The Monumental Inscriptions contained in this website were gathered sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's by a Manpower Services Commission project team. Their task was to record all pre 1918 monumental inscriptions and war memorials in the area covered by the former Cumnock and Doon Valley District Council.
It should be noted however that there are many monumental inscriptions recorded which occurred after 1918. The team seems to have recorded any stone in full which had at least one pre-1918 inscription. The example below comes from Muirkirk New Cemetery. The first two inscriptions date from before 1918, however there are two subsequent inscriptions after this date. It is therefore worth checking, even if you are sure that the death occurred after 1918.
Conventions Used
Abbreviations
Number of Entries
Parish Map
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Conventions used in the monumental inscriptions
Relationships are to the first person named in the group, except those inside brackets where relationship is to the name immediately before the bracket. ie. John Smith IMO w Mgt Jones, s Jas (da Eliz) would mean that Margaret Jones was wife of John Smith and James Smith was his son, Elizabeth Smith however would be the daughter of James Smith and therefore grand-daughter of John Smith.
Where subsequent surnames are the same as the first person named, these are generally omitted; however, where they are different the surname is printed ie. if a wife's surname is given as the same as her husband it is not printed but if inscription gives her maiden name (or, say a daughter's married name) it is printed and indexed.
Inevitably a work of this size will contain errors, either in transcribing or the masons or the families. Carved inscriptions which appeared illegible under certain light and weather conditions (say, a dull wet day) may appear much clearer on a dry sunny day. And some stones may have been missed or have been inaccessible due to overgrown shrubbery etc. Hopefully these have been kept to a minimum.