In a message dated 11/06/2004 04:22:34 GMT Daylight Time, sconzani@ihug.co.nz writes: > Greetings listers > I'm researching Rae/Rea ancestors who lived at both Langholm > and Canonbie, but here on the other side of the world, have > been unable to find anything that gives me headstone > inscriptions for cemeteries in either place. > Can some kind soul point me to any online lists, or is > anyone able to do look-ups please? > Thanks > Annie > Auckland, New Zealand > DGFHS are working on a project to put every known MI for Dumfries and Galloway on to an MS ACCESS database. The idea being that the researcher enters a Name and gets a report of every occurrence of that name in Dumfries and Galloway. As you would expect it is a massive task and will take a long time. It has been ongoing for around 18 months and the database already holds 12,000 different monumental inscriptions, listing 54,000 instances of 3,300 different surnames (including variations). The catch, if it is one, is that it that is a research tool available only to members. Members who can't visit the REsearch Centre can e-mail their Family Name Interests and receive an e-mail attachment of the report listing the full MI of every occurrence of that name in the database. Taking Annie's query a search finds 111 monuments listing 238 RAE references. The database lists only 2 monuments with REA and these are in Langholm. Interstingly, both RAE and REA appear on the first listed stone. This REA spelling may be a mason's error, I can personally verify that it is not an error by the transcriber of the stone. Here are the full inscriptions for both stones: Location: Wauchope Cemetery, Langholm, Dumfriesshire Arthur REA, the Tennant [sic] in Stubholm, who died 19th March 1788 aged 77 years Also Agnes STOTHERT his wife, who died 14th December 1779 aged 66 years And their son Thomas, died in infancy [Reverse of stone] In Memory of Arthur RAE, who died at Langholm 24th February 1899 aged 57 years Also Mary MacKENZIE his wife, who died 2nd December 1879 aged 29 years Also Jane and James their children, who died in infancy Also Agnes Clark RAE their daughter, who died 14th November 1911 aged 36 years Summary: Surname Forenames Death Birth MacKenzie Mary 1879 1850 Rae Agnes Clark 1911 1875 Rae Arthur 1899 1842 Rae James Rae Jane Rea Arthur 1788 1711 Rea Thomas Stothert Agnes 1779 1713 Location: Langholm (Old) Cemetery, Dumfriesshire Interred here John ARMSTRONG, Tenant in Middleholm, who died 25th June 1824 aged 79 years And Janet REA, wife to John ARMSTRONG, who died 28th December [----] aged 42 years And Elizabeth their daughter, who died 2nd April 1802 aged 1 year and 5 months Summary: Surname Forenames Death Birth Armstrong Elizabeth 1802 1800 Armstrong John 1824 1745 Rea Janet Sorry, I can not offer a photograph this time (not jus yet anyway).. For photograhs of graveyards and gravestones see http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dfsgal/  Sandy