Fair whizzing along with FAIRBAIRNs

Continued working on the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Mary GRIERSON with quite a bit of success. Interested to note that one family member married a ROBSON, a variant of which surname married into the other Archibald FAIRBAIRN's family.
Revised, yet again, the brief FAIRBAIRN chart and the "other Archibald" chart on the FAIRBAIRN pages.
Also included the Archibald who married Janet SCOTT on the web pages, given that there's a leap or two of faith taken in there that others may not agree with. At least people can see how I reached my conclusions. If anyone has any compelling arguments another way, do tell me. I see at least one tree on the web that has these families completely differently to this.

Dec 26, 2007: Archibalds rethink and voyage of discovery

Have been on a very fruitful voyage around Roxburghshire chasing Archibald FAIRBAIRN and family (with Mary GRIERSON). Bowden, St Boswells, Melrose, Southdean all must have offered him work, children baptised in each parish. I think I've found his baptism too, so the putative names for the two Archibald's forbears have changed, given I did switch the 1783 Whitsome one to Archibald and Alison instead. There wasn't room between the children I found for Archibald and Mary to fit him in at all by his 1841 census birth estimate and the 1783 baptism predates their marriage with no indication on the record that he was illegitimate.
Brief Fairbairn chart updated, as are those on the FAIRBAIRN page

Dec 24, 2007: Whitsome rethink, GenCircles

Been thinking about Archibald FAIRBAIRNs. And re-examining what I knew about the 1783 Whitsome baptism. Not a lot as it turns out. I'll update the pages shortly (after Christmas), but I now suspect that my showing Whitsome for the 2nd family might be a bit of a leap. Lesley, of the Whitsome one place study, advises that the OPR for the entry merely shows Archibald as the son of an Archibald, a hynd resident at the now extinct farm of Whitsome Vaults, no mother mentioned. 1783 is a tad earlier than I'd be looking for a 50 yr old from the 1841 census, but the place is very close to Swinton, so just maybe, this is actually the Archibald, son of Archibald and Alison, who went on to marry Janet SCOTT.

Archibald and Mary (GRIERSON) FAIRBAIRN are shown in the Bowden Parish Kirk Sessions of Jul 1784 as "said to be married in an irregular way a short time ago". This is the first confirmed sighting I have of them.
Son George married in Melrose and said he was born variously Spaw, Hobkirk and Roxburghshire. Lived at Broomilees and died Harwoodburn, Selkirkshire. So, the likely places for the ancestral home of the Archibald who married Mary are many and varied, but may not include Whitsome after all.

GenCircles seems to have reincarnated itself into quite an interesting new version, MyHeritage.
Haven't explored a lot yet, but it automatically put my gedcoms from GenCircles there, so you can see the tree in a different way at my pages at MyHeritage and seems to have quite a powerful search engine attached. Haven't yet found how to change the standard introductory blurb from what they generated, and it may be having a few teething troubles....

Merry Christmas, and may 2008 be a great year for you and yours.

Dec 22, 2007: DNA results

A day for DNA results. Nothing as exciting as the FAIRBAIRNs completely unexpected match with the first SINTON set to arrive back, but one day maybe there will be. At 12 markers, about 1200 tested people share the same dna, but none of them are SINTONs, so any match is unlikely to be in a genealogical timeframe.

I've also had it confirmed that I'm unique. My mtDNA results are also back, with nary a match. The nearest did however have her earliest maternal ancestor from Cambridge, England, which is pretty close to Braintree, Essex where I think mine came from!

Dec 21, 2007: Paradise regained

Have also now updated the remaining version of my web pages (the Paradise homepages) definitely the poorer cousin as far as the web page content and frequency of update goes: slightly fewer people, and sometime less detail, charts that will load more quickly, and no pictures, so probably slightly more suitable to those on dialup, or who like a list of people for navigation down the lhs of the screen.

Dec 20, 2007: Easter instead? Seasons greetings

It's really Easter, not Christmas! I've had to resurrect someone that I thought died back in 1994. But I had an email from him. I obviously misinterpreted the information I was given back in 1995. Fancy being dead for 12 years and not knowing it. Anyway, glad to welcome you back Michael, sorry to have prematurely deceased you. Look forward to more updates on the PITTAR family.

This is probably an appropriate time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year. May 2008 bring you all happiness.
I've had a great year, all too short, haven't done half the things I wanted too, and as usual have left it far too late to do anything sensible like send Christmas cards. It's not that I don't think of all of you very helpful, wonderful people out there who help me with assorted branches of the family tree and interesting snippets of information, it's just that there are so many other things to do than stop and write letters. Consider yourselves all thought of with affection, and thanked for all your help, and ongoing friendship.

Fun with FAIRBAIRNs

Given the developments in the FAIRBAIRN tree (yes the dtr of Earl Millard FAIRBURN has been in touch, I had the right family), I've done a wholesale set of updates:
The Rootsweb pages have had a rather overdue update, seeing it's at least 2 months since that was done. The FAIRBAIRN chart at that site now includes a descendant chart from the theoretical Archibald? that links the two lines together.
My domain pages have had assorted FAIRBAIRN bits and bobs updated, including a write up on the theoretical grandfather of the two Archibalds, and their relationship.

Dec 18, 2007: Matching Archibalds

The final FAIRBAIRN dna results came in on our match, which added to the sum of knowledge in that although they were an exact match at 12 and 25 markers, by the 37 marker test there was 1 difference. I concluded, probably rather unscientifically, that they shared a grandfather and that their respective fathers were probably brothers named Walter and Archibald.
I'll expand on this on Archibald's write-up at a later date.

Updated the Patriarchs page of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project to include the line of the 2nd Berwickshire Archibald FAIRBAIRN.

Also included a chart for Archibald and Mary GRIERSON/GIESSEN on my FAIRBAIRNs page.

Dec 17, 2007: Win some? Lose some?

Well, I'm not sure if this DNA result is going to add or subtract people from the family tree!
The final link to Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER from one side of the test results is an unproven link, based purely on date/place proximity and naming patterns of the children of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Janet SCOTT. I've reviewed this in light of subsequent research on the chap I believe to be the DNA match. On balance I still think it looks and feels right in the absence of any evidence to the contrary.
Any other FAIRBAIRN descendants out there to help confirm this? I've not traced any of the other lines from Archibald and Alison down to present day, so am short of candidates at the moment, but it would be fantastic if someone else would participate in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project to aid these conclusions.
A male FAIRBAIRN descendant of Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes ROBERTSON would be great, or if anyone has a James, John or David born mid/late 1790s around Morebattle....
My research to date peters out before living people, the nearest candidates I currently know of would be children of:
Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Charlesina PHIMISTER, or their son Archibald (born Glasgow, died Jersey) who married Agnes Watt Gladstone FYFE.
Henry FAIRBAIRN and Emma Maud HANNEY, living Hampstead in 1901, with a 1 yr old son Stanley.
Walter Edward FAIRBAIRN and Davina Oswald MacDONALD: son Henry Edward F. was living in Edinburgh in 1930 when father died.
Walter FAIRBAIRN and Elizabeth ROY: two sons still alive in 1901 (Haltwhistle, Northumberland), a Walter and a John

If the other side of the match is who I think he might be, his email didn't bounce, BUT I think he died back in March.
However, researching this chap's family took me back from California to Melrose, and to Whitsome and Hilton, Berwickshire, and another Archibald FAIRRBAIRN, the one married to Mary GIESSEN. The two Archibalds are of an age, and having simultaneous families, so cannot be one and the same people. Both have sons named Archibald, one is my Walter's younger brother, so at least 2nd son in my family's case, but likely to be the first son in the other family.
My current theory is therefore that these two Archibalds share a grandfather via brothers Walter and Archibald, who will likely never be found, more's the pity.

Wonder what the rest of the results of the DNA testing will show up? All very exciting to find a match so quickly, and with only one participant!
I will update the Patriarchs page of the DNA project with a lineage of the second Archibald shortly, and possibly include some notes on my site's FAIRBAIRN page.

Dec 13, 2007: A DNA match! And a hunch confirmed

This DNA testing lark has already proved interesting. The first (partial) results are in, and already there's an exact 12/12 match. My sole FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project testee matches with another Family Tree DNA testee by the surname of FAIRBURN. I await with baited breath to find out more about him. Hope his email address is still current.
And I would love to find more FAIRBAIRN descendants interested in this process to volounteer, particularly the Delaware lot down from John FAIRBAIRN and Elizabeth MILLER, who may be descendants of my Walter, and the William & Jean (WANLESS) FAIRBAIRN & David & Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN lot.

Another hunch proved correct. When told about James Percy SINTON being in the same orphanage as a Frederick Walter SINTON in 1891, Helen had ordered the latter's birth cert. She advises that he was indeed his elder brother (children of David and Mary Ann SINTON, descendants of William SINTON & Isobel BLACK). Neither of us have been able to find Frederick after this census, anywhere as yet. Sightings welcome.

Updated databases and success with SINTONs

Both WorldConnect databases have been updated: LornaHenderson and LornaPotential

You will have to use these links for about 24 hrs to access them however as they wont be available for searches until reindexed.
Found (via GenesReunited) a descendant of William SINTON & Isobel BLACK, one of the Southdean SINTONs I'd like to include in the SINTON Surname DNA project. Hope they can help make connections between the SINTONs.

Dec 8, 2007: Sorting out the Southdean SINTONs

Continuing right along with Southdean SINTONs.

This time on the family of Thomas SINTON and Elizabeth HASTIE who married and lived in Southdean, even though Thomas said he was "of Jedburgh".
Son James married Jane AINSLIE, grddtr of Peter SINTON and Jeanie WIGHT, making the family of double interest.
This increased the number of Northumberland policemen in the family by one, as it looks like son Robert switched from being a newly married Water Bailiff living with his wife's parents (1891) to a widowed police constable in 1901, with his widowed sister in law Margaret as housekeeper for his 4 children.
Full and brief SINTON charts updated as a result, World Connect databases will follow shortly as this also led me to solve a long standing mystery as to who on earth was the Elizabeth SINTON who married Thomas Henry STAWART, as per a SCT General board posting on Rootsweb back in 1998.

Florence indicated that they were the parents of her Richard STAWART who married Sarah MATHER in 1911 and emigrated to Canada in 1912. But as she had this Richard as born 1866, it had thrown the dates of my searches out completely.
I now believe that Richard is Thomas Henry's brother and that Elizabeth is the dtr of James above.

Dec 6, 2007: Rolling around the RUNCIMeN

First circle of "The Wheel" of Michigan RUNCIMANs checked off against my data, one or two date discrepancies and a couple of surnames for the wives, one of whom involved yet more economy of effort as it led me to investigate whether or not Agnes COLLINS who married John RUNCIMAN was also the Agnes RUNCIMAN, 2nd wife of John's brother George. The chart showed them with the same birth/dth years, and I already had the 1910 census which showed George and Agnes with Agnes' children from her first marriage, QED. Might have caught that earlier if they'd been listed as George's niece and nephews instead of his step-children!
The Michigan RUNCIMAN chart has been updated as a result.

Dec 5, 2007: Luck(ock)s in

Yes, as suspected, Joseph LUCOCK married sisters Annie and Agnes Gair HENDERSON, dtrs of Archibald. The latter was a witness to her sister's marriage, as was what looks like a maternal uncle, Thomas WHITE, and Joseph's brother Reay LUCOCK Junr.
Another DNA kit has reached the lab, one of the RUNCIMAN Surname DNA Project ones.

Dec 4, 2007: More Southdean SINTONs, and sad news

And still on the Southdean SINTONs, not that I've found any new branches to connect, but have found lots of twigs on the known relations. The main find was an interconnected family of HALLs.
Realised I'd not checked off the family of Matthew HENDERSON and Ann MATHER, and as a result found a couple more children, one of whom, Robert HENDERSON, married an Isabella HALL. Thought she sounded a bit familiar, and sure enough I already had her in the database. Her sister Margaret married William WALDIE, one of my WIGHT relations. And when I checked out her grandparents as well, I found that their (Margaret and Isabella's) uncle, Thomas HALL, had married Margaret AINSLIE, 2nd cousin to Robert HENDERSON. So I checked out one further generation back up the HALLs, bearing in mind that I do have some from around the area in the SINTON tree. No immediately obvious connection as yet, but with James HALL's parents being John HALL and Margaret SHIEL, I may well find another connection somewhere.
Very sad to note the death (in the latest Borders Family History Society Journal) of Margaret, one of my earliest SINTON contacts, a descendant of James SINTON and Janet OLIVER. Should the SINTON Surname DNA project ever hit paydirt and indicate a connection between her and my Southdean families, it would have been great to be able to share that news.

Dec 3, 2007: More SINTONs and TELFERs

Continuing Southdean SINTON tracing. Thought I was onto one of them in England, and with a child named John Isaac Barrow SINTON, I thought I even had someone who might be easy to find in records. Unfortunately he was easiest to find in a marriage and death record, registered a quarter apart in 1866, so that trail went cold far too quickly, both for me and for him I guess.
I did eventually find his parents in 1871, they'd been indexed as SANTON, and in 1851 as SENTER. I've no idea if this George is the descendant of William and Isobel (BLACK) SINTON, as I only know he's the right age and was born Scotland. Interestingly enough, by 1871, a nephew had joined the family, born around 1857 in the United States, but so far, he too has disappeared into oblivion before and after this one census.
I will be including a bit more of this family in my Rootsweb databases in the hope someone pops out of the woodwork, but so far it doesn't look like anyone researching this family has shared much/any data online.
Had much more success with the descendants of Cecilia TELFER nee MATHER. A lot of the family moved south into England (Yorkshire and London), then one branch at least (Robert & Ann Brown (DORWARD) TELFER), onto Canada, not that I'm having much luck finding them beyond the 1906 Alberta census.

SINTON charts updated: both the brief one here and the full SINTON chart on the main part of the web pages

Dec 2, 2007: Southdean SINTONs

Decided to continue hunting for other Southdean SINTON descendants to see who I might find still living and willing to participate in the SINTON Surname DNA project.
Sorted out several duplications in my database on the family of William SINTON and Isobel BLACK, some of whose children show up in census data as being born Southdean, even though their baptisms were in Jedburgh at the Associated Session Congregation or Free Church. Some day I might find out where all the Free Churches were in the area, perhaps that was the closest for them?
William and Isobel are the parents of both the Agnes SINTON who married Robert TELFER and of John SINTON who married Dorothy EASTHAM.
William TELFER, son of Agnes & Robert, married Cecilia MATHER, grddtr of Peter and Janet (DONALDSON) SINTON.
Several more twigs will therefore show up on the assorted SINTON charts as I've found a few more of them in censuses etc.