This was posted to another list and I thought it might be of interest. ---------------Original Message--------------- Taken from PRONI : Local History 6 Solicitor`s records are invaluable source of local history comprising title deeds,testamentary papers, inventories, valuations etc. Since in its foundation the PRONI has been collecting papers from solicitors offices in all parts of the province. Not only do such collections provide numerous copies of destroyed Irish public records but they provide one of the larger quarries of material for the economic historian. PRONI holds records of more than 140 Northern Ireland solicitor`s practices. These include the records of L`Estrange & Brett, Belfast, which is the most important in the east of the Province. The variety of material is staggering: linen manufacturers, distillers, chemical works, potato sales during the Great Famine, Belfast Improvement Schemes, the fortunes of the Belfast Philarmonic Society. The records of Carleton, Atkinson & Sloan, Portadown, include the title deeds, legal papers, Irish Land Commission records, etc, relating to the Wakefield and Richardson families and their estates at Moyallen and Gilford, Co Down and in the Lurgan and Portadown area, c 1780 - c 1914. There are also letters and papers concenring a dispute over the Unionist nomination for the constituency of North Armagh, 1885 D.1252 The archive of Wilson & Simms, Strabane, which has a similar importance west of the Bann. Consisting of more than 20,000 documents these include a number of political papers which reflect the firm`s activities as election agents for Unionist candidates in the North Tyrone constituency c 1885 - 1920, and which include printed election addresses, circular letters and accounts. Solicitor`s records fall into two broad types: those of the administration of a solicitor`s office and client`s papers. The client`s paper`s are of particular interest to genealogists and local historians as they include records of the prominent families, landowners and estates - title deeds, testamentary papers, leases, rentals, maps and correspondence which bring together a corpus of information on a particular family or area. In order to discover if the records of a particular solicitor`s firm are deposited at PRONI see the Subject Index under the heading `Legal System: Solicitors and Attorneys`. Alex Hughes >from Ayrshire, Scotland Searching for Duncan,Bleakie,Bruce,Kilpatrick,Campbell,Fairley,Milne,McKechan, Jamphray,Strathern,Kelso,Smith & Auld in Scotland Searching for Hughes,Hughs,Graham,McCutcheon,Donaghy,Irvine,Dorian, Kelley & Black in Ireland ----------End of Original Message----------