The 1894 Alan Godfrey map shows a church on the site at the top of Cranston St. I think the back of the building has also been used recently by the social work department. The map comes with a bit of(undated) post office directory which shows four entries for the address: the Clydesdale Bank (agent's name-may not have been a bank as such) and three other names with no trades or anything. The 1881 census index shows eight households including a young glass maker called James GORE. The 1881 census shows a 'christian inst" which going by the folio numbers was located in Cranston st itself, possibly at Number 4. The occupant was Wm BLYTH, a bootmaker. My guess is that this has caused the confusion. Your relatives were probably housed in a tenement which was next door to the Christian institute. The street may have been renumbered, but I think its more likely that the street numbers were missing or hard to interpret when you looked. A lot of shops in Edinburgh dont have a street number on them at all. The entry to the building might be up a passageway (a close) - there is one listed at 269. You may have noticed the Bank of Scotland on that side of the road - I have checked in the phone book and that is number 263. Another possibility is that the Institute expanded and took over the site of number 271. Perhaps at that point the entrance was moved to the Canongate side. Hope this helps. I expect others can add something to it. Cheers Judy ---------- >From: "adderley@onthefrontlines.com" <adderley@onthefrontlines.com> >To: SCT-EDINBURGH-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [EDB] question for the list >Date: Tue, Jan 8, 2002, 4:53 pm > > Hello all! > I've just returned to Canada from a trip to Scotland. Was mostly > visiting my husband's family near Glasgow, but I did manage to > sneak in a bit of genealogy when I visited Edinburgh (beautiful > city!!) and found the address listed on my great grandmother's > registration of birth. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the > address in question, 271 Canongate (bottom end of the Royal > Mile), appears to be a church. > > The building has a stone that reads "Canongate Christian Institute > 1878". Around the front door is a panel of glass with the street > number 271 and the words "Cranston House" etched in the glass. > The building is now home to the Edinburgh English School. > > My great grandmother, Annie Gardner Myers, was born in 1879, so > presumably this building was there -- it's not a new addition to the > street. Her father listed his profession as foreman in a glassworks. snip