Aitken's Auction, Edinburgh

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Jim
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Location: Canada

Aitken's Auction, Edinburgh

Post by Jim » Sat Sep 09, 2006 5:19 am

Hi everyone, I'm doing some family research for a friend who's grandfather, Frank Aitken, was an auctioneer in the Edinburgh area in the late 1890's and early 1900's.
By chance has anyone come across reference to this auction house or any ideas where I might find reference to it. Many thanks, Jim
Researching Ramsay, Laurenson, Jaffray, Rae, Sangster, Daniel, Plenderleith, Mutch, Coutts, Hutchison, Castel, Robertson, McKinnon and others in Aberdeenshire. Also McIntosh in Kincardine

grannysrock
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:21 am
Location: Belgium

Post by grannysrock » Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:38 am

Hi Jim

Is it possible the auction house was James A Aitken of 375 High Street ?

Here's a tale :

First a marriage from :
The Scotsman - Saturday, 13th November 1915, page 14
SHARPE-AITKEN.-At Edinburgh, on the lOth November
1915 (by special licence), CECIL JOHN SHARPE,
R.N.R. Assistant Paymaster, H.M.S. " Commonwealth,"
only son of Walter T. Sharpe, Haverfield, Kew Green,
London to FRANCES JANE FELL, fourth daughter of FRANK
AITKEN, auctioneer and valuator (late of Edinburgh)
,
and Mrs F. AITKEN, 354 Morningside Road, Edinburgh.
(Australian and Canadian papers please copy.)

Note daughter's name and wording - Frank appears to have left Edinburgh.

In the Scotman archive there are thousands of ads up till the end of its coverage ( 1950 ) for James A Aitken & Son, Auctioneers of 375 High Street Edinburgh.

The & Son bit was added in 1912 : a notice in the Scotsman of
Saturday, 23rd December 1911, confirms that JAMES AITCHISON AITKEN 's son THOMAS LAURIE AITKEN will join him as a partner as Auctioneer and Valuator at 375 High Street.

Armed with these names , I did a exact name search on the IGI: there are 2 hits for
JAMES AITCHISON AITKEN
this is the immediately relevant one - the other may well turn out to be a relative.
Birth: 13 APR 1857 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
Father: THOMAS LAURIE AITKEN
Mother: FRANCES JANE FELL
Batch No.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call No.: Type:
C116851 1855 - 1862 6035516 REGISTER Film NONE
Sheet: 00

Note the Mother's name !

A check for the marriage and other children
:

MARRIAGE
THOMAS LAURIE AITKEN
FRANCES JANE FELL
25 AUG 1854 Saint Nicholas, Liverpool, Lancashire, England

THOMAS LAWRIE AITKEN - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 13 DEC 1855 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

JAMES AITCHISON AITKEN - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 13 APR 1857 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

JOHN AITKEN - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 14 SEP 1860 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

FRANK AITKEN - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 30 MAR 1862 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

MARGARET THOMASINA ELIZABETH AITKEN - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Birth: 18 APR 1864 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

So a candidate for Frank ?.


Now then a further search of the Scotsman turned this up:

The Scotsman - Saturday, 11th November 1950, page 1

HEIRS WANTED.Any Parties claiming to he Heirs of the late FRANK AITKEN formerly of Edinburgh, Scotland (married to Jessie Hay, who died on 15th January I918 at Liverpool, New South Wales. Australia, arc requested to communicate with the undersigned, to their possible advantage.
SHEPHERD & WEDDERBURN, W.S.,
16 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.

A quick search on the NSW BMD Index at


http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/Index ... ent=births

gives this result
Registration Number Last Name Given Name(s) Father's Given Name(s) Mother's Given Name(s) District
2804/1918 AITKEN FRANK THOMAS L FRANCES J LIVERPOOL



Is this the right family ? Apologies if I a m telling you stuff you already know . or if I am barking up the wrong tree completely.

Sally
Newhaven-DRYBURGH,NICOLL,HUNTER(+Alloa) ; Lesmahagow-MITCHELL,LAMB, BARR, BROWN,CALLAN; Comrie-MCDOUGALL, MCEWEN, MCLAREN, BRYSON; BEW - PRINGLE, FISHER,SPENCE;Edzell-MIDDLETON,DORWARD;
Edin.-JOHNSTON, MONTGOMERY;Fife-SIME, FORRESTER, WANLESS

grannysrock
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:21 am
Location: Belgium

Post by grannysrock » Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:42 am

forgot a bit :
The Scotsman - Thursday, 5th February 1914, page 12
AITKEN..At a Nursing Home, Edinburgh, on tbe 23 inst.,
James Aitchison Aitken, auctioneer, of 14 Gilmour Road.
Craigmillar Park, in his 57th year. Funeral from house
to Newington Cemetery to-day (Thursday), at 2.30.
Friends please accept this intimation and invitation.

And also to say that you can search the Scotsman Archives online at
http://archive.scotsman.com/

Sally
Newhaven-DRYBURGH,NICOLL,HUNTER(+Alloa) ; Lesmahagow-MITCHELL,LAMB, BARR, BROWN,CALLAN; Comrie-MCDOUGALL, MCEWEN, MCLAREN, BRYSON; BEW - PRINGLE, FISHER,SPENCE;Edzell-MIDDLETON,DORWARD;
Edin.-JOHNSTON, MONTGOMERY;Fife-SIME, FORRESTER, WANLESS

grannysrock
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:21 am
Location: Belgium

Post by grannysrock » Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:23 am

Jim I just looked at the NAS catalogue :

http://www.dswebhosting.info/NAS/DServe ... =Index.tcl

RefNo Title Date
CS318 Concluded Sequestration Processes under 1856 Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1858-
CS318/58 Concluded Sequestration Processes under 1856 Act 1915

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CountryCode GB
RepCode 234
RefNo CS318/58/1
Repository National Archives of Scotland
Title Frank Aitken, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Auctioneer valuer
Date 1915
Description Start date: 24/04/1907
AccessStatus Open
DeptCipher A22921

It might be worthwhile looking at this ?

Sally
Newhaven-DRYBURGH,NICOLL,HUNTER(+Alloa) ; Lesmahagow-MITCHELL,LAMB, BARR, BROWN,CALLAN; Comrie-MCDOUGALL, MCEWEN, MCLAREN, BRYSON; BEW - PRINGLE, FISHER,SPENCE;Edzell-MIDDLETON,DORWARD;
Edin.-JOHNSTON, MONTGOMERY;Fife-SIME, FORRESTER, WANLESS

Jim
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:27 pm
Location: Canada

Aitken Auction

Post by Jim » Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:44 pm

Sally, thank you so much. You have filled in many blanks in this family's history.
This is the family. What you've found is that the Auction House actually was founded by Frank's (b: 1862) uncle. A family story suggested that Frank left his family in Edinburgh about 1910/11 and went to Australia. Your findings confirm this.
Your reference to Frank's death in the Scotsman is dated 11 Nov., 1950. Is that right?
Many thanks for this information. Jim
Researching Ramsay, Laurenson, Jaffray, Rae, Sangster, Daniel, Plenderleith, Mutch, Coutts, Hutchison, Castel, Robertson, McKinnon and others in Aberdeenshire. Also McIntosh in Kincardine

Jim
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:27 pm
Location: Canada

Aitken Auction

Post by Jim » Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:55 pm

Sally,

Sorry, I meant to say James A. would be Frank's brother. Many thanks again for all that info. Jim
Researching Ramsay, Laurenson, Jaffray, Rae, Sangster, Daniel, Plenderleith, Mutch, Coutts, Hutchison, Castel, Robertson, McKinnon and others in Aberdeenshire. Also McIntosh in Kincardine

grannysrock
Posts: 472
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:21 am
Location: Belgium

Post by grannysrock » Sat Sep 09, 2006 1:41 pm

Jim
I"m glad its the right family.
yes the item about Frank's heirs was in 1950 . Perhaps some money turned up somewhere ! (Thomas Laurie Aitken died 6 Aug 1949 ?????) I think you are going to have fun figuring it all out...

Sally
Newhaven-DRYBURGH,NICOLL,HUNTER(+Alloa) ; Lesmahagow-MITCHELL,LAMB, BARR, BROWN,CALLAN; Comrie-MCDOUGALL, MCEWEN, MCLAREN, BRYSON; BEW - PRINGLE, FISHER,SPENCE;Edzell-MIDDLETON,DORWARD;
Edin.-JOHNSTON, MONTGOMERY;Fife-SIME, FORRESTER, WANLESS

AndrewP
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Post by AndrewP » Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:44 pm

Assuming High Street, Edinburgh has not been re-numbered (I don't think it has), then 375 is directly opposite the front steps of St Giles Cathedral. From what I can see on the web, until recently it was owned by the city council and rented out as offices to the Scottish Parliament. I went down there this afternoon, and 375 is currently boarded up, looking like the builders are in doing some work there.

With a bit of searching it can be seen in this photo taken this afternoon looking up the Royal Mile (High Street section) towards the Castle.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-755

In that picture, in the middle distance, you will see a shop (whisky specialist shop) with a green sunshade out (yes, itr was sunny today). 375 is the blue painted shop immediately befrore that. I suspect that at least the first flat above the shop may well belong to the same premises - was that the auctioneer's premises?

All the best,

AndrewP

Jim
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:27 pm
Location: Canada

375 High Street

Post by Jim » Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:40 pm

Andrew,
Bless you. I've been looking on the net to see if I could find an old archived photo of the building in the 1800's to use as a cover for the Family history. Your photo will do if I can't find a better one. Thanks very much for that...much appreciated. Jim
Researching Ramsay, Laurenson, Jaffray, Rae, Sangster, Daniel, Plenderleith, Mutch, Coutts, Hutchison, Castel, Robertson, McKinnon and others in Aberdeenshire. Also McIntosh in Kincardine

AndrewP
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Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:36 am
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Post by AndrewP » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:28 am

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately a "straight on" photo of the front of the building was not possible as they are re-building the road right outside there, and there is a safety fence in the way of the view. Perhaps one day, they will finish resurfacing the High Street and the direct view from outside St Giles' Cathedral will be available.

All the best,

Andrew

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