Series 28 - Bell-Carroll family history and letters

23pp

Family history document fragment provided to Kerby A. Miller by Isaac Edward Bell of Holywood, County Down pertaining to the intermarried Bell and Carroll families of Ulster, many of whom emigrated to America. The fragment contains genealogical information and portions of two emigrant letters written in 1884 and 1905. The series also includes Isaac Bell's letters to Miller which provide further information on the Bell family, particularly 1905 letter author William Bell of Dromore.
Per Bell: ‘As a lad of twelve years I well remember my Mother reading from the Belfast Telegraph the article which appeared on July 12, 1912, and expressing regret that she could not have met the American visitor referred to there. She was the daughter of Isaac Bell of Trumra House, visited by Attie Whinnery and her father, referred to in the letter of July 13, 1884, and the granddaughter of "the Isaac Bell of whom grandmother used often to speak" to whom reference is made also in the letter. I have valued the document because of the delightful description of that part of the country in which I was born and spent my boyhood years. It may be of some interest to you because of the links with the Carroll family and the Declaration of Independence. It was loaned to and, I think, copied by the Public Records Office with other of my family papers some time ago. The Quaker colony at Trummery was a small and closely knit community. "Marrying out" was frowned upon and those guilty of doing so were invariably disowned by The Society of Friends. Consequently there was a great deal of intermarrying - particularly among Quaker families. From the information given on the back of page 3 it will be seen there were at least three marriages between the Carroll and Bell families.’