Saturday 31 January 2009

31st: Deepest Africa, well Golden anyway

Forgot to mention the African connection.
With the 1911 English census now being available, I decided to see who I could find.
Having found one of the FAIRBAIRN families, I then thought I'd see what else I could find about their son Stanley Leonard FAIRBAIRN, in the hopes of finding a descendant to represent my line of Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes ROBISON in the FAIRBAIRN DNA project.
Found several immigration/emigration entries that indicated he lived somewhere on the West Coast of Africa, the last I found being his departure in 1930 from Southampton for Takoradi, intending permanent residence on the Gold Coast. UK address was Norfolk House Rd, Streatham, London S.W. 16. Anyone know if there are any sons down this line?
There must be some male FAIRBAIRN descendants of Walter and Agnes out there somewhere.

31st: Tiends

Now I've always thought of tithes etc as divvied up after a harvest. This entry however implies that said one tenth was taken, literally, at harvest time!
" ... this means the vicarage teinds payable from the produce of the lands and
cot-yards.
These two men had so artfully arranged their stooks of corn that every
tenth stook would contain the thinnest and poorest corn, to the prejudice of the
laird or the minister when drawing their teinds."
This from the Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill 1685-1807

Friday 30 January 2009

30th: Further results in for one of the "cousins"

Further results in for the Sunderland/Hoquiam side of the FAIRBAIRN "cousins" triangle.
Still a good match with the rest of Lineage 1. It will be interesting to see if Bill matches Roy more closely than Joe does, given their families, over time, have all stated relationships to each other.
Keep checking the Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary for breaking news, and send along any likely candidates to join the project. All welcome.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Burnbank Hendersons

Anyone out there researching the HENDERSON family of William and Marion (ROBERTSON) HENDERSON of Burnbank, Par. of Kilmadock, Perth? It's just over the parish boundary from the Bridge of Allan, Par. of Lecropt.
Ian has revived my attempts to find Archibald HENDERSON's parents and has independently come up with the same favoured contender as I did many years ago.
Well, by time and place, he's the only real contender in the surviving parish records around the area.
Pros: family has the right names, children named Archibald, David and Mary, in near enough to the right area, and definitely in the right timeframe.
Cons: farmers, not blacksmiths. No James obvious to account for the earlier smith at the Bridge of Allan.
Someone at some time in the past was researching the family as there are several patron submission on the IGI for them, albeit placing them at Burnbank in LKS and AYR rather than PER, but the dates match the real baptisms etc in Kilmadock, PER.

Alternate John F/Helen Anderson pedigree

Check the Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary for some updates.
Can anyone pinpoint the source of the "Genealogical Tree of Clan Fairbairn Compiled from the year 1563"? Picture of said cover attached to John's page on DNA Surnames to jog memories.

Monday 19 January 2009

19th: I don't like photographers!

William HENDERSON
(Thank you for getting in touch, and sharing the photo Ian)

Sorting out the Roberts; Another HENDERSON

While looking for something else, I happened upon the Californian death index entry in 1986 for Robert Howard FAIRBAIRN. Which surprised me somewhat as I had him dying in 1950, albeit with a bit of a question mark as he was mentioned in a family diary in 1955.
With a bit more digging, and finally getting round to examining the rest of the Minnesota death certs that turned up, which I had coincidentally ordered recently, I came to the conclusion that there were 3 Robert FAIRBAIRNs in this family, only two of whom were actually in my db.
Father Robert Safley F. was the one who had died in 1950, instead of the 1935 I'd entered for him.
Son (from his 2nd marriage to Alice) Robert Safley F. was the 1935 death - rather tragic really, a 10 yr old who had an accident, which proved fatal, at his father's well drilling operation.
Older son Robert Howard F. (from his 2st marriage to Barbara FAIRCHILD, a cousin), has therefore to be the 1986 one.
I hadn't entered the younger Robert at all as a census entry implied he belonged to Alice rather than Robert, but his death cert states his father as Robert.
So, if the census entry was wrong about Robert, they may also be wrong about his sister Lorraine too. She appears to have married a Wendell William McNEILL in Cottonwood Co, Minnesota, and died in Dakota Co, Minnesota.
Perhaps someone can confirm I've the right Lorraine? Mother Alice FAIRBAIRN, formerly BENSON nee COUSINS?

And to cap off the day, found an entry in my guestbook that added to the HENDERSON tribe. A previously unknown to me dtr to William HENDERSON and Marian Glen AITKEN.

Also brought a few more of the newfound ROWE branch up to 1901, the GLANVILLE connection (Frank Josephus Richard GLANVILLE married Sarah Ann PARSONS).

The three affected descendant charts have all been updated: Rowe, Fairbairn, Henderson.

Friday 16 January 2009

15th: More confused FAIRBAIRNs

The Michigan marriages continue to intrigue.
One lady was obviously used as a model by Elizabeth TAYLOR, as she, also an Elizabeth, married the same chap twice, 1893 and 1909, with their son recorded in the 1900 census under her maiden surname (WILLMAN), and in 1910 census under her regained married name (McCURDY).

Another of the FAIRBAIRN families really can't make up their mind whether their surname is LAMPSON or SAMPSON. Frederick LAMPSON's marriage is witnessed by his brother Robert SAMPSON. But I do assume these registers are transcripts of original certificates here as the handwriting does seem rather uniform, and accuracy of transcriptions does rather vary.
A sister Helen M is shown as marrying as SAMPSON with her father indexed as William R, the R presumably being a misinterpreted F from someone whose handwriting is as bad as mine.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Confused William

Between marrying Rosa KUHNLE in 1896 and Josephine MARCOTTE in 1904, William E, son of David FAIRBAIRN and Charity WALKER seems to have had a brainstorm about who his parents were. By his second marriage he says they are Wm FAIRBAIRN and Deviza WADE !!!
I'm fully convinced that the two marriages are the same William E FAIRBAIRN because of census data that places his children from the first marriage with William and Josephine in a later census, and William shows he's on his second marriage in 1904.

The Michigan marriages data also includes the marr. of Phyllis I LAMPSON dtr of Joan Helen LAMPSON nee FAIRBAIRN as well, Joan being the granddaughter of James FAIRBAIRN and Joan FORSYTH.

Tuesday 13 January 2009

13th: Michigan marriages a good find

Well, that serendipity from yesterday was a wonderful sidetrack.
Along the way I've found another son of David FAIRBAIRN and Charity WALKER married in Michigan (William E) and got sidetracked onto trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out who an Isabella Elliot FAIRBAIRN was, born Ontario 1850, married the Rev James Anderson Ross DICKSON (somewhere, possibly London Ontario), and lived Galt Ontario.
And it reinforced how useful it can be to squirrel away information that just might come in useful later.
William E, the son of David and Charity married a Rosa KUHNLE, who sounded a bit familiar. Sure enough, I'd found and saved, and obit for Rosa FAIRBAIRN nee KUHNLE last year.
While trying to solve who Isabella Elliot FAIRBAIRN was I also stumbled upon the baptism of an Isabella MITCHELL, dtr of an Agnes FAIRBAIRN and Alexander MITCHELL baptised in Chatham, Ottawa River Canada East by the same Minister who married David FAIRBAIRN and his first wife Prudential ARNOLD.
Haven't figured out who this Agnes is either, anyone know?

Monday 12 January 2009

12th: Serendipity - again

Got sidetracked by Dick Eastman's newsletter advising that the the Family Search pilot (http://www.familysearch.org/ select Search Records, then Record Search Pilot) had added a heap of images of all sorts of records, so checked out what might be of interest.
Think they've been there a while, but what I did find were indexed images of Michigan marriages 1868-1925.
Checked out the FAIRBAIRNs and found at least two of particular interest (so far):
David s/o David and Charity (Walker)'s marriage to Mina Schryer COOK (which I knew was somewhere in Michigan)
and one that I didn't know was there at all, last sighting being 1901 census in Ratho North, WLN, Scotland. Jessie D d/o Walter FAIRBAIRN and Isabella SCOTT found marrying a John JONES in Detroit in 1924, much to my surprise.

11th: Prison warders galore

Another ROWE descendant found me via Genes Reunited and enabled me to bring another of the Hounds of the Baskerville connection down to present day, well at least a couple of living people down the bottom of the chain. Sarah Elizabeth dtr of James ROWE of the Railway Hotel, Princetown fame married a George MOORE. Looks like they alone provided almost the entire population of Dartmoor Prison warders, plus a few further afield in Nottingham, Middlesex & Surrey - thank you Rowena.
ROWE chart updated.

Friday 9 January 2009

FAIRBAIRNs published

Published the updated John & Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN dna oriented patriarchs chart in the hope of finding willing participants to represent their respective lines.
Also check the FAIRBAIRN DNA project diary.

Marriage found; dna*2 day

Ross's hunch, back in 2003, from the 1841/2 Grenville census, that David, son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN was married earlier than to Charity, looks accurate. At that time the census merely showed how many people of what sex, age and marital status were in the household, and it implied that David and a young wife were in the house, although David and Charity didn't marry until 1845, and her age didn't match that of the other married female in the house besides Jane, David's mother.
While looking for something else, as so often happens, I stumbled upon a marriage in 1841 of a David FAIRBAIRN and Prudential ARNOLD in the Presbyterian Church records in the Drouin colleciton showing they were married at "Grenville, Ottawa" by William MAIR, Minister of Grenville & Chatham, witnesses were John BLAIR and John TOPLAND.
In the same set of records were David and Charity's marriage, and the baptism of their son David.

The FAIRBAIRN DNA project is looking set to examine more closely the "cousin" relationships that have so taxed my brain and genealogical inventiveness. William has joined as a rep. of the line of John A FAIRBAIRN Snr of Stillwater, whose son John A of Hoquiam is the one these relationships were all reported to: Angus s/o the above David and Charity (WALKER) F.; Albert who emigrated from Sunderland to Hoquiam, an unlikely choice about 100 years after John Snr's parents had left Scotland; and Walter to Clarissa.
How I currently see these relationships can probably best be viewed starting at the dna oriented descendant chart for David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, and from the charts listed on William's dna page, not that his results are in yet, as the kit has only just been ordered, patience (not one of my strong points)!

It is obviously a dna day today. We now have a DAVIDSON representative who has been enrolled in the DAVIDSON project (not one of mine), that just might help us break thru the brick wall of finding more about John DAVIDSON. Although I strongly suspect he was the illegitimate son of the mother Ann COLLINS shown on his death cert, his father was more as like a DAVIDSON given the naming conventions of the time.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

6th: ANDREWS gets a look-in, (and DAW)

Brief flurry of corrections on the RUNDLE/FOREMAN portion of the ANDREWS tree (not online so the error has presumably not been propagated), thanks David and Brenda.

The DAW(E) DNA project now has a representative of the family of Isaac enrolled, but at the risk of never being thought satisfied, another is still sought, on a different line, to confirm whatever dna signatures result.

Sunday 4 January 2009

Looking for FAIRBAIRNs

Began checking off descendants of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON from Burkes Peerage against OPRs, BDMs, Census data and The Times in preparation to publishing an abbreviated patriarch's entry on the DNA pages oriented towards lines that may have a living FAIRBAIRN representative at the end of the chain who just might be persuaded to join the project and provide a dna signature for the family in order to test the many claims by assorted trees that "we are related to Sir William FAIRBAIRN", often without any proof. Representatives from eg the Rev Adam Henderson FAIRBAIRN's, schoolmaster William's and Sir William's line would be wonderful.

3rd: FINLAYSON dna

Updated the FINLAYSON DNA results page, and linked David and Donald on the patriarchs page back to the dna projects portal site for additional info.

Saturday 3 January 2009

Rogues gallery

Added a (small) rogues gallery of FAIRBAIRN photos to the FAIRBAIRN family page. It only includes those already on their respective person pages, but does include one new one, that of Mary Joan LAWLESS nee FAIRCHILD's from Jim in Florida (5th cousin once removed).
Thanks Jim, I'll get round to adding the rest of the LAWLESS line in some year, but I did make a start from your data, and some that I had from census data etc. already, but not added to the db.

See FAIRBAIRN ONS/DNA project diary for some changes there from early records trying to figure out if there are any clues to be found on how to link the dna matched families (not a lot was the answer).