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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Dumfriesshire => Topic started by: doddsie4 on Friday 05 September 14 11:12 BST (UK)
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The above two ancestors of mine were born at Kirkmichael, but Kirkmichael isn't on my map, and I know that it definitely isn't the Kirkmichael in Ayrshire, which has just been a red herring in my searches. So would I be correct in thinking that Parkgate, north of Tinwald is where Kirkmichael, Dumfriesshire is situated?
After trying quite a few googles, I believe there is a Kirkmichael Church & a Garrel (corrupted from Garval) graveyard in or around Parkgate, and I am wondering how close they are to one another....?
I have never been able to trace the above two births or baptisms of James or Janet Porteous, but I was hoping to find a record of them being baptised at Kirkmichael or Garrel. ...Their parents were James Porteous & Sarah Gillespie.
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Hi,
I'm not sure if this helps or not but in the Fasti under the heading for Kirkmichael and Garrel it has in brackets:
"The church of Kirkmichael in Annandale, dedicated to St Michael belonged to the abbey of Kilwinning."
Yet another place to look?
I've found the link below useful for accessing the different volumes of the Fasti quickly:
http://britishgenes.blogspot.fr/2012/01/fasti-ecclesiae-scoticanae-improved-on.html
Jen
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The 1791-99 Statistical Account of Scotland has a section in the Dumfries report for the parish of Kirkmicheal. It says it consists of the two parishes of Kirkmichael and Garrel, which were united in 1663. You can read the report by searching at http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1791-99/Dumfries/Kirkmichael/ The 1834-45 report is at http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1834-45/Dumfries/Kirkmichael/
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Thanks for your help! I can see on those records where it says Kirkmichael and Garrel were united in the 1860's, and I also used the Fasti to search for the name Porteous, just in case it was there, but no luck.
Regarding the precise whereabouts of Kirkmichael church, I tried googling stuff again and discovered that it is 6 and a half miles NW of Lochmaben. And Garrel is 3 miles from Kirkmichael Church, though it says 3J miles, and the letter j must be a misprint. Anyway, it seems that Garrel Church is a ruin and has been since before the 1800's, so this rules out Garrel church as being the source of any birth records for James & Janet Porteous. It must be Kirkmichael Church.
I googled "Old photo of Garrel church, Dumfriesshire" and saw sites on the list, both for Garrel and Kirkmichael. Some good images of the churches and interesting photos showing what the area looks like.
I think I will send to the Dumfries & Galloway F.H.S. for some booklets they have, but there is another booklet that they don't have, which is for Births at Kirkmichael, 1727 - 1819. I have still to find a site that would sell me it, but it looks like my best bet.
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If you have a look on Scotlandspeople, there is a female E. Porteous baptised Kirkmichael in 1799, no others in the 1800-1812 date range though (this just from search result narrowing - I've not seen the actual record).
I was in the Kirkyard briefly yesterday - there were certainly one or two stones with Porteous or Gillespie on them, although I didn't note any details of them.
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See also more historic info on the kirk; http://www.kttchurch.org.uk/?page_id=14