Langholm Archive Group Report
Newsletter
September 2009
As we draw towards the end of another year of work (our year ends in October) the members of the group can look back on a pretty successful and busy period
The group has become a charity and looks forward nervously to presenting its first report and accounts to OSCR
Sandy Gill and Sandra Ritchie followed up their 2nd Photo album DVD with a special DVD for the Rotary Club's celebration of Langholm Rugby Football Clubs's great year in 1959. This is now available for sale at the Centre.
We have added several hundred new photographs to our on-line photo collection with a very substantial contribution of over 400 photos from Joyce Barker among others. We have a considerable number of photos ready to be put on line and we are trying to find out as much infomation about them as we can before we post them onto the site. We have recently been sent a set of scans for the website from someone who had visited the site and found references to his relatives. This was very encouraging for us. If any other of our on-line visitors have photographs which they think would interest us, please let us know.
Tom is continuing to add to the collection of Parish magazines that are on-line but this is a slow business as each one takes about an hour's work to prepare. They are very interesting not only as a record of local names but also for the reflection of the sixties that they give us.
The index to the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser has now grown to 30,000 entries and is used by local libraries and groups as a source of information. We get a steady stream of enquiries from both this country and abroad and we do our best to help them.
Members of the group have provided stalls at family history days in Dumfries and Langholm. You can see two of us hard at work at the Langholm day below.
On the funding front, we have received generous grants from a local trust, from Dumfries and Galloway Council and from our local Community Council which have enabled us to purchase a scanner/printer for microfiches. This is a useful addition to our E and L Index as it lets us print out articles which may be of interest to our visitors and enquirers. Below is a picture of member Sandra Ritchie (centre) receiving the cheque at a community council meeting on our behalf along with representatives of other groups.
Funding has also been received from the Castle Craigs Club and through the selling of books, DVDs and copies of photos. Many members fo the public have given us donations as well which have been very welcome.