Torrens Families JW Kernohan Letters
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Seaford,
Park Road,
Belfast,
Ireland

Aug. 21st, 1919

Mr J.S. Torrance
Dear Sir:-

I received your very instructive letter with exchange (£20) enclosed.
The copies or letters enclosed (which are interesting) form, as you
say, a very good basis; and you are to be congratulated on having such
an intelligent outline of the several families of Torrance, both here
and in America.

Aided by a set of circumstances in respect of the long lost brother,
which has a touch of romance, it would be a pity if paucity of records
here prevented full enlightenment on the subject of search.

I have made a careful study of the letters to find out possible clues,
so as to get all the probable families of Torrance in County Derry and
parts of Antrin and Donegal. Only the head of household is named. So
while acknowledging receipt of your letter I forward the result of the
search with a rough map, merely to guide you to location of the
branches. You will see that your relations lie in the parishes along
the River Baun. They may all be descended from the Hugh of 1663 list,
who lived almost in the centre of these families. A couple have got
across the river into county Antrim. Then a belt is traversed in the
direction of Derry City before coming to the others. Those with the
prenom "Mr." I'll speak of later.

Unfortunately, in the parishes on the Baun the divisions of parishes
called by us Townlands are not given - a great pity. On the whole, the
number of different families is not large which is all to the good. The
County is pretty large, and some other names would give more trouble.
Our first proper Census is dated 1821, but I hope to have the families,
at least, in the Baun parishes, extracted for comparison. Any church
records will be searched. The landed estate records are very hard to
get at, owing to the number of middlemen landlords who held for short
periods and have not descendants in the country now. But the public
records of land registers may provide something; and, of course, wills,
etc. will be sought for. I should be delighted if what Mr. Anjou has
claimed should be correct, as we would then be in a position to do
great things. But I have my doubts from what I have done in this line,
both here and in Dublin.

There was a more prominent line of Torrens of the landed gentry order
of whom there must be a good many records of land registered. It would
be easy enough to mix up these various lines, and I have a suspicion
that "Mr." Torrens above referred to was of this stock.

I may say I am first endeavoring to find if a search was ever made on
the name Torrance (Torrens) here before. It would have been done in
Dublin. No Aaron appears in the 1740 list, but he may have been
residing with his father's family, and not then married. You understand
this is merely an acknowledgement of your letter. Of course, the sum of
money you sent is ample for the purpose of preliminary search, and I
only hope the result may encourage a more thorough investigation.

I am,
Yours faithfully,
J.W.Kernohan.

P.S. I may say that since I wrote the letter you saw I have almost
completed a history of the district of country lying between Garvagh
and Coleraine, which necessitated the perusal of a good many original
documents and of material not before published, but cost of printing
and paper is still very high here.

I will work as economically as possible.

N.B. I am puzzled much by the name Nocarah, the address of Robert's
letters. I can find no such place, and yet it is on Desertoghill
Parish. It occurs so often that it cannot be a misreading evidently.
J.W.K.

Attachments:
Will Alex of Carnroe
Will Archibald of Carnroe
Will Alexander of Mullahinch
Lease: Ballynacran 1766; John T to Paul T
1630/42 Muster Roll transcript

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