Our project

September 2023

Cumnock History Group (established 2014) has previously researched farms (Ploughing Up Our Past), Pennylands WW2 Camp, Cumnock's role in World War One.

For our new project we are investigating population movement into Cumnock and away from Cumnock documenting their journeys.

We have already a huge amount of data regarding the inhabitants of Cumnock mainly in the 19th century on our Cumnock Connections tree from census and vital records.

The UK (and US) census records give birthplace and occupation and this enables us to track movements.

In contrast, in our previous research project on farming, we found families who stayed in the same farm for often hundreds of years. 

We would like to record movements of people who came to Cumnock from abroad and from elsewhere in the UK and those who left.

We expect to find most moved for socio-economic reasons. 

Are there patterns of migration?

We would like to record people’s family stories of their ancestors migrations. We know some made very long and hazardous journeys. 

Research methods

Our researchers are experienced genealogists who have contributed to either to our tree or have their own. We can give training and guidance to others who are less experienced.

We will use traditional genealogical research methods including searching newspaper archives for stories and obituaries. Most of this will be done online.

We will invite our members to tell us their or  their ancestors' stories

Outputs

We will share stories on this blog.

We will create a timeline of movement.

We will look for Cumnock descendants who have done well.

We hope to have enough material eventually for a book.

1870s Influx of Miners

By Kay McMeekin

There was a great increase of miners in Cumnock in the late 1860s and 1870s. This is tied in to the fortunes of Bairds of Gartsherrie who opened Lugar Iron Works and required ironstone. They also owned coal mines. More research to be done on this.

We know miners moved in from the north of England, Cumbria, Durham, the West Midlands - Wolverhampton area and Cornwall at this time.

1870 miners from the West Midlands - these are the ancestors of CHG Chair Kay McMeekin

Price, Rolinson and Yates, related families from the West Midlands came to Cumnock, to work as miners. Some stayed for generations, others for just a while and went south again or moved on to Lanarkshire or Kirkintilloch in Dunbartonshire.  They were all Holmes descendants.

First came Mary Ann Holmes and husband Joseph Price to North Ayrshire by 1851.

By 1871 her sister Jane Holmes and her husband John Rolinson, 2 sons and a lodger were in Kilnholm Place, Cumnock a couple of doors away from her sister Mary Ann Price. Jane’s son Matthew Rolinson had just married Mary Ann’s daughter Mary Ann Price (so they were first cousins) and they also were living next to the Prices. That marriage didn’t last, but that’s another story!

	Aaron Holmes		John Rolinson
Mary Ann Holmes &Joseph Price	Sisters	Jane Holmes & John Roilinson	Brother and sister	Ann Rolinson & Abraham Yates
Mary Ann Price m cousin Matthew Rolinson		brothers: James &  Matthew   Rolinson		Ben Yates & Sam Yates

In 1881 The Rolinsons were at 8 Glengyron Row in Cumnock but births of children in England in the intervening years showed they had gone back south. Son James Rolinson had married Emma Ball in in Dudley in 1873 and their first 2 children were born in that area in 1874 and 1877. In 1880, though, the wonderfully named Delilah Rolinson was born in Glengyron Row, Cumnock. By 1883 they were in Rotherham, Yorkshire (birth of my grandfather James) and by 1890 they were in Lanarkshire where they settled. The parents John Rolinson and Jane Holmes moved with them as far as I can see. Next door in 7 Glengyron Row were John and Jane’s son Emmanuel Rolinson with his wife, 4 children, a lodger Charles Dickens and brother-in-law Zechariah Jones age 17. Emmanuel and his wife and children returned to Walsall but Charles Dickens who married Fanny Price in 1883 and Zechariah Jones remained in Auchinleck.

Mrs Rolinson about 1890

The Prices were in Auchinleck. But John Rolinson’s sister Ann Rolinson and her husband Abraham Yates had also moved to Cumnock by 1873. They also lived in Glengyron Row which was a row of 44 houses up the Skares road built for miners about 1872 by Bairds. ( More about Glengyron Row here) I can only assume the promise of work and a house was what lured them all north.

They came mob-handed with friends and relations and earlier marriages were from the within the larger group.  Gradually they integrated with neighbours, many of whom were incomers such as James Hancock from Cornwall who married Margaret Price in 1875.

There remain some unanswered questions.

How did they communicate with each other living hundreds of miles apart as the older generation were illiterate. Did they get someone to write on their behalf eg a teacher or minister? 

Did the mine owners have a recruitment drive in the West Midlands?

How did they manage to travel so far with small children? You hear of people walking hundreds of miles to find work.

There was a railway line that passed in front of Glengyron row.  Did they travel by train? Was there a halt there? The nearest station was the Dumfries House Station.

Most of the Prices stayed in the area. The Yates family too. One son Benjamin Yates moved to the mining village of Benwhat, above Dalmellington. Most were in Auchinleck.

There are parallels with the Cornish miners who arrived in Ayrshire late 1860s 

Cultural Similarities - Scots and Spanish

 Cultural Similarities – Spanish and Scots

Food

https://www.cooksinfo.com/pork-brawn 

(I just watched a video of recipe - WILL NOT SHARE - feel queasy!) EC 

Black pudding/Morcilla de Burgos (can be more spicy than ours with rice rather than barley)

Turnips – although in Spain they also make use of the turnip tops as an early spring green. Grelos is its name and you eat it with grilled sausage. 

Fava bean, sausage and black pudding casserole. 

There is a 12th century carving in the portico of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, of an Empanada - or to you and I, a pie!

The idea of encasing a meal in a crust made it portable, ideal for a traveller or indeed a miner needing his lunch. The fillings found in coastal regions of northern Spain were usually fish based, not unlike the famous Stargazy Pie from Cornwall. Galicians are great lovers of seafood of ALL types and they could all end up in an Empanada. Further inland, the pies are usually based on pork or beef, but everywhere you can find these tasty little pies with a vegetable base. Ideal for snacking and picnics.

 

Shared culture

Bagpipes 

My nephew had these at his Spanish wedding in Santiago de Compostela (EC) 

 

Crafts

Cutwork in textiles – examples in the Baird of Cumnock embroidery, also popular across Europe but particularly in Spain and Italy.