Baptist church in SA Archives

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hello B

Wellllll........thank you so much for super flag, the best I've ever seen!!!     

And for great help with Thomas Aitken's death, it is the right one.  I've just discovered he died 1935, think possibly early in the year, in Kingswilliamstown, and buried, Kingswilliamstown.

Will email you with bare facts I have so far, to-morrow , when internet isn't so busy, this took half an hour to get into RC!   ..........hoping you will be able to find out more.

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hello

The last record I have of Thomas Aitken in the UK, in Scotland, is:

      1891 Census   -   Thomas Aitken, age 20,  Boarder,   Joiner

                                  53 Caledonia Road
                                  Cambusmethan
                                  Wishaw
                                  Scotland

    Home of Janet Steele

Wishaw is about 15 miles South East of Glasgow.   

Some of his family are still at the family home, West Linton at this time.   

So, I'm assuming he left working for his father, or with his father, John Aitken, also a Joiner?   

Maybe he attended a Baptist Church in Cambusmethan, and there decided to be a missionary?   

Have not details on Janet Steele, she may have been a relative, I don't know?   

Five years later, he is on the Island of St Vincent,  part of the Cape Verde Island Group, as a Baptist Missionary.

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hello

No response as yet from the Peebles Baptist Church  (since 15 May) and seeing that I now know that Thomas Aitken was living in Cambusmethan, when he was 20, near Wishaw, I have now contacted the Wishaw Baptist Church.

Hoping they will be able to tell me if he was a member of their congregation and if they recruited/trained missionaries for around the world, in the latter part of last century?   

AND, if they have any specific details of him??   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hello

No response yet from either the Peebles Baptist Church, nor the Wishaw Baptist Church   

Would anyone know please, how to discover where and how, Baptist Missionaries were recruited and trained in Scotland, round about 1895?   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hello

My late mother's Journal of her trip to the Island of St Helena, October, 1985, accompanied by her elder sister, Dorothy Aitken, and their cousin, Winifred Bateman from the USA, has just been retrieved from storage in the barn.
   
Pages and pages of photos, memorabilia and 40 A4 pages of handwritten notes to read and enjoy later!   

So, at last will have some more answers to never ending questions about the life of her parents, Rev Thomas and Edith Aitken on the Island, from 1897 - 1905!   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 


A series of photographs, taken by the Rev Thomas Aitken, 1898 - 1904, had previously been donated by Dorothy Aitken, to the Museum in Jamestown, St Helena, and the lady Curator on the 11 Oct, 1985, was busy showing them to a party of primary school children when Edith Constance Moe, nee Aitken, Dorothy Aitken and Winifred Bateman, his descendants visited the Museum.

Mention is made that in the main square of Jamestown, they walked past the church where the Rev Tom had been Minister and the Hospital where their mother had been a nurse.

On a visit to the Archives, they found records of their Grandparents 'Robert Galbraith (Ships Chandler) and Elizabeth Short.

I don't know where Robert Galbraith fits in the family tree?     

Edith Mary Short, b St Helena, (married Rev Thomas Aitken), as far as I know, her parents were from Yorkshire, England, but I don't yet know her parents' names?   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

[Danchaslyn]

 

I've noticed from my late mother's Journal of the trip to St Helena that her elder sister Dorothy is actually,

'Elizabeth Dorothy Aitken'

also, their American cousin Winifred, age 86, at time of voyage in 1985, is..

'Winifred Grace Bateman'.

Family names again, as Dorothy and Constance's eldest sister was Winifred Grace Aitken.

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

 


From IGI:

                     Winifred Bateman, b 25 July, 1899

                      Death:  1 April, 1996       Social Security No:  131-12-1579
                                                              Obtained in New York State

                      Death Register ZIP Code  28601
                                              North Carolina

Could this be cousin Winifred G Bateman?

Cheers

Danchslyn

 

[Danchaslyn]

Came across a scrap of paper, in the hand of a long gone relative and it states that  THOMAS AITKEN  attended  Spurgeons College in London for training for the Baptist Ministry.

http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Spurgeons_College  (See Spurgeons in Wikipedia)

Noted that in Thomas Aitken's day (he may have attended the College between roughly 1887 - 1896), it was called  The Pastors College

It opened in 1857 and was named after Charles Haddon Spurgeon and is run by the Baptist Union of Great Britain in association with the University of Wales.

I've emailed the Archivist at the College requesting further details of Thomas Aitken's time there as a student.

Cheers

Danchaslyn