Dumfries Weekly Journal

The Dumfries Weekly Journal was founded in 1777 and was published continuously on a weekly basis until 1831 when it ceased publication. Beginning on 12 August 1823 the name of the newspaper was expanded to The Dumfries Weekly Journal and Nithsdale, Annandale and Galloway Advertiser.

Since no newspapers were published in Wigtownshire until 1843, all birth, marriage and death announcements, sequestrations and obituaries from The Dumfries Weekly Journal from 1820 to 1831 have been transcribed, in order to provide complementary information on local events during that period which are not available elsewhere. Unfortunately, not all issues of the newspaper have survived, and when that is the case, the fact is made clear within the transcriptions.

The weekly section on birth, marriage and death announcements chiefly covered Dumfriesshire events and families, but there were frequent announcements relating to events in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and in Wigtownshire. In the 1820s and 1830s The Dumfries Weekly Journal included outlandish announcements of what may be deemed sensationalistic events such as marriages between couples where the age difference was marked, families with large numbers of children and people dying at improbable ages - sometimes well in excess of 100. Additionally, there was a great interest in recording the births, marriages, deaths and other social activities of members of the nobility and royalty of Britain and of various European countries. Although the inhabitants of Dumfries and Galloway at that time were evidently interested in reading these particular announcements, they are of limited value to present-day local or family history researchers.