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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. 

I've a Janet (Jane) Richardson b ca 1797 Lochmaben, d 28 April 1872 Ecclefechan

she married Robert McCartney 28 Jan 1825 in Lochmaben.

her parents: David Richardson and Helen Kennedy about whom I've no information.

And, perhaps spurious as they are a few miles from High Tae/Lochmaben, I've also got a
John Richardson, b 8 April 1876 12 Burns Street Dumfries - shoemaker
his parents: Wm Richardson d 23 Feb 1838 and mother Sarah Kerr

and probably a complete red herring, I've also got Tweedies, mainly from around Hawick, but a Lawrence Tweedie in the 1851 census at Moffat

Bruce

The researchers compiling a complete index to the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser have recently completed the first twenty one years of publication, ie from March 1848 to March 1869.

1869 brought the first time that the E&L was published weekly and this of course means a lot of extra work for the team.  However two recent additons to the research team means that work goes on at a good speed. The E&L index is still available online and can be found at http://langholmarchive.org.uk.  We have had very positive feedback and several success stories.
 
All this work takes money to sustain it and run the Centre and so the group are holding an exhibition of photographs and a short concert featuring local artistes in the Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, on 12 December 2007 to help raise funds for the project.  Visitors are welcome to come along and see what the Centre is doing.

Can anyone suggest where I might go to find out more about a Samuel Wolves, born Budbrooke, Warwickshire?  The IGI gives his date of birth as June 2, 1765. Parents, Daniel and Hannah.

My 3 x g-grandfather was Samuel Wolves; he was buried Jan 7, 1832 in Wauchope Churchyard, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, age 69, so the birth date for the Warwickshire Samuel is only a couple of years out.

I have searched Scottish Records high and low for any information about "my" Samuel Wolves and drawn a blank, all I've found is that his daughter Mary Ann Wolves was born Musselburgh {Edinburgh} in 1803.

Could the Warwickshire Samuel and mine be the same?   (Certainly Daniel and Hannah don't appear amongst any of my ancestors.)

"My" Samuel Wolves was (in 1823) Sheriff Officer in Langholm, and on his death in 1832 was Baron Baillie to the Duke of Buccleuch.  This would seem to suggest a legal background - his name appears on several court reports.

But Warwickshire to Edinburgh to Langholm, Dumfriesshire in the late 1700s?  It seems highly improbable, … but … … !

I'd be delighted for suggestions - Wolves is such an unusual name.

Thank you for any leads.