Bathgate Travel Answers

If the road isn't very long it's quite possible there will be a cottage on it with a sign outside stating Drumcross Cottage. Otherwise, if you can find the local Post Office Delivery Office - they will know where it is if it is an official registered address (i.e. one you can send mail to without needing a house number).

It's not unusual (at least, in the past) for an address to be simply the name of the house or structure in smaller towns. I have a friend in Cavendish (England) whose address is to this day just "Bagley House"...I don't know if he has a number or not...ditto with a family I stayed with in Ireland, whose address was just "The Bramblings" in Killiney. I am guessing that the suggestion above is right - the Post Office certainly knows where the house is...but perhaps there is some online method of finding these addresses??? Bill

Drumcross Cottages exists on googlemaps and you can see them on streetview. They are not actually in Bathgate itself, but are a set of probably tied farmworkers' cottages between Bathgate and Livingston. Addresses exist for numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 (they may since have been knocked into fewer buildings). So it's likely that your father was born in one of those cottages, although you cannot know which one without further research. Unfortunately, the 1921 and 31 censuses, which would tell you exactly which cottage, will not be made public for another 9/19 years. I doubt your grandparents were actually been married there, as marriages could only take place in a religious building or an official civil location...unless there is a church or chapel nearby (Drumcross Cottages *may* be the name of the hamlet...or may have been at that time). You'll need a taxi to get there, I suspect. The buildings are in a fairly rural setting and it's unlikely they are on a bus route.

Drumcross Cottages are still individual dwellings. I suggest you try and look at the records in the local church as it is likely that he was baptised (or whatever) there. Names of houses and no numbers are very usual here in the UK. All my addresses that I have lived in have been/are precisely that.

Thank you very much. I did actually see Drumcross Cottages outside of Bathgate and also noticed there were a few homes there. I will try to do some digging. When do they release the census records and how do I access them. Perhaps I could find my grandparents marriage as they were married in 1924? Thanks for taking the time to answer my posting.

The public can't access census records until 100 years have passed, I'm afraid. The most recent ones released to the general public are for the 1911 census. So you'll have to wait quite few years for the 1931 census to be accessible. You should be able to trace your grandparents' marriage certificate though. Start here: nationalarchives.gov.uk/reco...

Thanks again. I will try that.