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Somewhere about £12 has been spent already

June 9th 1920

Dear Mr Torrance.
I am sending you more extracts from documents in Public Records Office. I
am sorry I have so little to show relating to your family in Co. Derry.
We seem to have nearly exhausted the public records, except these very
lengthy lists of Exchequer Bills headings. Even they have given up very
little to our purpose. Of course, we have only got fro  1634 to 1730, and
for some decades later Torrens Bills may be got. But the time and labour
of perusing the lists, (which as I told you, are not indexed) in order to
find a bill relating to a family are not great. To give you an idea: 24
hours "quick work" were spent on the 14 vols. from 1634 to 1706 and 10/-
was paid for this or rather 'till 1710. That was only possible by the
cooperative search that I was able to get a few names for. Otherwise it
would have been four or five times as much. The years after 1706 have
more numerous entries, and each 10 years costs £1. So now it remains to
be sen if I can get the years after 1730 done. Some have dropped out now.
I am turning to the local Co. Derry records. I enclose letter from agent
of the small estates on which the Torrens families were located. It also
is disappointing. This is the second time I had a reply from him. He is
distantly related to the other Torrens / Torrance / Torrence family,
whose chart I sent you. The bones of it I got from hm, but being very
incorrect I had to tackle the discrepancies and get it - what it is now -
practically correct. The records of that family are numerous. I kept away
from them in your search,, except where the6y could not be detected
before consulting the document. I am going to try Mr. Boyle again with a
specific instance of a Torrend lease which we got an abstract of.
Herewith also a full list of the public sources searched. There is one
document (copy) enclosed which mentions two of your family at the early
date 1719. You have them already in the will of the Carnroe Terrance, I
think. I am having an interview with the Mr. Torrens you wrote to in a
few days, and I hope to compare notes; although such has never been very
satisfactory. But this Mr. T. is a very intelligent man. We can bridge
some distance by means of the 1821 census.

Since above was written I have seen Mr. Torrens and compared notes, but
he can give me no help in the earlier period we want most. I was able to
make his line clear back to your family, but I suppose you have it
already. I had hoped to make more of the 1821 census than he seems to be
able to give. The chart enclosed gives the connections. I think I should
continue the searching of the Bills. It was there we got the Sergeant
Hugh Torrance document.

You are in a position now to judge of the claim made by the New York
genealogist to supply your family tree.

I am
Yours faithfully
J W Kernohan

____________________________

Documents attached:
Tree Hugh Torrens of Mayoughill, 6 generations.
List of Torrens searched by Perossli.
Exchequer Bill: John Boyde 1 Jul 1726
Exchequer Bill: William Faith 20 Jul 1717
Exchequer Bill: John Miller of Rasharkine 17 Nov 1719

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Document URL: genealogy.torrens.org/Torrens/LettersJWK/19200609_JWKtoJST.html
Last modified: Wed, 22 Nov 2017 14:08:13 GMT