TalkingScot.com

Pandabean wrote:What does the place look like from the front, do you know if it has a farm building feel to it?

I will take another drive past there on Monday and see.

Pandabean wrote:Am I ok to post a copy of the map (from old-maps) to the gallery with the overlay on it to show the area of farmland I am thinking of or is that against the rules?

Post it and credit them. If they complain, then it can be removed (it can look like a recommendation to their site).

Pandabean wrote:Edit: If you look at Oakbanks on NLS does that outline not look similar to the house in the aerial photo?

Maybe we are trying too hard to make the maps fit the history.

All the best,

AndrewP

Here is the map with the overlay to which I think the area of the farm is. Any problems with it being on here please feel free to delete it. What do you think?

Map from http://www.Old-Maps.co.uk
http://www.talkingscot.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-1249

Hi Andy,

I had a look at the houses in West Road. The ones in that section of road look late Victorian in style, so in my mind, Sommerfield has most probably been demolished and replaced.

All the best,

AndrewP

Hi, I was very interested to see your previous posts on James Whitson the farmer/gardener from Sommerfield Mains.
My interest is in my GGgrandmother Agnes Stewart who was a servant with the Reid family who's address was Sommerfield on the 1841 census Sommerfield Mains on the 1851.
Agnes had an illegitimate child in 1849 and though she was unmarried the father was given as William Whitton a Stone Mason.
I have always though the fathers surname was a mistake and now believe it should have been Whitson. Agnes died in 1859 so the illegitimate child John Muir Stewart would have been ten and not really aware of his 'fathers' surname then. John Muir married in Edinburgh 1909 as John Muir Whitton but went to the sheriff court a couple of years later and had his surname changed to Stewart. I think his fathers name was a mistake probably a clerk writing what he thought he heard and nobody checked it afterwards and was left as it was. John lived with his grandparents from birth, James Stewart his grandfather was the schoolmaster at Drem and retired to Ormiston taking John with them and listing him as a Stewart on the 51/61 census.
At last I will get to why I am messaging you. Did your James Whitson have a brother William a stone mason who as born in Prestonpans but was having Children in Levenhall while James was having children in Inveresk only just over a mile away in the 1830's/40's ? Would have been very possible for William to have been working on his brothers property when needed and being away from home may have had an affair with my GGgrandmother. Would be interesting if you were aware of any family gossip on this subject but even without I am very confident William Whitson was the father of my Ggrandfather John Muir Stewart/Whitson/Whitton. I really need to sort this one out so I can print my family tree which has been 20+ years researching without a huge question mark over my GGgrandfather. Hope you can help, Alan. (Dumfries).