More About Using Old Maps

Regarding my post of 22 July 2014: It seemed like a great story – Alexander Cooper meeting his first wife at the candy store in Glasgow. Unfortunately, I have since found the location of John Street on which he and his mother lived in 1881. It was actually way across the Clyde River, in Govan District. So it is unlikely they met near Hutcheson Street, in the City of Glasgow, where Margaret Scott lived in 1881.

I finally found a map on the National Library of Scotland website, dated 1896, that shows all of the street names in Govan. From this map, it is clear that the family lived in the Govan area from at least 1871 through 1891.

 

Portion of map of Govan, Lanarkshire, Sheet 006.09 – 25 Inch Ordnance Survey Map, published 1896; downloaded 12 August 2014 from National Library of Scotland website

Residences of Elizabeth and Alexander Cooper:

1871    Elizabeth and Alexander Couper at 22 Hamilton Street, Govan with sister Ann Jackson and her family; John Blackburn, Elizabeth’s first husband, lived at same address

1881    Elizabeth and Alexander Blackburn at 4 John Street, Govan; John Blackburn lived at 7 Main Street, Govan, six blocks east of John Street

1885    Alexander indicated his father, John (Blackburn?) lived at 2 Albert Street, also six blocks east of John Street

1890    Alexander Cooper lived at Hamilton Barracks at the time of his first marriage

1891    Elizabeth Blackburn at 18 White Street, Govan (just north of John Street)

1892    Elizabeth was still at White Street at the time of her second marriage while her second husband lived on Fairfield Street just to the west

The lessons here are: look at all the old maps you can find and pay more attention to what the censuses and other documents actually say with regard to addresses. When you do find the right map, as I did this week, it really ties the family history together.