Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser Index
Members of the Langholm Archive Group are compiling an index to our local newspaper from its start in 1848. Currently the volunteers have reached 1904 in a very labour intensive programme. We hope you enjoy using this index. If you have any comments or questions about it, don't hesitate to contact us at hutton.tommy@gmail.com
Click here to search the index
Some notes on the database to help searchers
This is an index to stories and advertisements in the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser relating to Langholm and the surrounding areas only. In addition to local news, the Advertiser contains many news stories from round the world and all over Britain, mostly reprinted from other newspapers. However, as these are widely known already, the compilers of this index did not feel it was necessary to produce an index for them. Anyone who wishes to know what the editor of the paper felt about the Crimean War for example, only needs to go to the appropriate editions to find out. The index contains references or brief paraphrases of stories only. To read the original, it is necesssary to look at microfiches of the relevant editions, copies of which are held at the Archive Centre, the Langholm Library, the Public Library and Ewart Library.
Each entry in the index is referenced to the number of the microfiche, the position on the microfiche of the edition (from 1 to 6) and the date of the edition. In addition, there are main and sub indexes for each entry. Each entry contains a brief summary of the article or advertisement and any relevant names. Where a story contains a long list of names, such as the list of prizewinners in an agricultural show, this fact will be noted but the names themselves may not be listed.
A typical news story entry is shown below:
| Fiche Number | 57 |
| Fiche Position | 6 |
| Date of Paper | 7 March 1860 |
| Main Index | Law and Order |
| Sub Index | Courts |
| Text | Small Debt Court ruling between Langholm Gas Works and Distillery re gas charges, found for Gas Works |
| Name | Andrew Duncan, gas works, John Connell, brewer and distiller |
A Typical Birth, Death and Marriage entry is shown below:
| Fiche Number | 58 |
| Fiche Position | 1 |
| Date of Paper | 7 March 1860 |
| Main Index | People |
| Sub Index | Birth |
| Text | at Charles Street, Langholm on 2 March 1860 a daughter |
| Name | Wife of Robert Beattie, joiner |
Accordingly, the index may be searched by date, main index, sub index, text or name fields or any combination of the fields.
Notes:
- Place names may most often be found in the name field, but they may also appear in the text field.
- Job descriptions, "tailor", "mason" etc will most often be found in the name field but may occasionally appear in the text field.
- The indexing of the entries posed many problems. It is difficult to know whether an item on auctioning off the right to collect turnpike tolls should be "Transport", "Land" or "Local Government".
- The nature of the content of the paper was fairly repetitive so the use of index or sub index fields in your search may bring up hundreds of entries. For example there were copies of the local rail timetables in almost every edition, so searching for "Transport", "Land" will bring up every one of these.
- The spelling in the early editions of the paper was not always consistent. If you are searching for Glendinning, you may need to also search for Glendining and so on.
Printouts
The Archive Group can provide digital copies of articles from the paper on request. Contact hutton.tommy@gmail.com if you would like a printout. Actual copies of the papers can be found in the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser office on Langholm High Street. Births, deaths and marriages appear in our undex almost exactly as they appear in the newspaper and digital copies would contain no further information.