Jessie Russell Aitken

Other Events:

• _UID: 75B3D7EE81E34CCDB9AA024C4D75BFDE7A84
• Residence: 1901, Ballencrief Nursery, Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
• Residence: 17 Aug 1921, Ballencrief Nursery, Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland

Notes:

Jessie stayed at home helping out in the nursery and with the housework.

Peter, Jessie's youngest elder brother had been a postman and been very friendly with a workmate, James William Smith, and he also became friendly with the rest of the family, especially Jessie. Jimmy and Jessie courted and then married in 1921.

According to her son James Aitken Smith; "After Jimmy and Jessie were married the first lived at Stankards Rows, or 'Randy Raws' as they were sometimes called. These stood just below Uphall Station, were the typical whitewashed stone cottages of the time and had been built for the local shale miners and oil workers who were a bit rough and ready. In May 1923 they moved to the middle cottage of "Springbank" a block of 3 semidetached cottages about 200 yards up Station Road from the the Miller's Bridge in Uphall.
The cottages had been vacant and they, Jimmy and Jessie, had been allowed to move in a week before the Term or Quarter Day, the 28th May, when tenancies normally began or ended, because of their circumstances." At 11 pm on the 28th James Aitken Smith was born.
About 9 years later, her husband was transferred to a bigger post office at Broxburn. And so the family moved to a cottage at Goshen. After the owner of the cottage wanted his cottage back the family moved to the East end of Broxburn. About 1937 the family were on the move again, this time to Bathgate to one of the Ballencrieff Farm cottages and then to the Ballencrieff Nursery.
Jessie developed breast cancer . Fortunately the operation was successful however it had affected the lymph gland and she was left with a swollen left arm.
After Jimmy died she continued to live at Ballencrieff on her own for a while. Her son James was working in Sunderland and so when his son Colin was accepted by Edinburgh he would stay with his gran until he obtained a place in the Univerity Halls of Residence. As Jessie got frailer and frailer she had to go to hospital where she passed away.

Jessie married James William Smith on 17 Aug 1921 in Ballencrief Nursery, Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. James (son of James Smith and Agnes Mark) was born on 26 Jul 1896 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland; died on 20 Jul 1971 in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• _UID: CE294AC6C37942F4853AA890D99F1476723D
• Occupation: 26 Dec 1950; Civil Servant, Tax Dept

Notes:

Notes from Terry Stewart
After they married they moved to England where James then spent most of his working life.
After retirement they moved back to Scotland, moving into Elizabeth's house at Carrinden Brae, Bo'ness.
I first met Aitken through a great coincidence.
I was visiting Torphichen, in 1991, and was sitting outside the village shop reading a pamphlet of the village I has just purchased.
The author was a Robert Kerr who happened to live in Torphichen Village.
I called at his home and finding no one home I left a message for him to contact me in Edinburgh.
This he did, that evening.
He asked that on my return to Australia would I write an article for his local paper.
This I duly did. At the conclusion of the article I asked him that if he knew of any Aitken's would he ask them to get in touch with me.
On receiving my letter Robert Kerr had a visitor, Alex Pender.
He informed Alex of my request and Alex told him of a friend James Aitken Smith, commonly called Aitken.
Right away he phoned this Aitken Smith and he got into his car and drove over to Torphichen from Bo'ness and copied my letter..
Aitken went straight back home and wrote to me immediately. Thus began a long, but infrequent, association.
Not only was Aitken a relative but so was Alex Pender.
Aitken has extensive knowledge of the family and has collected many snippets of information about them.
Aitken and I met for the first time in 1993.
Together we have driven the Bathgate Hills checking out the family farms.
Betty, his wife, thought we were mad, in our pursuit of the family tree. Despite this she was a lovely lady. Unfortunately neither Betty nor Aitken enjoyed the best of health.
Although his health has precluded Aitken from spending as much time on the search for relatives, their homes and work he still makes time to be very much involved with his local church of which he is an Elder.
Betty suffered an injury to her right foot and then had a circulation problem in her left leg and had to go into hospital on Friday, 30th Dec, 2005. her blood count was found to be so low that the doctors could not operate. Finally it was decided to keep her comfortable as nothing more could be done. She was cheerful and sensible right up to a few hours before she deteriorated rapidly and slipped away with Colin and his wife Anne and Aitken by her side on 11 Feb 2006.

James married Elizabeth Cowie Heaps Martin on 26 Dec 1950 in Bo'Ness, West Lothian, Scotland. Elizabeth was born on 4 May 1923 in Bo'Ness, West Lothian, Scotland; died on 11 Feb 2006 in Bo'Ness, West Lothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]