Series 7 - Sinclair-Orr letters

220pp

Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts of the Sinclair-Orr letters from the original manuscripts held in PRONI [reference number D1497].

The Sinclair-Orr letters are a set of 31 letters written between 1860 and 1889 by members of the Sinclair-Graham family who emigrated from south County Derry near Draperstown. John Stevenson Sinclair, the principal correspondent, appears to have come from the environs of The Six Towns, County Derry, situated close to the townlands of Draperstown, Tullybrick, and Owenreagh mentioned in the correspondence. These three townlands are also variously given as the address of Margaret Graham, the principal recipient of the correspondence and apparent niece of Sinclair’s wife Mary (died 1887). Sinclair emigrated with his family in 1879 to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California; the 28 letters written by John and his family dated between 1879 and 1889. In addition to John, authors include his daughters Ann (died 1885 of typhoid fever) and Mary Ann. A set of three earlier letters written in the 1860s by Thomas Graham and his brother-in-law Robert Orr (the latter living in Rhode Island) are also present.
The series includes: biographical notes and compiled Irish census and land valuation data regarding the Sinclair and Graham families; Kerby A. Miller’s typed transcripts of the Sinclair-Orr letters; transcripts of newspapers articles from 1890-1913 mentioning Sinclair family members provided by the Healdsburg Museum; directory and register mentions of the Sinclairs in Sonoma County; correspondence between Miller, Beth Ruffin McIntyre, the Healdsburg Museum, and other Northern California researchers and institutions regarding the Sinclairs in Sonoma County.