Mar 27, 2008: Gala Hotmatches - SINTON/LIDDLE

Noted a GenesReunited Hotmatch on the family of Janet SINTON & James Thomson LIDDLE today.
The researcher wasn't a relation, but made me realise there was more to be found on this family as I'd barely scratched the surface of available records.
SINTON tree updated as a result, as several descendants of Janet and James have now been traced forward in time. They seem to have mostly stayed around Galashiels, although I suspect Agnes moved south, given she married a David SPIERS, fitter of Poplar, Middlesex.
Interesting range of occupations amongst the siblings. Instead of them all being woollen weavers/piecers, power loom weavers, there was a blacksmith, a joiner, and a grocer, at least.

Mar 24, 2008: Aberdeen to Portsmouth STEPHENSONs, new McDONALDs

Two postings in my Guestbook on the same day from newfound rellies, or at least since I last read it.
One had info on a new twig on the WIGHT/STEPHENSON line, which just happens to be the line where Harry and I have been chasing a mysterious Hugh STEPHENSON with dtr Margaret who married a John WIGHT, who may or may not have been the widower living in the same building in 1841 in the Fleshmarket, Edinburgh in 1841.
Hugh is highly likely to be the father of the Robert STEPHENSON who married Isabella WIGHT, so who on earth is John WIGHT, horse dealer, or is he just a complete coincidence?
The other was on the BAIN/SUTHERLAND line down from James BAIN's dtr Helen Sutherland BAIN who married George McDONALD. Good to know a bit more about that line.

Look forward to hearing more about both families.
WIGHT and BAIN descendant charts updated with interim findings.

Mar, 22: 2008: Quebec FAIRBAIRNs, MyHeritage update

As I've checked off quite a few of the Quebec FAIRBAIRN bits I already have, I've put a preliminary update of the rellies database onto MyHeritage, but not yet onto Rootsweb.
If you check it out, don't be surprised about incomplete families, stray people without parents etc, I'm only marking people to be included as I find them in assorted BDM, census or cemetery records, or am otherewise convinced they exist and my data is something like accurate.

Mar 21, 2008: Cemetery records, QUE & NY

Thanks to the wonderful people who selflessly transcribe and photograph headstones, I now have confirmation of several more links on the Quebec FAIRBAIRN chains.
My special thanks to Anne CADY for Riverside Cemetery, Gouverneur NY and those who did Rupert Union Cemetery

Quebec FAIRBAIRN chart updated.

Mar 20, 2008: Untangled TOZERs

Corrections made to the TOZER/DAYMOND portion of the KING chart thanks to a posting in my Guestbook by Eileen D.

Mar 19, 2008: Who is Eliza?

Few twigs on the Quebec FAIRBAIRN descendant chart confirmed/added (mostly on the HUDSON/McGILLIVRAY portions).
Read the will of Janet FAIRBAIRN nee SCOTT (d. Fens, St Boswells, 27 Dec 1891). Sole surviving son John James, but with a mysterious mention of an Eliza in an undated codicil presented along with her will.
"My Dear John James of the little money I leave will you give to Eliza if she is stil in want her friends in Australia will be able to tell you about her.."

I don't yet know if this family is connected or not, but a John James was a witness to the will of James RUNCIMAN, probably in his capacity as apprentice to Robert Romanes, writer of Lauder, it probably being significant that John James' grandmother was a Jane ROMANIS. Given the St Boswells connection, I'm hunting for a link to "my" St Boswells FAIRBAIRN families, although it does rather look more like they're from Legerwood originally.

Confirmed hunch re REY, willing ROWEs

Confirmation received that I was indeed on the right trail for at least one of the children of Thomas Storror HULL and Ada Trimble DAVEY. Ada Norah HULL married Leonard REY in Heavitree, Oct 1929, Leonard a buyer, son of a Peter REY retired civil servant, & Ada d/o Thomas HULL a woollen merchant.
Marion has written to the last address I have for a Colin who looks like he might be their son, given he was last known to be on the same street in Exeter.

Transcript received, from Ernest, of the 1858 will of James ROWE, h/o Elizabeth COLMAN, which has completely convinced Ernest and I that we have indeed connnected James up to the correct father, Matthias (as opposed to his being his cousin James bap, 1788, the son of John and Charity (BLAGDON) ROWE). He leaves the Kantham property he inherited from his father, to his son Henry Colman ROWE jointly with wife Elizabeth. It also provides an alternate surname for dtr Jane, who the Lydford marriages on GenUKi show as marrying a Samuel GORDON. She is referred to as Jane GOODYEAR in the will, and I now can spot the other half of her marriage on FreeBMD as Samuel GOODER.

LornaPotential updated, mainly to remove the Quebec families of William & David FAIRBAIRN, now included in the descendants chart for John & Bessie (FLINT) FAIRBAIRN, in readiness to publishing them in the rellies database LornaHenderson instead, but that will take some time as I check off what I do and don't have.

Mar 16, 2008: FAIRBAIRN patriarchs, more HENDERSONs

Began wading thru some FAIRBAIRN wills to try and sort out some inconsistencies in some of the published trees.
As a result, I've updated the Patriarch's page on the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project to show some of the alternatives that may exist to previously published data.
Caution is recommended, check both my and other's data and reach your own conclusions.
Participants for the project on other lines particularly welcome. I can't quite believe that all three people currently tested all match, there have to be other lines out there somewhere!

The James LAPPIN/Marion HENDERSON branch found below (12th) has proved rather prolific. Robert has provided me with a heap of 1918 to 1940 birth extracts for the family in Lanarkshire, firstly Newlands, Uddingston, then Tannochside, then Bellshill, then Bridgeton, Glasgow. If this rings any bells for you, I'd love to hear from you. Marion is the dtr of William HENDERSON & Marion AITKEN, and these LAPPIN children are my 3rd cousins, from the Archibald branch of the family of James HENDERSON & Amelia MILLAR that remained in the UK when all the rest of the family emigrated to NZ.

Mar 14, 2008: BATY corrections

Tidied up a bit of a mixup down the BATY tree re TURNER/MORAN etc. As this was nearly into present day, it probably wasn't online but the BATY chart may have shown the confusion, now corrected.
This activity being spurred by a reply from another GR hot match - Scott, a descendant of Andrew BATY and Mary RICHARDSON. Hopefully discussions will ensue as he has Andrew connected to different parents than I do, so I've pointed him to my page on Andrew and hope he is convinced.

Yet another Archibald HENDERSON

GenesReunited has come up trumps with a new Hot Match.
A new contact showed up with a match on Archibald HENDERSON & Agnes TODD. Although she isn't a relation, I now know a bit more about what happened to their son William, last seen as the informant for his wife Marion Glen HENDERSON nee AITKEN's death in Glasgow in 1908, and before that in Torpichen in 1901, with three dtrs, Ellen Haddow K, Amelia and Marion.
At the time I couldn't find William's death, bit too hard to pick which he was likely to be. The GR contact, Moira, had a year, which I've now confirmed, and found that the Procurator Fiscal got involved as the cause was expanded from the medical diagnosis on his death cert to include the information that the injuries were "by accident received through fall of portion of wall of shaft in colliery". So I guess there was a colliery accident in Bothwell around Dec 1925/ Jan 1926, his spinal injuries being of 8 months duration.
Couldn't spot a fatal accident report on the excellent Scottish Mining Villages web site.

Found dtr Marion's marriage, to yet another LAPPIN, which seems to not be as unusal a name as I thought, as I found when I did an index search for likely births following the 1917 marriage and quickly gave up on that idea.
Another branch of the HENDERSON family has a LAPPIN, but without a lot more work, I cannot see any immediate connection.
William's second marriage (1919 to an Annie HALLEY nee CAMERON) appears to have produced yet another Archibald HENDERSON for the files, another second cousin once removed to be found.
Brief HENDERSON chart updated.

Mar 11, 2008: Following further FAIRBAIRNs

Having great fun sorting out and revisiting assorted FAIRBAIRN families.
Roy mentioned blacksmiths today. So I reviewed what I knew about the Ednam blacksmith families only to find one connection I hadn't realised before, and another potential one, and of course, a new puzzle or two.
Reading the Galashiels OPR the other day re-checking that William F. definitely wasn't there, I came across the 1802 birth/baptism for John F. son of William FAIRBAIRN and Margaret THOMSON of "New Wooll". I believe this John to be the one who married Margaret SINTON and emigrated to Blandford, Ontario between 1835 and 1838. Two of their children were born when they were at Fairnalee, Galashiels, so when I found an 80 year old William FAIRBAIRN in the 1841 census at Fairnalee, I assumed he was John's father.
So far so good, apart from the fact that I also have a William FAIRBAIRN and Margaret THOMSON as the grandfather (via their son Edward) of a William FAIRBAIRN born New Wooler 1823. And I also have that William as buried in Ednam aged 61 in 1817. So, of an age, and place, but can't be both dead and alive in 1841. More work needed.
The potential connection with this family of blacksmiths is via this 1823 William's dtr Fanny who married an Archibald Henderson FAIRBAIRN, a potential descendant of one or t'other of the Archibalds.
FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project Patriarch pages updated with the pedigree of the above Archibald Henderson FAIRBAIRN's family in the hope that a descendant might join the project and help pinpoint where that family fits too.

Mar 8, 2008: FAIRBAIRN DNA

FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project pages updated to reflect the new results.
In particular, I've split Roy's supplied pedigree into two, the first being the definite lineage back to William who married Jean WANLESS, with his brother David, and the second being Sir William's line.
I've expanded the latter to show a few more salient connections in the hope that a participant may come forward for the project to help resolve whether or not Reby (Johnston) DODDS claim of a relationship in her book Who's Which (1970) is based in fact.
I confess to needing more proof, as the schoolmaster Reby refers too as the connection would appear NOT to be a William married to Elsie ELLIOT, but the one married to Margaret SCOTT.
How I'd love a time machine to go back and ask Reby why she has William and David's parents as William and Elise (ELLIOT) FAIRBAIRN, when indications are that their father is an Archibald.

Mar 7, 2008: FAIRBAIRN DNA match

What an eventful day, genealogically speaking. Yesterday the preliminary 12 marker results arrived in for the 3rd kit of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project and to my surprise, showed a 12/12 match with both of the other 2 participants, neither of whom had ever been seriously considered as relations.
Sure, I'd speculated at times that, despite what others had said, that the William who married Jane WANLESS and the David who married Jane WILLIAMSON, who had emigrated to Quebec, might be the children of my Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER, purely on the basis of naming patterns of their children, and approximate ages, but proof was definitely lacking.
Then today, the rest of the results arrived showing a full 37/37 match with the descendant of Archibald and Mary (GRIERSON) FAIRBAIRN, and a 36/37 match with a descendant of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN.
I've spent a lot of today re-examining assorted claims and OPRs and will soon update the patriarchs page of the Surname project to reflect my findings, combining them as best I can with details reported to me, leaving exactly where they fit into the overall tree for another day, and possibly an upgraded dna test or two.
I'm still very drawn to attaching them to an Archibald as a father, but it would now have to be the one married to Mary GRIERSON instead. A 1790 date for William would fit in between two known children both baptised St Boswells but at different farms, and a 1799 date for David would definitely fit in between 1793 Margaret baptised when they were at Thornylaw, St Boswells, and 1804 George by when they had moved to Macksidemoor, Southdean.
As to the rumoured/believed connection to Sir William FAIRBAIRN's family via his schoolmaster uncle....
I believe that schoolmaster to be the William married to Margaret SCOTT. He was teaching at Bowden from 1778 to 1789 and from 1792 thru 1798 children are now being baptised in Galashiels. This latter period would fit the dates when Sir William was supposedly learning book-keeping from his Uncle in Gala.
In addition, this William looks very like the 53 yr old buried in the Galashiels Old Kirk Cemetery in 1810, which date coincides very nicely with the baptism of the William, son of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON, Apr 1756, Smailholm.
All in all, an eventful day indeed. It is wonderful to know that the work I have sporadically done on the descendants of William and David in Quebec has not been in vain, and that they are indeed all relations, just not sure where yet! Maybe one day soon we'll also figure out how come Walter A FAIRBAIRN is a cousin to his wife Clarissa. I now have more of a vested interest in the answer to that.
In the meantime, I've updated the FAIRBAIRN introductory page to include charts for William and David.
The other charts will also now include some new twigs for the family of John FAIRBAIRN and Bessie FLINT, and Robert FAIRBAIRN and Agnes LANDRETH/LAUNDRESS found while looking for others.

Mar 5, 2008: Correcting COLLINGS

Given the burst of activity on tracing the HULL/DAVEY family down to present day (and yes I did find the marriage of a Leonard REY and Ada Norah HULL - 1932 Exeter, so that is looking promising) I checked what else I might be missing on the related families.
I've had to bring Laura Ann COLLINGS back to last sighting 1891, rather than Pat's 1901 teaching in Suffolk, as that latter was a Laura A, with a sister Albertha E KING, widow, which is a different family of John & Elizabeth COLLINGS as far as I can currently tell, where Laura A is actually Laura Arabella Augusta, rather than Laura Ann, and Albertha E is Emma Sophia Albertha.

Mar 4, 2008: Hokitika to NSW & HULLs of Exeter

Figured out where the newfound Australian branch of the FAIRBAIRN/BROOMFIELD/ADDISON family fits.
Michelle is the granddtr of Agnes May (aka Maisie) BARLOW nee WHITE, who obviously skipped the ditch and married in NSW.
I used the opportunity to track down a likely descendant of Agnes ADDISON nee BROOMFIELD's in Hokitika and update the tree. My last flurry of activity on this line was back in 1996 and ended up with a lot of "s/he married, and has x children", so there are still quite a few gaps to plug on that line. A quick search of the Electoral rolls did rather lead me to think, oh dear, I've left this a bit late, as the names I did have were of the older generation, and none were still around, but a punt on a likely surname in Hokitika got me started again.
The FAIRBAIRN descendant chart has been updated - yet again.

Also turned my attention back to DAVEY descendants. Marion would like to ensure that old ROWE/DAWE letters she has from her mother are kept in the family, so we are back looking for descendants of Thomas Storror and Ada Trimble (DAVEY) HULL.

Last known address Polsloe Rd, Exeter, 1922, two children, probably born around 1901-1905.
I've pieced together a plausible story that these are Kathleen Alice T HULL born 1901 and Ada Norah HULL born 1904, both the only HULL births registered in the District of St Thomas, Devon where Thomas and Ada married in 1900, but this is as yet unchecked by certificates or other means. Kathleen appears to have died aged 11 in 1913, but it looks like Ada married as I can spot the death of an Ada Norah REY, registered Exeter in 1991, with a birth date that would match this Ada Norah, and a Leonard REY of about the right age also dying in Exeter, so am currently trying to find anyone researching this possible family, or any descendants. There's also a Colin REY of Exeter on the electoral rolls, but only up to 2006, and he is of Polsloe RD, so that looks promising, other than he isn't in the current electoral roll, or the phone book online.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? Love to hear from you.

Mar 3, 2008: Milling around Devon

Places section of "Big Brother" web site updated to include a section on the Lumburn Mill. General confusion on how come this picture is a Dawe family one, when it has to have been taken after they'd all left the area or died.
No doubt whatsoever that it is the Lumburn Mill however.

The smartmatching feature of MyHeritage is indeed working. Within a day of reloading my basic tree there again, I've been contacted by two people, one a remote connection via the husband of Emma BISHOP (marr. William Walter PIDDINGTON in the States), with a secondary connection back to the DOOLE/OLDS of Taranaki etc, and a second, closer connection, with a descendant of Agnes ADDISON nee BROOMFIELD, exactly how yet to be determined.

Mar 2, 2008: Which William ROSIE?

Contacted by a ROSIE researcher on GenesReunited wondering if we had a match on William who married Margaret McADIE.
Her tree definitely showed a William of the right age and married to Margaret, but gave William's parents as Alexander ROSIE and Charlotta MANSON, whereas William's 1867 death cert says his parents are Alexander ROSIE and Elizabeth MANSON, so the jury is still out.
Mistake on death cert or another couple? At least one other tree (on WorldConnect) shows the same as her.
Nonetheless it did prompt me to check for a few more twigs, so now Elizabeth Jane, dtr of David Sinclair Wemyss McADIE & Margaret BAIN, has been found in 1901 with her husband William MacKAY and two daughters with a string of names each.

Assorted descendant charts updated: DAWE, ROWE, McADIE.

Also re-investigated MyHeritage, the site GenCircles morphed into.
Looks like they've fixed a few of the initial teething troubles, so have reloaded my basic BMD data there.
The smartmatching that was a good feature of GenCircles appears to be working.

Lumburn Mill

A posting on the GenForum FUGE board elicited a prompt response and contact with two researchers of the name in Australia. Like me, they hadn't solved the problem of what happened to Samuel, Thomasin Ann and John Edwin, children of William FUGE and Mary Elizabeth HAMLEY, but were able to add several details, including most of the later baptisms and some exact marriage dates.
But even more interestingly, this contact has finally lead to exact identification of the Lumburn Mill.
I was swapping Tavistock Library stories with one of the FUGE researchers, telling her about how I'd been trying to identify where assorted mills were that Isaac DAWE had been (Newton, Mill Hill, Lifton and Lumburn).
She had also been trying to identify the Lumburn mill as one of the FUGE wives' families had been there from between 1851 and 1861, presumably following on from my Isaac DAWE who had died in 1851 or his son Isaac who had emigrated to Australia by 1857.
When I was in Devon in Aug 2006 I had followed the river up from Lumburn to Middle Lumburn to Higher Lumburn taking pics of likely buildings for the Lumburn Mill, the first being on the A390 out of Tavistock just past the Lumburn bridge.
As my map didn't show any great water source near to this first set, well past the bridge, I assumed it wasn't the mill and had turned off onto the B road to the right, so didn't get to see the front of the first set of buildings I'd snapped from the bridge side.
However, Eleanor's 2003 photo from the other side is an exact match with the family photo that we have marked "Lumburn House and Mill" with assorted well dressed Victorians outside. Obviously the water is either hidden, or has been diverted over the centuries.

Marriage cert of William MATTERS arrived. I had picked the right bride - Mary GRIBBIN (of Newquay, Tavistock), dtr of Edward. Haven't yet found her/them in 1841 and 1851.