinburgh Room of Central Library?

John Grieve's widow, Marion lived there after his death for another 31 years as she didn't die until 1938 - whether anyone lived there with her I wouldn't know. It would be interesting to track down her will and see who she left the house to.

Did the house have a big garden as well can you remember? I love the fact that you can remember the place where my great-great-uncle used to live - it all helps bring our ancestors back to life.

Have just watched Nicky Campbell's Who Do You Think You Are about his adoptive father's family - some of whom emigrated out to Australia. A fascinating tale. Nicky Campbell went out to Brisbane to track down their history and found all the information about which ship his great-great-grandmother arrived in Australia in. (Records go back to 1851 I think he said) So I suggested to my husband that maybe I should have a few trips to Australia, South Africa etc to see if I could find James Grieve there! As you can imagine, I was told to get on my bike! It was worth a try though!

Best wishes
Claudette

Post by **AndrewP** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:26 am

claudette wrote:I will certainly try to see if there's a photo of Coillesdene in the Edinburgh archives - would that be in the Edinburgh Room of Central Library?

John Grieve's widow, Marion lived there after his death for another 31 years as she didn't die until 1938 - whether anyone lived there with her I wouldn't know. It would be interesting to track down her will and see who she left the house to.

Hi Claudette,

The Edinburgh Room has a collection of old Edinburgh photographs. If I remember rightly they are sorted into areas.

Another source in the Edinburgh Room that may be of interest to you is the Electoral Roll. This is a list of all the eligible voters produced annually. It is in street order, so you should be able to find the house(s) you are interested in and see who was living there before the death of Marion, and after to see if another recognisable name appears there. At that time those eligible to vote were all of at least 21 years of age (both sexes - they had been equal since 1930).

The Edinburgh Room may well have valuations rolls too. These should tell you who owned or rented the property at specific times.

All the best,

AndrewP

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:23 am

Hi Claudette

Just to add to Andrew's comments. I might suggest that you look for photographs of the tramway system too.
Edinburgh had a cable operated tramway which terminated at Joppa and passengers from Musselburgh, which had an electric tramway system, had to disembark there and move over to the Edinburgh tram.
There must be photographs of the inauguration of the system or Edinburgh's changeover to electricity which occurred later allowing continuous running of the trams, although Musselburgh gave theirs up and through running never did happen.
Unfortunately the best camera shots were from the built-up side of the road looking out across the Forth so the house might not appear.
As I remember it, the house was set back from the road with a wall round it. The garden extended from the Joppa road back up to the top of the hill.
I think there are actually two blocks of flats in what was the garden.
I have vague memories of my parents friends commenting that the occupant had been a bit of a recluse, but that was a few years before I was born that she had died.
This is dredging up memories from a long, long time ago. All happy ones may I add.

Russell

claudette · Post by **claudette** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:11 pm

Hi

Thought I'd let you all know that I think I've had a bit of a break through with searching for James Turner Grieve.

I've found that a James T. Grieve arrived in New York on 23rd August 1869 having crossed the Atlantic on the Iowa, a 1988 ton ship which sailed from Glasgow via Belfast. I found this info on both Ancestry and also on www.castlegarden.org - the age of this James T. Grieve and the approx birth year given tie in with my man. Also I found him in the 1861 Scottish census but could find no trace of him after that. So I am cautiously optimistic that I'm on the right track.

Does anyone have any good ideas as to the best way to find out where he went after that?

I appreciate that he could have gone to Canada or stayed in the USA and searching for info in those countries is a whole new ball game for me! I've tried a few of the websites in TS's list of websites for USA research but most of them say "Page unavailable"

Thanks Russell for all your childhood memories of where Coillesdene was - just fascinating. I'm not surprised that Marion Grieve was a bit of a recluse. She was an only child as far as I know, had no children of her own and she survived her husband by 31 years. She had no family left at all for many years and it was a nurse who registered her death. Presumably she wasn't very sociable. Very sad really - she must have been quite lonely for many years.

I'm coming up to Edinburgh briefly in August and a trip to the Edinburgh Room to look for photos is definitely on my long list of things to do.

Best wishes to you all
Claudette