Wednesday 23 July 2008

Jul 22, 2008: Ontario FAIRBAIRNs; DNA updates

Anyone know anything about a Robert FAIRBAIRN in Ontario from about 1828?
Scott sent me an extract from the Scots in Canada pre Confederation which showed a Robert born abt 1786 emig 1828, settled nr Selby, Lennox & Addington Co, with children including: William, James, Robert, Elizabeth, Jane, Alison (marr. David FITCHETT, lived Huntingdon Twp, Hastings Co)
Alison and Robert look like they were born Scotland, still trying to trace the rest of them, but the 1851 census shows Robert Snr and Jnr enumerated with a 22 yr old Esther, all born Scotland, along with an 11 yr old Robert born USA and yet another Archibald, aged 9 born Canada West (Ontario).
Sounds promising for a connection to my lot.

Newfoundland DAWEs are now represented on the DAW/DAWE DNA project. There must be some proven descendants on the Devon lines out there somewhere who'd like to take part!
Also progress on the FAIRBAIRN DNA project, the line of Robert FAIRBAIRN and Janet HOGARTH, whose son William married Isabella SINTON.
And another on the SINTON project. I'd been trying to find a suitable candidate down the line of John SINTON and Alison HALL, but in the end one found the project and saved me some effort.
Thank you Steve, I do so hope we get a match with the other Southdean SINTONs.

NB the WorldFamilies DNA pages are undergoing a revamp outside my control, so some links may not work at the moment, and some info is missing, will remedy soon.

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Online databases updated

Both the main Rootsweb WorldConnect databases (LornaHenderson and
LornaPotential) have been updated today, so will take a while to come back online and be visible via front end general Rootsweb searches. Use the links here instead if you're trying to find someone specific.

Back to Wick

Updated David FAIRBAIRN's page, and the FAIRBAIRN chart to reflect the removal of Martha from the immediate family (see 13th).

The Border line that produced a Congregational Minister who was in Wick in 1891 (father living in Ormiskirk, Lancashire) has another Caithness connection. David Russell SCOTT's dtr married in Edinburgh to Lancelot CORMACK (educational publisher) whose father was born Wick.

Monday 14 July 2008

Jul 13, 2008: Martha moved

Information newly to hand (from Joan G) has reduced the family of David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN by one. Martha, wife of George TRACY, brother of the Jane TRACY who married Archibald James FAIRBAIRN, turns out to be a JUNOR, not a FAIRBAIRN, according to her husband's 1871 Mt Morris obituary.
Wonder why the San Diego FH Centre who submitted the data on her and George to ancestral file thought she was a FAIRBAIRN? That in itself could be another interesting lead.

Thursday 10 July 2008

Greenes? now Cavers!

Reviewed the Morebattle Gateshaw Film to see if I could decipher David FAIRBAIRN's birthplace a little better. Scrub "Greenes?", I now reckon it is Cavers, Parish of Eckford, which I thought was in Southdean, but GenUKi's gazetteer says has its own parish.
The webpage recentchanges for the 9th/10th, apart from David, are cosmetic changes rather than information changes.

More HUDSONs

Another HUDSON day, with another breakthru, this time on the family of William HUDSON and Aylsie FAIRBAIRN (dtr of William FAIRBAIRN and Jean WANLESS). See the GenForum HUDSON board for the details.
I was somewhat puzzled how a family could be so definite about the exact birthdates of their two children, over two census records, when the dates are impossible for them to both belong to the mother shown (Mary), but that could explain how come George's birth isn't obvious in the Manitoba records under HUDSON, but there is a neatly matching one as George Eddy MISSIER, mother Dina, who is probably the Dana MESSIER shown as a daughter of Mary in the 1901 census.
Also finally found William & Elcy (FAIRBAIRN) HUDSON in 1851, at Wakefield, a few entries away from her brother George FAIRBAIRN, along with a couple more likely children, Robert and Jane.
William Jnr (marr. to Mary Louise previously MESSIER, nee GETDISS (?GEDDES) show up in the 1911 census in Masset, British Columbia, so followed the injunction to "go West young man".
Still looking for John and Caroline after 1901, although it looks like they may have moved to Brandon.

Monday 7 July 2008

Hunting HUDSONs

Continued on with descendants of Walter LILLY and Mary FAIRBAIRN. The charts have been updated as it appears some descendants I had as hers, actually belonged to second marriages etc, not where I had them. (Wish the James Arnold WOOD obit I was working from had said survived by his step brothers). Looks like at least one marriage kept things in the family, with Henry WOOD marrying his brother's widow (Eda L SUTHERLAND) after Elizabet Jenet LILLY died.
Those showing on WC are hers, it was some who hadn't made it that far in my publishing of data.
It has been interesting looking back at some of my previous emails, searches etc. I came soooo close to solving this FAIRBAIRN mystery (what happened to David and James, brothers of my Walter) several years ago. I have rediscovered correspondence on file with a now known connection who couldn't recognise my FAIRBAIRNs, and I didn't know about her TRACY, LILLY, IREDALE connections back then, and if I hadn't been so broke when I first found the Cottonwood, Iowa Robert Safley FAIRBAIRN, I could have ordered his death cert then and kept digging.
Such is genealogical life, but it does show that time does solve most mysteries.

Took a break from David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRNs' family and went back to the Quebec FAIRBAIRNs, checking/adding rather a lot of HUDSONs into the tree, spurred on by renewed contact from Ellen H wanting to know about Anthony MORRIS-ROWE, first husband of Mary Ann HUDSON, her husband's grandfather's sister. Couldn't add much to the sum of genealogical knowledge other than his marriage cert shows his parents as Michael and Mary MORRIS-ROWE.
In the process I got interested in who William Fairburn HUDSON was. He has to fit into the picture somewhere given he was in Parry Sound where the HUDSONs seem to congregate (until they moved to Michigan) but I've not placed his parents George HUDSON and Eliza(beth) RAYCROFT as yet.

Hopefully the DAWE Surname DNA project may have found, or been found by, it's first participant. Fingers crossed. I promised I'd get back to finding representatives of my Devon lines, so any DAWE males out there who want to help connect up Newfoundland DAWE families with their assumed Devon and Dorset roots, please check out the project, we'd love to hear from you.
And the FAIRBAIRN project may be about to add in another participant too, which should prove interesting, particularly as he traces back to an Eckford FAIRBAIRN, where I've only recently discovered mine were based for a while.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Eckford not Morebattle

Check out the Recent changes. Mostly from my finally reading the Morebattle Gateshaw Associate Session records - long overdue. Turns out that my "Morebattle" FAIRBAIRNs, are actually Eckford FAIRBAIRNs with a thing against the local Established Church at Eckford, having their children baptised by the Gateshaw minister at Morebattle instead. Assuming that my Walter really did know where he was born (Swinton), then Archibald and Alison moved from there to Eckford and were at Grahamslaw and then ?Greenes? for the next three baptisms.
Which may well add some weight to Betsy's current search for why David had McDOUGALL as his middle name - seem to be a few of them in Eckford.
If you're wondering where the rest of the research log went, I've archived off the first 6 months of the year into 2008: Jan-Jun

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Jun 30, 2008: Rootsweb pages tidyup

Thought it was about time the Rootsweb pages were updated. I also did a behind the scenes tidyup, so I hope I didn't delete something necessary - let me know of any broken links/missing images etc.