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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Dumfriesshire => Topic started by: walterc on Sunday 18 May 08 18:57 BST (UK)
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The following letter appeared in last week’s “Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser” and I waited to see if there was any reply to it in the current issue on 15/05/2008.
Since there hasn’t been, I have asked the permission to reproduce it below in the hope that someone, as the writer says, “can shed light on this mystery.”
At the Archive Centre in Langholm, we have had many enquiries which could have perhaps been solved through reference to these Kirk Session records. All the more galling since we have been told that they were in existence around 40 years ago.
Walter
http://wwwlangholmarchivecentre.org.uk
WHERE ARE THE OLD KIRK SESSION RECORDS HIDING?
Does anyone know what has happened to the Langholm's kirk session records for the 19th century?
Other people must be in my position where, in researching family history, I discover that these records are missing or even lost.
They are not to be found in the records kept in General Register House in Edinburgh. Those records which do exist there are wrongly classified as Kirk Session records but are, in fact, for Langholm Presbytery and date from the late 18th century to the middle of the 19th.
There is no sign of kirk session records for that period for any of the presbyterian churches in Langholm, as far as I can ascertain.
Nor do they appear to be held by the churches themselves in Langholm.
I have heard an alarming suggestion that they were found in someone's loft in Langholm some years ago and thrown out and I hope that story is untrue.
I'd be grateful to anyone who can shed light on this mystery.
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I can't help answer the question, but am also interested in the whereabouts of these records.
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Hi
They are indexed as being held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh. They are supposed to go online shortly (I assume via Scotlands People)
(Just noticed that the original question was asked back in 2008 - maybe they are missing/wrongly indexed !)
gnu
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The Langholm Kirk sessions papers listed under CH2/1624 don't seem to start until about 1870 - I am looking for earlier records , about 1820-1850. There seems to be quite a lot missing somewhere !
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Hi
Yes but the original posting was over 3 years ago and concerned an article saying that they were missing.
As no one has made a reply about their whereabouts, I assume that no one knows.
All might be revealed when the extant records go online.
gnu
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The only records digitised for Langholm are the Presbytery ones, not the Kirk Session (which does indeed look like they start in 1872).
However, the story of them being thrown out is altogether too common and wouldn't surprise me in the least.
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It's very sad when we find that whole blocks of records are missing but we have to remember that people who held them didn't realised that they might be useful in the future. There are whole sections of OPRs in one or two of the KKD parishes that are missing and have hampered my own research.
I recall back in the 1960s, when I was assisting on a research project involving James Maitland, going to a country house and being shown where the letters, etc. were kept - in a small damp back room with the odd cat running about. The letters (and some wonderful watercolours by Robert Adam) were slowly disintegrating.
gnu
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Thanks all for the replies so far .... maybe they will turn up one day.
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the early Kirk sessions for Langhom where found in an attic and burned a number of years ago. It is very sad and all too common. All that remains is now held by the NAS.
The MI's have been transcribed for Langholm and if you are in need of assistance the local archive group is superb: www.langholmarchive.com
Emma
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Thankyou for the information, albeit not what I wanted to hear !
I was hoping those records would have information on a couple of illegitimate births in Langholm and name the fathers for me ...
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You're not alone, we have needed them in the past for the very same reason. Where both parents form Langhom? If not you could look in the other parish but other than that it could be very difficult.
Emma
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A bit of an update.
Knowing the Kirk session records are "lost", last week I spent a few days looking at the Langholm Presbytery records on the advice of my course tutor. Although I could not find exactly what I was looking for, I did note that a number of individual cases from the various parishes were raised at meetings, particularly where individuals had failed to attend the summons to the meeting of their local Kirk Sessions.
There was one particularly "scandalous situation" of a young woman and she had the surname I am seeking, and the note included her father's name and occupation. She had concealed her pregnancy to the moment of her delivery and been delivered of a child in a clandestine manner. The minister was asking the Presbytery for advice on how to proceed "in the case of this atrocious scandall (sic)and found the said scandall (sic) to deserve the severest marks of the Churchs displeasure and advised the session to appoint her to be severely rebuked for the same, And appoint King Williams Act (cant read the word?) Child Murder to be read at the same time from the said pulpit"
So it might be worth having look just in case something crops up.
I also looked at Westerkirk records as the brother of my OH g grandfather lived there and I found mention of him in their parish accounts when he paid 2 shillings for his Proclamation.