James Brown and two women in Edinburgh - could it get any more difficult?!

[MonicaL]

That is an interesting story around the property (also as an aside on the property, it has a Bay City Rollers angle in later decades too, when it was bought by one of the band members www.rootschat.com/links/01kjn/).

Why would Isabella Jeanie have been based there I wonder by herself in 1925 

Monica

[Millmoor]

Worth doing a search in the newspaper archive just searching for 37 Palmerston Place. Lots of adverts  in The Scotsman re rental acccomodation there. (The property seems  to have been a  war dressiings depot in WW1).

William

Added Mr Google would suggest 37 Palmerston Place is now called Palmerston Suites-interesting photos on Trip Advisor etc.

[Kay99]

From memory I was at college many, many years ago at 39 Palmerston Place - I think pre Bay City Rollers!!!   The place was enormous!  Small world

Kay

[tillimay]

A bit more checking of the VRs after I posted last night, shows that in 1925 Isabella was an Inhabitant Occupier - apart from the Proprietor Miss Kirkwood, all the other residents were Tenant Occupiers and single girls, which confirms what you discovered about it being a rooming house, William. 

It seems that an Inhabitant Occupier was someone who had tied accommodation, so may be Isabella was responsible for cleaning and James was either carrying on his trade as a slater or had retired from that and was a maintenance/handyman.  May be there was a newspaper advert for staff for 37 Palmerston Place around the right time to tie up the story, a bit more checking I think.  No matter what they were doing there it must've been a huge step up from living in a tenement!  No wonder she wore a fur coat when she visited the family in Niddrie!  Fascinating. 

We also have a Bay City Rollers connection - hubby's cousin (also descended from Elizabeth) went to the same school and was in the same class as Stuart 'Woody' Wood. 

[Millmoor]

Just to go slightly off piste Miss Kirkwood looks like a very interesting lady. The valuation roll for 1925 gives her full name as Elizabeth Henry Kirkwood. (There is only one birth on SP for someone with this name).

This is a brief biography

Elizabeth Henry Kirkwood (1882- 1967)

...was a member of the Edinburgh family of engravers and medalists.Her father was a master goldsmith. In a long career her work involved many ceremonial work,including badges of office,trophy cups and mazer bowls.She took over  the enameling of stallplates for the Chapel of the Knights of the Thistle...She had her studios in Thistle Street and George Street.

There seem to be various references to her in The Scotsman,some as Elizabeth Kirkwood and some as Elizabeth H Kirkwood. One article from 1943 refers to a talk she gave on "Single Rooms for Professional Women" where she advocated a semi - communal style of living.

William

[MonicaL]

Elizabeth Kirkwood sound a fascinating character for sure doesn't she. Hopefully a good place for Isabella Jeanie to have been living/working at 

Monica

[tillimay]

That's what I love about genealogy, finding out the stories behind the names and dates - that's why it's so addictive!