Jan 28, 2008: DNA success story

The RUINCIMAN Surname DNA project now shows that the respective descendants of the Michigan and Wanton Walls RUNCIMAN families are a very good match, at 37 out of 37 markers. Now I'm trying to work out whether or not it is worth upgrading the tests to get a better idea of how closely related, or just to fit William in where he probably belongs anyway. I reckon his grandfather is probably a son of John and Betsy(FAMILTON) RUNCIMAN, so along with this assumption, and that the Michigan James and William are cousins, not brothers, that's where I've placed them in the RUNCIMAN family tree. If anyone has a convincing argument of where better to place them, speak up.

Still looking for a willing descendant of James & Isabella (CARTER) RUNCIMAN to join the project - which is growing. There's been some interest from a descendant of William of Crail whose descendants seemed determined to set foot in a fair few countries and Counties: Fife, Dunbar, Ireland, Canada, NZ, Australia... and hopefully Don will eventually get some evidence of a connection between his James and Janet (HOG) RUNCIMAN of Selkirk then Canada, and the James & Agnes (HERIOT) RUNCIMAN of Ayton/Dunbar whose descendants went to Selkirk, Ohio, and NZ.

Jan 24, 2008: Lots of updates, incl. dna matches

Both databases on WorldConnect updated, so the links on the lhs of most of my web pages to "BMD Data on all rellies" and "Likely Rellies" will take you to the latest and greatest, including all the newfound twigs down the SINTON and FAIRBAIRN families.
You'll have to use those links to get to the newer names for a couple of days though as it will take a while for the indexing on WorldConnect to catch up.

On the basis of predicting children's names, I think there also has to be a Peter ROBSON somewhere around Roxburghshire, son of Richard ROBSON and Isabella SINTON.
Finally also managed to update the web pages. The newfound Isabella SINTON and Alison FAIRBAIRN are both included, and all charts now contain the current versions of the trees.

Exciting news on the RUNCIMAN Surname DNA project as well, yes, there's a match (admittedly only 12/12 markers at this stage) between the Wanton Walls RUNCIMAN family, as represented by David in Spain, and the Michigan family of William and Mary (BROWN) RUNCIMAN, as represented by Jerry.
Still looking for a representative of the family of William's cousin (or brother) James & Isabella (CARTER) RUNCIMAN.

And the accidentally newfound FAIRBAIRN relation in Dunedin lives directly opposite the couple who lived in front of my first "home" post University in Dunedin.

Jan 23, 2008; There had to be an Alison

Having been found by the descendants of the newfound (to me) dtr Isabella, to Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and having done a lot of digging around to find as many of the descendants as wanted to be found, I then went digging to find other researchers of the new names added into the tree: ROBSON, MABON, HILSON, TURNBULL, BRODIE, THOMSON, INGLIS, SCOTT, MIDDLEMIST, GRAHAM, TAYLOR, RENWICK, HUNTER, WAUGH.
On the Borders FHS site, the Surname interests came up trumps for TURNBULL and MABON. At the time I found the TURNBULL researcher and looked at the web page, I wasn't sure it was the same family, but a bit more digging, and bingo. A couple of Isabella's great grdchildren had emigrated to Canada after WWI.
For MABON I picked one researcher for no better reason other than she had a NZ address. Such decisions can be fateful.
This evening, I received a pedigree chart from Amanda, and completely forgot about checking MABONs further, as she was a FAIRBAIRN relation of mine from a daughter I didn't have, for Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes ROBESON/ROBISON/ROBERTSON, but I knew had to exist somewhere. In a family with several sons and daughters I was missing a son named after the mother's father, and a dtr named after the father's mother, but am no longer missing the latter. The former may well still be the John in New York with father Walter of Roxburgh, SCT, but DNA participants are yet to be found to aid this conjecture.
Figured out who Mary BUCKHOLM is (but not what happened to her after 1871), but the rest of the grandchildren of Richard and Isabella ROBSON are yet to be "fitted in".

Jan 20, 2008: Another Southdean SINTON !!

I'd often looked at the gaps between the known children of Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON and wondered if any more children would be found. The answer today is YES. A 5th cousin in Ayr has emailed to say he's a descendant from their dtr Isabella, who married Richard ROBSON, all previously unknown to me. So I spent a hot summer's day digging. The SINTON descendant chart has considerably more twigs on it now, and sometime soon I'll have to do a WorldConnect database update.
If anyone can claim or shed any light on, a Thomas R & Adam ARMSTRONG, or Mary and John N BUCKHOLM, all born Jedburgh around 1850-1860ish, and all supposedly grandchildren of Richard and Isabella's, I'd love to know what happened to them and whose children they are. So far they've eluded me beyond the 1871 census.

Jan 17, 2008: Edinburgh FAIRBAIRNs

I've finally managed to track down some modern day FAIRBAIRNs of one of my lines, that of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Elizabeth HOWD/HOUD/HOOD. I've been talking on the phone to a family in Edinburgh, who confirmed that they were indeed descendants of Archibald's son Walter. Now I'll have to finish off a letter to them as they aren't on email. A grddtr in Australia, nephew in Sth Africa, not heard from in many years, son and grdson in Edinburgh, so I've a few extra leads to follow up there.
The FAIRBAIRN descendant chart has been updated with the preliminary findings.

Jan 11, 2008: A DNA day

Another preliminary set of results came in for SINTON Surname DNA project, and thankfully had a 12/12 match with the earlier set. Which tells me that the two sons of Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and their sons in turn etc, were faithful, and thankfully also confirms everyone's research. So we have a good set of comparisons for when I finally track down other lines.
Also the preliminary 12 marker results on a HENDERSON (2nd)cousin. No exact matches on any HENDERSONs, but I note that scratching around in the ySearch database seeing what I could find that the closest matches did indeed appear to be Perthshire based, but at 10/12 markers, that's all fairly airey fairey, and definitely not conclusive. A Shetland one wasn't even in the running, so theory A that he may have come from the Caithness area may well prove to be only that, theory.

Jan 6, 2008: Rounding up RUNCIMeN, Selkirk to NZ and Ohio

Already the year is flying. Spent a lot of the last few days trying to locate living descendants of my SINTON, RUNCIMAN and FAIRBAIRN lines, and those I think may well connect, for their relevant DNA projects before the discount vouchers ran out. With mixed success. Certainly didn't find all the people I was hoping to find, but along the way I had a lot of fun, and have chatted to an amazing mix of people all over the world (well UK, America and NZ anyway).
The more exciting finds in the last week haven't been my family, just people I've been able to help.
Don in America has been searching for his supposedly Selkirk born RUNCIMAN family for years. Not sure why I didn't make the likely connection to the NZ lot, but it does seem rather likely that his James (marr. Janet HOG) RUNCIMAN is the one that the RUNCIMAN family in NZ (Capt James and his uncles and cousins by the dozens, descendants of James RUNCIMAN and Agnes HERIOT) show in their family bible as born 1791, died Ohio, nothing further known. So I've been contacting assorted NZ descendants on his behalf, and even convinced Phil to join the RUINCIMAN DNA project, to see if he matches up with Don. Not that he was hard to convince as he has also wondered if there was a connection with the Wanton Walls lot (mine), and when I said we had a representative of that branch in the project...

And the last couple of days have been spent, metaphorically, on Tyree, sorting out McKINNONs, CAMERONS et al for Chris as a CAMERON 3rd cousin once removed, and 5th cousin, all rolled into one person, had found the web pages I'd done for her. They've now been updated, with more to come no doubt.

Back to my lot this week I guess.

Jan 1, 2008: Day of "rest" to start the rest of the year

A day of rest. Sorting out the laptop (program versions, backups), figuring out what I need to do next.

And then distracted by a Guestbook entry from a DAWE relation down the line of Betsy GALE's son Edmund Charles MARTYN, and one a couple of days ago another of the HELSON/PEEK relations.

FamilytTreeDNA have extended the vouchers until the 4th of Jan (their website was down for a bit over the weekend), so if any SINTON, RUINCIMAN, FAIRBAIRNs out there would like to avail themselves of this offer and join their relevant Surname DNA project, send me an email (link in footer)
Even with only 1 member in the FAIRBAIRN project we hit an exciting match with someone else who had tested with the company. (You can read about that in the 2007:jul-dec log)

Dec 31, 2007: Final fling on FAIRBAIRNs

Ended the year on the FAIRBAIRNs, descendants of joiner Walter and Eliza (CHAPPEL) FAIRBAIRN of Dumfries, then Jedburgh, then London then Jedburgh again. Descendants ended up in Edinburgh after themselves taking a tiki tour back to London.
Would love to hear from the FAIRBAIRN descendants of this line: Walter Archibald marr. Janet Dowie NICOLSON; James marr. Florence Selina Elizabeth WARE (from Plymouth, but seems not to be a direct relation to Nicholas WARE the warrener); Mary Jane; Henry Edward marr. Charlotte Scott CHALMERS; Charles McDonald marr. Isabella Harrison KEIRNAN and Jean Leigh GIBB;
All getting so close to present day, someone must recognise someone soon and put me in touch.
FAIRBAIRN chart updated.
A big thank you Robert for following your hunch and providing the seeds of tonight's finds on Scotlands People.

Have a great 2008 folks.