James Gillespie - 344 Holmhead St, Glasgow

[darylrodger]

Hi,

I'm trying to locate my 3 x great uncle James Gillespie b. 27 Oct 1838 in Fort William to David Gillespie & Mary McMillan.
I think I've found him in his father's death cert. on 4 March 1861, living at 344 Holmhead St. Glasgow but can't find anything about him.
I'm not sure where Holmhead St. is, and don't have any other info on him.

He was listed on the 1851 census living with his parents & siblings aged 12, as a cotton spinner at Cross Keys, Doune, Kilmadock.
His mother Mary died in 1856 in Doune.

Can anyone help ?

Thanks,

Daryl

[nelmit]

Hi Daryl,

Not much help in finding James but if you look at H 12 on this map https://maps.nls.uk/view/117744087 you will find Holmhead St.

Are you sure it was number 344 as the street seems a bit short for that?

Regards,
Annette

[WilmaM]

Holmhead street became Cumingham Street at some point.
It ran over the railway
Iines, just outside Queen street station.
Now it would be actually inside the Buchanan Galleries Shopping centre!

Have you checked the 1861 census for him? It was done on the 7th of April, so I'd imagine he was still had the same address as on the death cert. Unless he wa still at home with the family?
You didnt say where his father died?

[darylrodger]

Hi,

Yes, I have tried looking for James in the 1861 census at Holmhead St. ( I've attached a pic of the address) not sure if it says 34 /2 or 34 & a half) but can't find anything.

James' father David died on 4 March 1861 in 70 Cowan St. Stirling.

I think he moved to Glasgow from Doune sometime between 1851-1861, and don't know what occupation he had in 1861.

I'm confused about how many Holmhead St's there are, I'm aware of the one in town, and there's also one in the south side of Glasgow in Cathcart.

Daryl

[AndrewP]

Hi Daryl,

I read the address as 34½ Holmhead Street. I have a number of BMD certificates with "½" in the address.

As for which Holmhead Street, which registration district was the death registered in? That should be at the top of the page, as in the example below.

D-cert-heading.JPG (43.28 KiB) Viewed 1312 times

All the best,

AndrewP

[nelmit]

The Southside Holmhead is Road not Street.

Regards,
Annette

[Currie]

The 1860/61 Glasgow Directory has Holmhead Street numbers only going up to the 50s.
https://archive.org/stream/postofficean ... a#page/360

It could be a bit up-market judging by the occupations of the residents. A solicitor appears to be an occupant of no. 34½.

There's a James Gillespie, Builder, living at 69½ Cowane Street, Stirling, in 1868.
https://archive.org/stream/duncanjamies ... nc#page/42

Alan

[WilmaM]

That's very interesting - I wonder if he was moving between the 2 addresses on census night and got missed from both.

What was his father's occupation on the death record? hopefully a builder and son taken over...

[Falkyrn]

Sadly Holmhead Street no longer exists - it ran from Dundas Street to North Frederick Street just north of ( and roughly parallel to) Cathedral Street a short distance from the modern City Centre. (as described above about 75% of it lies beneath the Buchanan Galleries Shopping Centre)

From the maps Holmhead Street was a relatively short street and was unlikely to have numbers going as high as 344 - possibly it may be 34/4 i.e. a tenement with a street number of 34 and then flat number 4 in the building.

NLS Maps https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... yers=6&b=1

[carlineric]

Looks like it is 34 1/2 as suggested, as the 1861 census shows entries for 34 1/2 between schedules 42 and 53 of enumeration district 28 (using Ancestry enter 28 into ED, 644/1 into Registration Number and then you can step through the entries by entering the schedule numbers into the Household schedule number, all exact. There is no map available for the time period which shows the street numbers, the only one I am aware of is the 1/1250 OS which is dated 1950 and the street has been renamed to Cunningham Street, see https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... rs=170&b=1. This would place 34 1/2 near to the railway bridge on the south side. This is assuming that there was no renumbering although following the enumerator's route we have 95 North Hanover Street then 50 Holmhead Street which matches the map.

Eric