Place:Dalrymple, Ayrshire, Scotland

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

The Parish

Dalrymple was a parish located in the former county of Ayrshire. Both county and parish ceased to exist following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1974. The parish had an area of 32.1km² (12.4 sq. miles) and had 6 neighbouring parishes: Ayr, Coylton, Dalmellington, Kirkmichael, Maybole and Straiton, all in Ayrshire.

The parish included the settlements of Dalrymple Village, Hollybush and Polnessan.

Conflicting evidence has arisen as to the placement of Dalrymple within the new Council Areas. The Gazetteer for Scotland states South Ayrshire, Wikipeida states East Ayrshire. It is some 6 miles (10 km) southeast of Ayr and 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Maybole in South Ayrshire.

The Village

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Dalrymple is a village and parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland, lying in the Doon Valley on the north bank of the River Doon. The population is around 1,347.

The name Dalrymple comes from Gaelic meaning "flat field of the crooked pool or river".^[1] The village is relatively modern, although the parish and church of Dalrymple are older. When the community was first established around 1800, there were two streets, Main Street and Garden Street. The village grew slowly until the late 20th century, when council housing was built to house families from coal-mining villages in the area that were suffering an economic decline.

It has about 1,000 houses. There are two pubs, The Kirkton Inn; a hotel with self-catering studios, restaurant, a hairdresser, shops, a chemist and post office, as well as a primary school. The village is in the catchment area for high schools in Ayr, Maybole and Dalmellington. Ayr is north of Dalrymple by road.

The River Doon remains the boundary of the village on the southern end, and Purclewan Burn to the west and north.

Newer housing developments have tended to be on the eastern side of the village.

By the mid-20th century most of the housing had been built by the local Council. However, starting in the 1980s, many houses were purchased by their occupants and more recently, all new developments have been private.

The older part of the Village (Garden Street, Main Street and surrounding streets) is affectionately referred to the 'bottom end' (of the village) by the inhabitants of Dalrymple and the newer part is called the 'top end'.

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

• FamilySearch (Indexes only)

• 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 Ayrshire

Family History Societies covering Ayrshire include:

• Alloway & Southern Ayrshire FHS

• Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS

• Troon & Ayrshire FHS

• East Ayrshire Family History Society publish CD-ROMs of an 1851 census index (190,000 entries) and 1861 census index (almost 200,000 entries).

• the Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies, Dennison House, 11 Chalmers Road, Ayr KA7 2RQ, Scotland.

• The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the whole of Ayrshire online for the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

• Third Statistical Account of Scotland: Ayrshire edited by John Strawhorn and William Boyd, 1951.

Old Parish Register Provision

Births: 1699-1854

Marriages: 1699-1854

Deaths: 1739-1854

Transcriptions of Gravestone Inscriptions

"Pre-1855 Gravestone Inscriptions; an index for Carrick, Ayrshire" edited by Alison Mitchell, and published in Edinburgh in 1988 by the Scottish Genealogy Society. This covers the parishes of Ballantrae, Barr, Colmonell, Barrhill cemetery, Old Dailly, New Dailly, Girvan, Kirkmichael, Kirkoswald, Crossraguel cemetery, Maybole, Straiton, Patna and Alloway (i.e. parts of South and East Ayrshire).

"Pre-1855 Gravestone Inscriptions in Kilmarnock and Loudoun District" edited by Alistair G. Beattie and Margaret H. Beattie and published in Edinburgh in 1989 (reprint) by the Scottish Genealogy Society. This covers burial grounds in the parishes of Dunlop, Stewarton, Fenwick, Kilmaurs, Kilmarnock, Riccarton, Galston and Loudoun (i.e., central Ayrshire excluding Ayr and its environs).

The Troon & Ayrshire FHS has published the following books of Monumental Inscriptions: Old Alloway, Coylton, Craigie, Crosbie (Troon), Dundonald, Monkton, Newton Green Cemetery (Ayr), Six Kyle graveyards (includes Barnweill, Culzean, Coodham, Fairfield, Newton-on-Ayr and St. Margaret's, John Street, Ayr), The Secessionist Graveyard (King Street, Ayr), St. Nicholas (Prestwick), St. Quivox, Symington, Wallacetown Cemetery (Ayr), Ayr Auld Kirk.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

• GENUKI article on Dalrymple. The bibliography for Ayrshire is very good.

• The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the parish of Dalrymple. 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 Dalrymple provides direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the parish.

• 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.