Erskine Halcro genealogy

XVI
which all my efforts to trace the family might have been ineffectual. As to
the opportunities which Mr. Leask had of acquiring the necessary informa-
tion, I quote his own words as follows : —
' The county records of the Sheriff and Commissary Courts (of Orkney),
a good portion of which I had through my hands. Two hundred and eighty
years ago, and some time later, it was the fashion when any transaction was
recorded, even the obligation to deliver a certain quantity of malt or butter,
as well as a marriage contract, for the friends of the parties — it may be
brothers, or sons, or fathers, or others — to sign as witnesses — and the relation-
ship was expressed — not as now, the lawyers' clerks or any chance witness. In
this way the general record affords a good deal of genealogical information.'
I may just say that Mr. Leask's information has been corroborated in
every case in which I had the opportunity, and never found to be incorrect,
and, I feel satisfied, is implicitly reliable.
Sir Nicholas Howard Elphinstone, Baronet, who was engaged in exten-
sive investigations among the records having reference to his own ancestry,
and with great kindness furnished me with such extracts as he had obtained
regarding the early history of the Halcros, which, as it happened, were of
great assistance to me in tabulating the mutual connections of and rivalry
between the principal family of Halcro of that ilk and the Aikeris branch
from which we descend.
My nephew (who is an official in the Edinburgh Register House), and a
very old acquaintance, who, learning the investigation I was engaged in, most
kindly employed a professional searcher to obtain for me extracts from the
old records in Edinburgh, have both been of important service to me. I
owe to the latter the information by which alone I was enabled to identify
the Helen Erskine of the Drum family with the grandmother of Margaret
Halcro.
In conclusion, I have to say that my labours on this genealogy, which
have extended over ten or twelve years, have put me in possession of much
more information than I found it wise to burden this pamphlet with, but
that what I have given has been faithfully given by me as correct, referring
wherever I could to my authorities. In a work of this kind I cannot flatter