Hi,

I am a bit of a newbie to the mechanical side of this sport.

I recently bought a 2010 XL Trance X frame for my still growing son with the intention of transferring his components over.

I am in a little over my head it appears.

First, the steerer tube from the old bike is too short for the new frame. 
Thus, I guess that I need to find a new fork.
It appears to me that the frame uses a straight steerer tube. Inner diameter at top and bottom is 44mm.
I guess that this limits my fork selection.
Doing a little research, it appears that Cane Creek makes an adapter headset that allows use of tapered fork stem 1 1/8 to 1 1/2.
If so, then my choices are more extensive.

Is this correct

Yea cane creek does have one.
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
How much more steertube length do you need? 
I had a similar issue and it was solved by using a different stem and headset with a lower stack height.   
The problem you will have is that a adapter headset is going to have a much higher stack height because the bearings sit outside the frame rather than flush. Someone correct me if I am wrong here.   
There is a plus sides of a 1 1/8" steer-tube is that the components will be considerably cheaper.

tjbelge wrote on 05/17/14 at 6:30pm:
he could mix a zero stack upper with the external adapter lower to save some stack height.