This is an index to stories and advertisments in the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser relating to Langholm and the surrounding areas only. In addition to local news, the Advertiser contains many news stories from round the world and all over Britain, mostly reprinted from other newspapers. However, as these are widely known already, the compilers of this index did not feel it was necessary to produce an index for them. Anyone who wishes to know what the editor of the paper felt about the Crimean War for example, only needs to go to the appropriate editions to find out. The index contains references or brief paraphrases of stories only. To read the original, it is necesssary to look at microfiches of the relevant editions, copies of which are held at the Langholm Library, the Public Library and Ewart Library.

Each entry in the index is referenced to the number of the microfiche, the position on the microfiche of the edition (from 1 to 6) and the date of the edition. In addition, there are main and sub indexes for each entry.  Each entry contains a  brief summary of the article or advertisement and any relevant names. Where a story contains a long list of  names, such as the list of prizewinners in an agricultural show, this fact will be noted but the names themselves may not be listed.

A typical new story entry is shown below:

Fiche Number	57
Fiche Position	6
Date of Paper	7 March 1860
Main Index	Law and Order
Sub Index	Courts
Text	Small Debt Court ruling between Langholm Gas Works and Distillery re gas charges, found for Gas Works
Name	Andrew Duncan, gas works, John Connell, brewer and distiller

A Typical Birth, Death and Marriage entry is shown below:

Fiche Number	58
Fiche Position	1
Date of Paper	7 March 1860
Main Index	People
Sub Index	Birth
Text	at Charles Street, Langholm on 2 March 1860 a daughter
Name	Wife of Robert Beattie, joiner

Accordingly, the index may be searched by date, main index, sub index, text or name fields.
Notes:

• Place names may most often be found in the name field, but they may also appear in the text field.
• Job descriptions, "tailor", "mason" etc will most often be found in the name field but may occasionally appear in the text field.
• The indexing of the entries posed many problems. It is difficult to know whether an item on auctioning off the right to collect turnpike tolls should be "Transport", "Land" or "Local Government"
• The nature of the content of the paper was fairly repetitive so the use of index or sub index fields in your search may bring up hundreds of entries. For example there were copies of the local rail timetables in almost every editon, so searching for "Transport", "Land" will bring up every one of these.
• The spelling in the early editions of the paper was not always consistent. If you are searching for Glendinning, you may need to also search for Glendining and so on.

The Langholm Archive Group is cataloguing the local newspaper, the "Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser" - its first issue was in 1848, and members meet to index regularly in the Centre's premises. The Langholm Archive Centre, 93 High Street, Langholm. For further infomation please contact : Tom Hutton, Wauchope Cottage, Langholm, DG13 0AY or e-mail tom@wauchope.demon.co.uk The Group is indebted to local trusts and individuals without whose support the premises would not have been obtained.