Nicolson Street Edinburgh 1901

[Hibee]

The following were listed in the 1905 Valuation Rolls:

GARDNER
JOHN KAY
Proprietor
SHOP NO 51 NICOLSON STREET
EDINBURGH
1905

SCOTT
MARY
MISS
Tenant Occupier
SHOP NO 51 NICOLSON STREET
EDINBURGH
1905

Hibee

[jaybeats]

Hi, I am trying to find more information on my Grandfather’s birth in 1904. His birth address is also 51 Nicholson St and he was also adopted.
I am wondering if this was possibly a place for unmarried mothers to go and where their babies would be given up for adoption.
I don’t think it is coincidence that the records you are looking at are similar.

[dowdstree]

Hi jaybeats and a warm welcome to rootschat.

Legal adoption did not come into being until 1930 in Scotland so prior to that it would have been a private arrangement.

Nicolson Street in Edinburgh had shops at street level and tenement private houses above. It did not have a specific place for unmarried mothers to go to have their babies. I would think that one of the flat residents let out rooms to the mothers and once the baby was born helped to arrange an unofficial adoption or a foster home for them.

Have you found your grandfather in the 1911 and 1921 Scottish Census? What surname does he use on his marriage certificate? Perhaps you could post his name here.

Best wishes,

Dorrie
.

[Unë kthimi i papenduar]

Hibee's reply quoting Mrs Mary Ann Bradfield at No.51 (51a in 1905) is listed a midwife.

[dowdstree]

Mary Ann Bradfield is still listed in the 1905 Valuation Roll at 51A Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Midwife.

She died in 1910.

Dorrie