19th November Meeting Report

Our talk this month was a ‘History of Turnberry Airfield, and associated Airmen’ given by Margaret Morrell. She described to us the First World War grass airfield, with its steel and canvas hangars, and the Second World War airfield with the triangle of three tarmac runways, hangars and other buildings, constructed on the site of the Turnberry golf courses.

In both wars, the airfield was used for training purposes. In the first, initial pilot training was rudimentary and survival rates for pilots were measured in days, so successful pilots were brought back from the front to train the new pilots in the techniques of aerial warfare - they considered the trainees more dangerous than the enemy! In the second, Turnberry was used to train torpedo bomber crews, a particularly hazardous duty that required flying at very low levels under conditions that often made it difficult to see the difference between sea and sky.

Margaret illustrated her talk with some excellent photos of views, planes and characters from both wars, and gave a poignant account of some of the many crashes that occurred. A memorial was erected on Turnberry by the local populace in a tribute to those that died flying from the airfield, but Margaret’s researches have shown that the names on this memorial are a small fraction of those who died, and she hopes in due course to publish her research and raise a memorial to all who volunteered for air crew and died while training at Turnberry.

Andrew Dinwoodie

15th October Meeting Report

Our speaker this evening was Clare Paterson from Glasgow University Archives. We were treated to an extremely interesting and practical account of the full range of the resources held there for family and local history research. Not only does the University hold matriculation records from 1850, lists of students from 1451, and information about lecturers and professors, but its archives can also tell us about student life by means of University Calendars and student society publications.

Clare currently works with the business archives lodged at the University and it was on this area that she concentrated. We were all amazed to hear her description of the variety held there. Examples are:

• In shipbuilding, the records of John Brown and Lithgow.
• In heavy industry, the records of the North British Locomotive Co. Ltd.
• In Tea production, the estate records of James Finlay and Co.

plus those of companies involved in engineering, coal mining, banks, sweetie making, and records of Scottish trading worldwide. For a full list see their website.

Provided your ancestor was a manager or assistant manager in the company, his career would be well documented, since the owners had made a big financial investment in him. Particularly relevant to those with Glasgow ancestors would be records of the Friendly Societies attached to companies, the records of Wylie and Lochhead Department Stores, Army and Navy Stores catalogues and, of course, Wylie and Lochhead’s funeral records. The possibilities seemed endless. Even if we never find a mention of our ancestor by name in these business archives, they are obviously a marvellous source of social information about the times and conditions in which he lived.

We have already indicated to Clare that, as a result of her presentation, she should expect to see a stream of inquiries and visitors from Alloway and Southern Ayrshire Family History Society - but visits will have to be postponed until their refurbishment is complete... See their website

7th October - Visit Report

A nineteen strong group from the society, including our newest member, visited the recently opened Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock this afternoon. Set in the delightful surroundings of the Kay Park, the new custom-built centre is an inspired blending of the old and the new providing registry offices, a “spectacular venue for weddings and other ceremonies,” well-planned areas for conferences and meetings, and first-class facilities for local and family history. A peek into the archival storage area was informative and exciting as a few of us were privileged to see the oldest material preserved here, namely a document from the closing decade of the thirteenth century. Add to these, a welcoming and knowledgeable staff happy to offer every assistance and you have the kind of scenario browsing family historians sigh for.

Starting in the attractive courtyard with its beautifully sited statue of Robert Burns, we were offered an enthusiastic tour of the complex by the Community Librarian (Heritage Services), Ann Geddes. Obviously she enjoys her new workplace! Examples of the written and photographic archives available had been set out for us to see and further information was readily available on points of particular interest. Much of the material naturally pertains to East Ayrshire, but records affecting the whole county are well represented. Our tour ended with tea/coffee and biscuits in a meeting room and in the adjoining corridor boasting comfy chairs, where we were encouraged to sit and chat. Thereafter we were left to our own devices following our own particular interests and asking questions until closing time. Finally Anne encouraged us to return to follow our own research, using the IT facilities if we so wished or returning to the “good old times” of handling in white gloves something from their multitude of archival material. “And if you come for a day visit, bring your own sandwiches, get your liquid refreshment here and enjoy a short break away from work!” How can any enthusiastic researcher ignore that suggestion?

Sheila Dinwoodie

3rd October - Open day

The Society held a very successful open day at the McKechnie Institute, Girvan.

There were two talks given by Andrew Dinwoodie and Peter Towle on how to get the most from Scottish and English records. These were well attended.

The society’s facilities were available for those wishing to undertake some research. The facilities were well used throughout the day by members of the public who were interested in learning more about their forebears.

The Carrick Gazette had a stall which exhibited old newspapers and photographs. No doubt these provoked some memories.

17th September Meeting Report

Our new season started with a welcome return visit from Tom Barclay, Senior Librarian at Ayr Carnegie Library. On this occasion he chose to give an illustrated talk on the history of the Library from the founding in 1762 of Ayr Library Society to the present day.

We learned that in 1804 this Society feued a small house in Fort Street, using the ground floor as a house and the upper floor as a library. In the first half of the 19th century, numbers using the Library began to decline as the subscription was too expensive for ordinary folk especially after they had access to the newly opened Mechanics Institute library. The Library Society added to their funds by arranging lecture programmes and it was at a meeting of its committee in 1890 that that the suggestion was made to approach the successful business man, Andrew Carnegie, to honour them with a lecture. Though Andrew Carnegie was unable to do so, he suggested that “if the town were now disposed to adopt the Free Libraries Act, I should like very much to get a suitable library building.” Within days of the town’s positive response, he made firm offers of £10,000 for a building on a site by the town. With commendable speed, the foundation stone was laid on October 5th, 1892 by Mrs Carnegie - and Ayr had its own Carnegie Library. Over the years there have been several alterations and extensions mainly rearwards towards Garden Street for a large lecture room/reference room. (Sadly the recent asset of a small refreshment area has not survived the recession, but maybe it will return in better times!) The upstairs Local History room is Tom’s domain. It is well frequented by our members to follow their own inquiries and Tom or his colleagues are always more than willing to try to answer queries and to help the uninitiated to cope with recalcitrant fiche readers etc.

Tom’s well illustrated presentation gave us a fascinating insight into the history of a well-known Ayr landmark.