Sunday 31 May 2009

30th: TURNBULL twigs

Prompted by Karen's STEPHENSON letters I realised I'd not looked for the more modern day twigs of the TURNBULL family in the 1911 census.
Only had partial success with that, but did obtain several sightings of Sir Robert's son Noel and wife Ivy Florence on assorted passenger lists travelling to/from Marseilles, Madiera and England over the years (and finally found Ivy's surname - Burborough).
Have not yet determined whether or not Robert's brother Walter Maes TURNBULL's family has any surviving descendants but should shortly know whether or not Walter's son Douglas Maes TURNBULL is the Douglas marrying a Madeline Hilda IZON in 1914 or not.

Friday 29 May 2009

28th: Just like the buses

Nothing in the guestbook for a while, then 2 postings come along at once.
One from Karen drawing my attention to a book of memoirs of David Stephenson, '50 years on the London and North Western Railway' (McCorquodale & Co. Limited, Cardington St, Euston, N.W. 1891, ed Leopold Turner), which she had found on-line. Included in it are several letters to the Rev. Robert TURNBULL from David Stephenson, and also some mention of "Bob" the lodger with the Stephenson family in Nuneaton. That takes some family knowledge to translate!
"Bob" is the Rev. Robert TURNBULL's son Robert, later Sir Robert TURNBULL, Superintendent of the Line for the LNWR.
In the 1871 census he was indeed shown as a visitor (19 yr old railway clerk) in the household of David STEVENSON (49 yr old railway manager). David's family included a 6mth old daughter Edith, Karen's great grandmother. Small, inter-connected, world.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention Karen, look forward to hearing if there are more unpublished letters that may have survived between the STEPHENSONs and the TURNBULLs.
The other was from Karina in Winnipeg letting me know what had happened to a twig of the inter-connected ROWE/DAWE tree. Updates to the charts will appear next time I publish.

Sunday 17 May 2009

17th: NY John F. ; and the erratic Emma

Realised that in my last web page update that I'd forgotten to check and upload the page for John FAIRBAIRN of New York. Now remedied, as is the incorrect chart that was attached to Archibald and Jane (BLAKEY) FAIRBAIRN.

Currently working on Emma dtr of William George FAIRBAIRN and Sarah Ann FARRELL. This being prompted by Betsy trying yet again to find out what happened to her William George, and my finding this William's death cert in Michigan instead.
I'd been putting off investigating Emma further for quite some time, as the data I had was contradictory. It still is. What a woman. I'd previously discounted an id of her as being the one married to John Noble CARRUTHERS 1888 Otter Lake, Pontiac Co, Quebec, as the info I had at the time said that one was an Emily Marion born in Cavan Co, Ireland in 1869, instead of the 1863/4 Ontario or Quebec I had for Emma (7 born Ontario in 1871) or Amma (17 born Quebec in the 1881) at home with her parents.
So far for the Emma with John Noble CARRUTHERS I've added a birth date of Feb 1847 Ontario (1911 census Saanich), Feb 1854 Canada (1900 Bear Creek Twp, Emmet Co, Michigan), and the expected circa Mar 1865 Ontario (1901 Victoria, BC). The 1869 Ireland apparently comes from her 1948 death cert in Portland, Multomah Co, Oregon!
Even Reby adds to the confusion for the family as she apparently has Emma and her sisters Jane E and Anna with dates in the right relationship but 10 yrs out.
I guess I'll give in, now that at least one of the records with John has a plausible date/place, and add Emily Marion into the Quebec FAIRBAIRN family. She fits in well by the criteria of never knowing, or giving, an accurate age or date of birth!

Friday 15 May 2009

15th: Gathering of the (ROWE) clan

Remember how I claimed to be related to the Hound of the Baskervilles ?
(Hounding ROWEs, Baskerville Connection, and
Elementary my dear ROWE)

Here's the hotel, and a story about the recent family reunion:
Duchy Hotel ROWE family reunion

Thursday 14 May 2009

14th: More Canadians

Betsy has made contact with a branch of our FAIRBAIRNs (descendants of David F. and Jane HERD) in British Columbia. This prompted me to review what records I hadn't yet checked for this line.
Missing was the now available 1916 census for Saskatchewan, so I've finally found the names of the 3 in the family I knew I was missing.
The FAIRBAIRN chart from Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN has therefore now been updated.

FamilyTree DNA have advertised an upgrade promotion. Those eligible should receive an email with more details and a link to order at a discounted price (I've yet to see such an email, but the flier I received as an admin says that is what will happen). The promotion runs for a week and should be a good chance to upgrade where we would very much like to see what happens in some specific markers.

Check out the FAIRBAIRN DNA Blog for more results for the New York connection, which is looking good!

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Don't you just know it!

The minute that you run a major update, new findings always hove into view!

I'd been avoiding checking the newly available online (from ScotlandsPeople) Scottish OPR Deaths and Burials as I knew
a) they were very sparse records
b) often didn't have much conclusive details
c) that I'd get sidetracked from all sorts of things as a result.

Not even sure why I decided to check for something today, but for whatever reason I've started looking at some of the Roxburgh FAIRBAIRNs, and have already found the burial, or at least the mortcloth payment, for Archibald FAIRBAIRN of St Boswells, and a rather more puzzling, but very informative, entry for Margaret PURDIE nee FAIRBAIRN and her son William, in the Melrose OPRs.
The least of the puzzle is trying to figure out where the family was in 1848, so if anyone can point me to what I interpret as Cairlion, presumably in the Parish of Melrose, I would appreciate it, as my web searches to date only bring up Arthurian references to Cair Lion.
The more major part of the puzzle is that it clearly states that son William PURDIE died the day after she did, and was aged 23, which age is plausible as Margaret and Charles PURDIE married in Melrose in 1821.
However, I already had a son William for this couple, whose 1864 marriage cert to Ann ROBSON says he was a 19 yr old shepherd, so born c 1845/6ish. Census data mostly corroborates this, although the 1901 transcription on ancestry does imply 1843ish. Whichever you believe, all point to a birthdate prior to the death of an older brother William in the family.
A closer search of the IGI showed I'd missed a couple of baptisms in Melrose for the family with mother Margaret spelt as Margt. The relevant FAIRBAIRN chart has been updated.

12th: Catskills calling

In the last couple of days Ed has brought to my attention that one of his New York FAIRBAIRNs had not died young and without a family, as previously thought.
He'd found a reference in the 1933 Catskill Mountain News archives referring to Delacey FAIRBAIRN having visited "home", aka Margaretville, from Floral Park, L.I. New York.
Research added a wife (Ernestine SHERBER) and two children, Marie and James, and showed that by now his surname had morphed into FAIRBEN.
Earlier references in the same newspapaer archives showed this spelling as early as 1884.

It was therefore finally time to get all the last couple of months updates to the database published, so the Rootsweb WorldConnect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential have been fully reloaded with whatever research has added in that time.
The main tree change was probably bringing the New York FAIRBAIRNs in from LornaPotential into LornaHenderson as they are definitely related, as per findings from the FAIRBAIRN DNA project, but there have been a heap of others.

PS It does rather look like that although we've found a branch of the FAIRBAIRN tribe, we have also tragically lost one of the younger ones. It has not yet been proven that Keith G. FAIRBEN of Floral Park, one of the ambulance people who lost their lives on 9-11, is definitely a descendant of Walter Delacey's, but place and dates make it likely.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

6th: Full Big Brother update

What with the number of changes of late, the exciting developments out of the Fairbairn DNA Project etc it is time I did a full site update.
The newly released version of Second Site, allows me to easily include some additional information on people not included on the site with a page of their own. The main change as a result of this is that below each person's page, if they have family, lifespan dates (mth/year only) now show.
Big Brother has therefore had a full refresh. If I've missed some links somewhere, please let me know.

Apart from a general tidy-up the main changes that I can remember are:

I see that there's a clutch of "Recent changes" shown for the LOCKIE/RUNCIMAN family, but they can be ignored, I was simply attaching a source document and tidying up some source citations, no new information involved.

Johnnie comes marching home

Well "Johnnie" actually left Scotland prior to the American Civil War, and in fact had been in NY State for nigh on 20 years before becoming embroiled in it even.
The Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary has the details on the latest findings that explain this comment more fully, but basically, I think we're well on the way to welcoming the John son of a Walter FAIRBAIRN of Roxburghshire, who was in Delaware Co, NY by at least 1841, probably earlier, into the family of Walter and Agnes (ROBERTSON/ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.

Nearly three weeks since a post must be a record for me. Been busy doing lots of things, but the main one was testing for a new release of Second Site 3, the program I use to generate my web pages, particularly for the newly introduced component of it to cope with dna results and charts. The preliminary result of the changes can now be seen in  DNA Surnames Lineages section where most of the surnames recorded there now have a dna section on that site instead of referring you off to other sites.

Whatever else I've been up to will eventually surface in the web and online database updates that will follow in due course.