Numbering in High Street Linlithgow?

[WilmaM]

In 1871 do you have a shoemaker by the name of Robert Downie [age 28] living at 388 High Street?

They are living beside 'my' Olivers.

[Andersonic]

Yes, I most certainly have him. His father, James Downie, who married Elizabeth Bowie, died 1870, and the family seem to have split up then. He was also a shoemaker, and Robert's sister, Elizabeth, who went to England, was our direct ancestor. It's a world full of coincidences, isn't it?

[WilmaM]

I hadn't looked at the Linlithgow branch for a while, thought I'd check the census for a street number and lo and behold a Downie.

I did check a few more certs but no sign of them together again, though as one family had 13 children they may well have intermarried along the lines.

[JohnI]

Hello andersonic,

This may be of interest to you.
I have a sheet from the 1871 census for the High Street, Linlithgow. There are 5 families listed:
Number 247 High Street there is Thomas Dixon - Shoemaker, his wife Elizabeth and 6 children.
Mount Pleasant (No number given) there is Robert Braes - Carter, his wife and 2 children.
The Manse (No number given) there is John Munro - Minister of the UP Church and his 2 sisters.
Number 249 High Street there is James Leslie - Law Clerk, his wife and 2 children.
Number 249 High Street (note same number) there is James Drumbeck - Carter and his wife.

Regards
johni

[rossm]

This may be of interest to you.
I have a sheet from the 1871 census for the High Street, Linlithgow. There are 5 families listed:
Number 247 High Street there is Thomas Dixon - Shoemaker, his wife Elizabeth and 6 children.
Mount Pleasant (No number given) there is Robert Braes - Carter, his wife and 2 children.
The Manse (No number given) there is John Munro - Minister of the UP Church and his 2 sisters.
Number 249 High Street there is James Leslie - Law Clerk, his wife and 2 children

That's a very illuminating bit of information. The modern numbering of the high street places 247 on the corner of New Well Wynd. The 1856 map of Linthlithgow places the UP Manse at the foot of New Well Wynd. There is only one other building in New Well Wynd at that time. It isn't named on the map, but I would suggest this could be 'Mount Pleasant'. This would imply the street numbering in 1871 matches the modern numbering, i.e the census taker has gone to 247 High street, then gone down New Well Wynd and enumerated the two properties there (listing them by name rather than by number) then returned to the High Street and carried on from 249.

Ross

[Andersonic]

Thank you very much, rossm, I'm now poised over my (modern) map of Linlithgow, with my printout of old map by me, and my list of Bowies and Downies in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 .... and the few actual numbers i have for that street, trying to pinpoint them, and match them with the locations I took photographs of the other week!! Slightly cross-eyed, but it all is helping to give me the picture of where that Elizabeth Downie of mine grew up!