William McKenna

[AuntieMomo]

Hi, one of my distant ancestors William McKenna, his wife Sarah and family, moved to Longriggend, near Airdrie. It seems to be a very small and rural place. I was looking for any information on St Mary's Church - there is a church on Googlemaps that looks deconsecrated. It may or may not be the Catholic church, but there are no signs so I can't tell. The family also lived in Nimmos Rows, which may have been housing provided by a Colliery. Does any one have any general local knowledge of the area, the Catholic community, the mines, or even better, any McKennas? The descendants were mostly through the daughters (Kane, Toy, Cairney) and will have moved away to surrounding places, but on the off-chance that anyone has any local information or can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful.  Cheers, Auntiemomo

[GordonFindlay]

When looking for churches my first port of call is always GenUKI's gazetteer: you can search for "churches nearby", such as this one: https://www.genuki.org.uk/nearby-churches/55.866383%2C-3.97968%2C9.321 (I have no idea whether one of these St Mary's is the one you want).

Have you tried the historical maps at NLS? Again I haven't searched in detail and the site takes a bit of mastering, but this map https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=55.91005&lon=-3.88007&layers=5&b=1 shows the village as "Langrigend", surveryed in 1860. Learning to use the NLS maps is non-trivial but very worthwhile.

[Forfarian]

If this https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4405392 is the kirk you have found on Google Maps, it was not Roman Catholic.

[scotmum]

http://scottishmining.co.uk/7.html info on mining in the area. Use the sub menu, on left hand side of page at link, to see further info.

[AuntieMomo]

Thank you, GordonFindlay and Forfarian, your replies are really helpful.  I didn't think a church building like that would be Catholic, and that little post from geograph.org.uk has said that Longriggend used to be a sizeable community, of which there is almost nothing left.  The current village is really small, most of the houses look fairly modern and so there's no sense of any of the history.

Looking at historical maps, that is a great idea, thank you.  I have done this before for my home town, but forgot all about this possibility. The genuki link is also great, not a website I've been on, I don't think. 

Thank you scotmum, will have a good look through the mining website!

[scotmum]

deleted, wrong one

[merryhow]

 Why don't you try St Mary’s in Caldercruix  it is only 2.5 mils away. You could phone or email.

[garngad]

There is a connection with longriggend here...........https://falkirklocalhistory.club/around-and-about-the-area/churches/slamannan-parish/st-marys/

[lud]

St Marys RC Church was on Telegraph Road Longriggend, I suggest you try a subscription on WWW.findmypast.co.uk they have some of the Church records for St Marys Longriggend B.M.Ds,
here is an Example ..William Mc Kenna B 25 Dec 1892 Bp 19 Jan 1893 Father William McKenna, mother Sarah Anderson ?.. godparent, Jane Mc Kenna.
Also try Scotlandspeople.gov   look in Images, for 2 Pics of Nimmos Row.
Happy Hunting