“have you any questions about Lyle Kirk?”
says the note in the bottom right hand corner of the home page of our website, followed by an email address . Do I get any response from this invitation? Yes, and several very interesting ones have arrived in my in box recently. Some I can answer and some I pass on to the appropriate person who can help.

The emails have come from as far away as New Zealand and Maryland and as near as Campbeltown. People asking about street names and where to find them on a map and some wanted to place the whereabouts of the original site of the Old West Kirk. They are looking for old maps and photographs or drawings from way back to try to imagine what it was like when their families lived and worked in the area. There have been questions about the whereabouts of church bells made by a local foundry and about a stained glass artist – from a man doing a doctorate and part of his research was on this artist. The woman from Maryland was researching her family and found that some had worked in a paper mill in Greenock, then in Edinburgh before going overseas. The whole family were involved in the paper making trade but it was the father of the family who studied at university and further developed techniques in the chemical manufacturer of paper. He opened his own factories in Ontario and Quebec and there is a write up about him in the Canadian Encyclopedia as well as an historical plaque in Ontario marking the great advances he made in that trade.

Lots of questions and I learn so much too as I try to help answer them.

I reckon it is a good public relations service that LK provides via our website so keep the questions coming!

mccully@lylekirk.org