Place:Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, Scotland

NameKirkconnel
Alt namesCille Chonaillsource: Scottish Gaelic (Wikipedia)
TypeParish
Coordinates55.383°N 4°W
Located inDumfriesshire, Scotland     ( - 1975)
See alsoDumfries and Galloway Region, Scotlandregional administration 1975-1996
Dumfries and Galloway, Scotlandunitary Council Area since 1996
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


Parish code for Kirkconnel: 24

Kirkconnel was a parish located at the northwest corner of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Both county and parish ceased to exist following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1974. The parish had an area of 108.3km2 (41.8 sq. miles) and had 4 neighbouring parishes: Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire; Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire; and Auchinleck and New Cumnock in Ayrshire.

The parish included the settlements of Crawick, Kelloholm, Kelloside, the town of Kirkconnel, and Rigg.

Kirkconnel is now located in the Dumfries and Galloway Council Area, some 11 miles (18 km) east of Cumnock in East Ayrshire and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Douglas in South Lanarkshire.

the following is based on an article in Wikipedia

Kirkconnel (Gaelic: Cille Chonaill) is a small parish and town in Dumfries and Galloway, southwestern Scotland. It is located on the A76 near the head of Nithsdale. Kirkconnel led a more quiet existence than neighboring towns like Sanquhar. Principally it has been a farming community. There are few buildings of any significance. The name comes from The Church of Saint Conal. In 1850 the village had only a single street 400 yards long. Next to Kirkconnel is a separate village called Kelloholm.

Life changed dramatically for this small town in the 1890s when a coal pit was opened at Fauldheld. Coal had always been mined in the district before, but never in large quantities. From then on coal dominated the life of the little town. The coal industry moved away in recent decades, and with it much of the population.

Contents

Research Tips

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

  • Scotland's People This is a pay website providing vital statistics and census data for all of Scotland with original images. There is a description at Scotland under Genealogical Resources.

Notes for Dumfriesshire

  • The FreeCen Project has transcriptions of the whole of Dumfriesshire online for the 1841 through 1871 censuses inclusive.
  • The Kirkconnel Parish Registers for the Church of Scotland provide records of baptisms (1742-1854), marriages (1825-1854) and burials (1783-1792). See the FamilySearch Wiki article on Kirkconnel for other church denominations.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

  • GENUKI article on Kirkconnel. These articles often include a bibliography.
  • The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the parish of Kirkconnel. The tabs on the right provide more information, and a map of the parish within its surrounding area, with small settlements highlighted and linked to more information.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki article on Kirkconnel provides direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the parish.
  • Kirkconnel Parish Heritage Society has a lot of projects that they have done and are doing to preserve the history of the parish and its residents. They have a seachable database on their website.
  • The National Library of Scotland have a website devoted to maps from the 1600s right up to the present. Comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place can be made. From the home page click on "Find by place" and then follow the instructions on the next page. Once you are viewing the place you want, use the slider <----> at the top of the map to compare the layout of roads and the place names of smaller areas, perhaps even farms, with the landscape today. The website takes some getting used to. The One-inch 2nd edition, Scotland, 1898-1904 OS is a series of maps with the parishes delineated. Each of these maps cover an area of 18 x 24 miles and will zoom to comfortable reading size with a couple of mouse clicks on the map itself. Unfortunately, they are not geo-referenced, and it is necessary to go to the OS One Inch 1885-1900 series to locate places by latitude and longitude.
  • The Statistical Accounts for Scotland In the 1790s and again in the 1830s, the ministers of the all the parishes of the Church of Scotland were asked to provide a description of their parish to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The original account request included 160 questions to be answered. These accounts are available in print in 20 volumes and are also online where it is freely available to browse. The browsing portal is below the viewing area of most computer screens. Scroll down to "For non-subscribers" and click on "Browse scanned pages". This brings you to another page on which one can enter the name of the parish in which you are interested.
  • Excerpts from The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885 are provided by Scottish Places. Selections from Groome and other gazetteers from the 19th century are also found on GENUKI.


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Kirkconnel. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.