Langholm Kirk Session records ~ where are they?

[walterc]

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. 

[AntonyMMM]

I can't help answer the question, but am also interested in the whereabouts of these records.

[Gadget]

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

[AntonyMMM]

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 !

[Gadget]

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

[Archivos]

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. 

[Gadget]

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

[AntonyMMM]

Thanks all for the replies so far  .... maybe they will turn up one day.

[ScottishAncestry]

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