On 14 November 2018 we
headed to Kilmarnock to find out more about genealogical resources available
there. Our thanks go to Helen, Linda, Heather, Clare, and
Joy at the Burns Monument Centre, and Bruce at the Dick Institute, for
providing us with such an interesting and informative day.
BURNS MONUMENT CENTRE
Our visit started at the
Burns Monument Centre in Kay Park which opened about ten years ago and, in
addition to providing Registration Services and a Ceremony Room, houses a
Family History Research Area, Local History Area, and East Ayrshire Archives.
FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH AREA
Helen Watt and Linda Miller
introduced us to this area which contained a number of computers with access to
the Scotland’s People Records. The area is open Monday to Friday with a charge
of £15 for a day ticket, however bookings are required, and it can be closed at
short notice if too few people are booked in or not enough staff available to
man it.
Workshops are
held on Wednesdays (mornings and afternoons) when staff are available to assist
with research at a charge of £10 for two hours.
Family
Tree Packages are available for those who do not wish to
do their own research. Staff will carry out the research and produce charts and
/ or booklets containing copies of all the relevant records. Bronze, Silver and
Gold Packages are available depending on the extent of family history
requested. In addition searches can be made of the local history resources and
included if wished (e.g.: relevant newspaper articles), and Gold Package
booklets can also include the client’s own family photos.
LOCAL HISTORY AREA
Heather Dunlop gave us a
tour of the local history area and then allowed us to browse the resources
there. The area is open daily and there is no need to make an appointment. Items
held in this area are mainly published items where more than one copy exists as
opposed to the Archives who hold the records where no other copies exist. Some
of the items are listed in the online East Ayrshire Library Catalogue, but
others are not.
Resources
available included:
·
Microfilm:
o
Local Newspapers from 1842 onwards (no
newspapers have been digitised)
o
Poor Relief Registers for all Ayrshire – some
have indexes. An index to Ayrshire Poor Relief Records can be found on the
Ayrshire Roots website www.ayrshireroots
o
Old Parish Registers & Census Records
·
Maps including an old map of Kilmarnock dated
1819 with names of the residents
Books
 |
| Well-used pre 1855 MIs (photo Michelle Leonard) |
- Valuation Rolls for Kyle, Carrick & Cunningham
- Statistical Accounts for the whole of Scotland
- Trade Directories from 1833
- Local History Books for Ayrshire & Scotland – Parish histories, Pictorial histories of towns
- Books about occupations in the area – Mining, Poetry, Glasgow & South Scotland Railway
·
Box Files (Information and articles filed
under topics with content indexes in each box).
- Box file titles include Place Names, Family Names, Military, Industry, Mining etc. For my own family history I was particularly interested in the Box titled: “Guthries of Ochiltree”, and an article on the Irvine Valley Lace Industry in “Industry Box 2”.
·
Family History Section including:
- Monumental Inscriptions (Burial records are held by the Bereavement Services)
- Information about specific families & family trees which had been gathered from research done (this is not included in the online catalogue)
- Information about public war memorials
- Lists of WW 1 Dead – with details of where they enlisted which is not found in other records
EAST AYRSHIRE ARCHIVES
Clare (Assistant Archivist) and Joy (Graduate Trainee) showed us
round their purpose built storage area which is shared with local history &
registration services, and described the types of records they held, then
allowed us time to have a look at some items they had put out on display
especially for us.
 |
| Introduction to the Archives (photo Michelle Leonard) |
Background
Ayrshire Archives was
founded in 1996 by Ayrshire Council with the aim of preserving and providing
access to local authority records. The earliest record held is Ayr Burgh
Charter dated 1205. Their main store and headquarters is at Auchincruive, a few
miles east of Ayr which is also the access point for South Ayrshire Archives
and is open to the public on Tuesdays (by appointment). East Ayrshire Archives
is open on Wednesdays at the Burn’s Monument Centre, and Irvine Townhouse is
due to open soon (one day a week) housing records from North Ayrshire. In each
case viewing of records is by appointment only as the items requested may have
to be brought from Auchencruive.
Records
held include
·
NRS Records – Records belonging to the
National Records of Scotland but stored in Ayrshire for ease of access by local
researchers. Access and copyright guidelines are set by the NRS. These records
include:
o
Church Records (e.g.: Papal Bull dated
1322-1323)
o
Customs & Excise Records (e.g.: Fishing /
Shipping Registers for Ayrshire)
o
Justice of Peace Records
·
Maps
·
Local authority records for East Ayrshire,
and also some records for Strathclyde Region:
o
Council Minutes
o
School Records
o
Electoral Registers, Valuation Rolls
o
Poor House Records
o
Ayrshire & Arran Health Board Records
·
Private Deposits:
o
Societies and Clubs
o
Estate Records
o
Business Records
o
Family Records
Records
on display
A number of items were put
out on display for us including:
·
Council Minutes
·
Plans for the Burns Monument Centre (example
of a modern record)
·
Kilmarnock Academy Register - showing
admission and leaving dates and where pupils went when they left school
·
Diaries, with notes & drawings belonging
to Margaret & Effie Kennedy, daughters of Thomas Kennedy of Glenfield &
Kennedy
·
Kirk Session Minutes showing an interesting
case brought before the Kirk Session over several meetings
Online
Catalogue
There is no one online
catalogue but separate catalogues for each collection, details of which can be
found on the website.
·
Kilmarnock Burgh Catalogue has recently come
online.
·
Kilmarnock Academy Catalogue 1896-2008 is currently
being compiled, and will go online at the beginning of next year. This
collection includes lots of school records, some with photos.
Recent
Records
Most items have 100 year
closure but if records are provided to show that person is deceased it may be
possible to see some items, and someone wanting to see their own records may do
so if they provide proof of identity.
Further information about
Ayrshire Archives and their online catalogues can be found at: http://www.ayrshirearchives.org.uk/
DICK INSTITUTE
After lunch we made our way
to the Dick Institute where Bruce Morgan showed us round the Museum and shared
with us the history of the building and some of its exhibits.
Background
The finance to create the
Dick Institute came from James Dick who was born into a poor family in
Kilmarnock in 1823 but became a businessman of worldwide importance and,
although living in Australia, wanted to give something back to the town of his
birth. The museum was opened in 1901 and features the largest museum and
exhibition space in Ayrshire.
The ground floor houses
Ayrshire Central Library and a café, while the upper floor holds displays of
some of the collections cared for by East Ayrshire Council.
 |
| (Photo Michelle Leonard) |
Since our visit coincided
with the 100th anniversary of the WW1 Armistice we were met with
drapes of knitted poppies in the entrance hall and stairs and on the upper
hallway was a display of WW1 photos including photographs taken in and around
the building when it was an auxiliary hospital during WW1.
From the upper hallway
doorways lead to the North and South Museums.
North
Museum
The North Museum houses a
display of old musical instruments, and arms and armour, as well as objects
from their natural history sciences and archaeology collections.
South
Museum
The South Museum contains
displays linked to the local and social history of the area, including a
display of items and manuscripts relating to Robert Burns.
Kilmarnock
History
Over the nineteenth century
Kilmarnock was transformed from a country town to an industrial town, and many
of the displays provide information about the industries in the area and key
people involved in those industries:
·
Mining
·
Railways
·
Engineering firms such as Glenfield and
Kennedy
·
Printing – John Wilson, an early printer in
the town printed the first edition of “Burns Poetry”, and the museum has a
working model of the Benjamin Franklin press.
 |
| (Photo Michelle Leonard) |
·
Johnnie Walker – the whisky company which was
first set up in the town in 1865 and continued in production until only a few
years ago when it was taken over by Diageo.
The
Loom Room
The Loom Room is dominated
by an industrial weaving loom, and devoted to displays about the textile
industry - in particular lace making in the Irvine Valley which took off when
Alexander Morton brought a machine from England and set up in competition to
the Nottingham lace factories. By the late nineteenth century lace and madras
(a muslin type fabric) were produced in dozens of factories in the Irvine
Valley of which only a couple are still in production. The growth in machine
lace led to the demise of the hand loom weaver, and a portrait of Matthew
Faulds of Fenwick who was the last hand loom weaver in the locality hangs on
one wall. Information about carpet manufacture and shoemaking, and a display of
Ayrshire needlework can also be found in this room.
Paper
Records
The Institute holds some
paper records particularly in relation to its collections (e.g.: the Boyd
Records), however some have been lost over time, and some items are held by
archives and museums elsewhere. After the 1909 fire appeals were made for items
from other museums to replace items that had been lost, and recently some items
were identified in Doncaster Museum which had been donated to them by the Dick
Institute after a fire there. Any
documents they do have are accessible to the public by appointment, and Dean of
Guild Records are held by East Ayrshire Archives.
The Dick Institute is open
Tuesday to Saturday and more information about their collections, and others in
East Ayrshire can be found at https://eastayrshireleisure.com/
Author: Lorraine Stewart, Kincardineshire Ancestors
