A RADICAL graveyard clean-up at All Saints Church in Challoch has revealed previously hidden details of past Newton Stewart residents.
The project, led by volunteers Keith Best and Kathryn Ambler, has involved extensive work in cleaning previously unintelligible gravestones, as well as making the recording systems more accessible for both the church and family historians.
One such discovery, which was totally obscured by undergrowth, dedicated to William Locke, who died in 1962. Some initial research has revealed that William Charles Locke, known locally as Willie, was born 8 Jan 1902 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina to parents William Henry Locke and Mary-Jane McClelland. He was a driver for South Western Brewery Co. Aerated Water Manufacturers, according to the 1921 Scotland Census.
Keith explained: “This is just one of many fascinating stories that our work has revealed. The William Locke memorial stone besides Mary Jane’s is presumably dedicated to her son.
“Previously, all the graveyard records used an alphabetical/numerical system that was meticulously registered by Wilson Ross when he was the sacristan at Challoch. At that time the records referred to the family name rather than the detailed memorial inscriptions.
“When we embarked on this project 55 of the 174 headstones were in part or totally illegible. So Kathryn and I, with help from other volunteers, decided to set to work cleaning these, while at the same time, check the accuracy of all the others.”
The team have catalogued their discoveries with the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society (DGFMS) and cross referenced them with the graveyard map of their own references to create a fully accurate guide of the churchyard.
Keith continued: “I’m delighted to say that we now hold a printed working document and electronic list of each of the graveyard rows. We now need to cross-reference each entry with the ‘Burial Book’ records so that we can create an electronic map and spreadsheet of the three sections of the graveyard.
“Our ultimate aim is to have a website where each grave transcription will be electronically linked to the photograph of the plot but not all the current photos are of sufficient quality so we’ve started making our own photographic record of each gravestone memorial.
“Kathryn and I are also working on updating the alphabetical ‘register of graves’ which will become available electronically once the project is completed.”
The volunteers say that it may well take another year or more before the newly digitised and accurate records are fully functioning and ‘open to the world’.
Praising their efforts, priest -in-charge Rev Dawn Matthews said: “This is an amazing undertaking that our volunteers are doing. We are extremely grateful to Keith and Kathryn for leading the project which is revealing some fascinating facts about the history of All Saints graveyard and previous residents of the community.
“Challoch has many war heroes buried here, members of the Earls of Galloway family, and also local people, all with their stories to tell. “I’m sure that family historians far and wide will welcome the new interactive recording system as well as the newly cleaned gravestones.”
