Can anyone share with me what a stone mason's day might be like in the early 1800's in Galloway? My 3xgrandfather was a stone mason and I would like to know what he did. Were there any large construction going on in the 1820-1840's in Kirkcudbright, Drumfries or Wigtown that would need a lot of stone masons? I am hoping to find some records of the work he did but need to know other than doing headstones what a stone mason might have done. Also interested what a joiner would do? Were they basically independent and were hired for jobs or did they work for a "union" and were called to work on jobs. I am just looking for sources of information in other sources rather than the Vital Statistics and kirk session records. Jody -- Jody Allen, Scottish Scribbles Blog http://scottishscribbles.blogspot.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Researching: Scotland: Wallace, Mctaggart, Clarke, Mckean(d), McCartney, Stewart Ireland: Lynch, Drought Wales: Williams, Walsh

I have quite a few in my family, over several generations around that time, although in North East Scotland rather than Dumfries. Basically it seems that a stone mason was a person who built in stone. This could be something simple like a tombstone but it could also be a statue, house, castle or basically any structure in stone. >From 1780 to 1850 the was a lot of work in NE Scotland building houses as a result of the clearances. I gather they tended to work pretty independently as they were the builder, that is they did not work for a builder. Often the family would contain other occupations associated with building. In my family there were painters, carpenters, joiners and cabinet makers. Neil Perth, Oz On 1 Feb 2010 at 22:38, jody allen wrote: > Can anyone share with me what a stone mason's day might be like in the early > 1800's in Galloway? My 3xgrandfather was a stone mason and I would like to > know what he did. Were there any large construction going on in the > 1820-1840's in Kirkcudbright, Drumfries or Wigtown that would need a lot of > stone masons? I am hoping to find some records of the work he did but need > to know other than doing headstones what a stone mason might have done. > Also interested what a joiner would do? Were they basically independent and > were hired for jobs or did they work for a "union" and were called to work > on jobs. I am just looking for sources of information in other sources > rather than the Vital Statistics and kirk session records. > > Jody Legal Ethics A person is presumed innocent until proven broke