28th: John Armstrong = Margaret Fairbairn

The above is one of the more curious baptism entries I've seen.
In my FAIRBAIRN One Name Study digging, I happened to notice an indexed entry for a John Armstrong FAIRBAIRN born or baptised in Dumfries 11 Feb 1849, to Walter FAIRBAIRN and Grace ARMSTRONG, and thought, ohhhh, one I didn't have in their family.
Before succumbing in paying SctPeople for it, I had a quick look at my database and was a bit puzzled as the dates just didn't work.
Walter and Grace married May 1848, 1st child after their marriage that I had was Agnes, born 3 Feb 1850, or so a baptism entry on a page headed 1855 births stated.
Before their marriage were the first Margaret, aged 3 in the 1851 census, and a William aged 5 in the same census.
So, whether John Armstrong FAIRBAIRN was born, or baptised in 1849 he was going to be a tight fit.
Reading the entry raised even more questions.
Why would a daughter be named "John Armstrong" (quotes from the entry itself)?
Anyway, the dates indicated that this has to be the birth/baptism entry for the first Margaret, who died aged 4.

This activity led to several other updates on their extended family with the 1911 census now more readily available, and a few birth/marriage/death date gaps filled.

27th: Benefits of checking back

Activities of late have mostly been on the RUNCIMANs, with some small analyses done on a couple more parishes for the One Name Study, and a lot of digging to make connections between families, namely those I think may all connect at Thomas and Jean (SIMPSON) RUNCIMAN.

It does rather pay to keep checking back against past research, as I've found I had a piece of that puzzle tucked away in my database from some time ago, an occupation for the John who married Marion/May/Mary WEATHERLY which implies to me that I was worrying needlessly about the change of occupation for the family from taylors to hinds/farm stewards/ag labs etc.

22nd: Megsmire update

Thanks to George, a descendant of Walter TURNBULL & Mary TELFORD, I now have copies of several wonderful snippets from his recent visit to the Carlisle Record Office and hope to see if my theories about where his Walter TURNBULL "fits" (refer recent post re Megsmire) hold up to scrutiny.
I've only had a chance for a quick squizz so far, but it's looking good, (and there are one or two other fascinating leads to follow up on).

11th: Rev Archibald TURNBULL

A helpful lady on the Rootsweb India list pointed out that the family had some baptisms on the IGI (which I'd not thought to check, thinking that the dates were too recent, given that Scottish extracted records mostly stop at 1875).
That netted baptisms for all bar Mary of the known children, and added an 1896 Betty into the family.
Then another web search netted an article about the Turnbull School in Darjeeling, which was built in memory of the Rev. Archibald TURNBULL in 1906 after his death (1905).
The article also includes a photo, reproduced here:

with the implication that it was taken at the opening of the Scotch Kirk (St Columba's) in Darjeeling, 15th May 1894

9th: and continue to lead

Having updated some of the related TURNBULLs that connect to my tree, I strayed onto another TURNBULL line, that of Archibald TURNBULL of Minto, who married Agnes WILSON, one of my SINTON tree descendants.
The only census data I'd ever checked for them was 1881 when it first came out on cd.
Updates nowhere near finished, but what a fascinating family, and a wonderful happenstance.
Given there were 14 children, could take some time to work thru what updates should now be more readily available to be found.

Thought eldest son Archibald might not have lasted beyond 1871 when I couldn't find him in 1881. But a family that certainly looked like it would be his popped out of the woodwork for 1891 - from farmer's son to "Minister of the Established Church - Foreign Ministry", and an absence in 1881 probably explained by the birthplaces of the children - Indies, East in 1891, India in 1901.
One of which census records I was lucky to find as he left for India 5 days later!

The marriage cert. for his second marriage, to Catherine Agnes FERGUSON nee WEMYSS proved I had the right chap, so I kept digging.
And happened upon the burial of his son Archibald McDiarmid TURNBULL in Calcutta.
He appears to have gone from a 17 yr old "artist-painter" in 1901 boarding in Glasgow Govan, to tea planter in India - with a video being made (for reasons as yet unknown) of a search for his burial record in the records of the Scottish Church of St Andrew in Calcutta with enough of the found record shakily legible.
Talk about happenstance!
WIGHT and SINTON descendant charts have had a preliminary update, Rootsweb db LornaHenderson updates will follow in due course.

Where things lead

Started catching up on processing the transcripts from NRH that Robert so kindly sends every so often.
This one was a 1936 FAIRBAIRN/HALL marriage I was trying to slot into his correct FAIRBAIRN tree. In the process of that I corrected one of my FAIRBAIRN trees convincing myself that the informant for their son Robert's death (his son David) got his grandmother's name wrong (given as Elizabeth WATSON, instead of Margaret **see below).
That sorted, I turned my attention to the 1936 bride, whose father was given as Robert Oliver HALL.
With names like that it was a fair bet that that their just might be a connection to one or other of my Southdean trees - and how.
Robert turned out to be the brother of Isabella and Margaret, both of whom I already knew had married into my tree, one to a WIGHT line, the other to a SINTON line. All are children of James HALL and Alison OLIVER, with James having a brother Thomas who also married into my SINTON tree.
A wonderful set of connections.

But wait, there's more.
Keying all of this into my ancestry tree as I found the related census records etc up popped a family tree match down the WIGHT line.
I had never gotten back to John James TURNBULL (or many of his siblings) to figure out their fate beyond 1881, and there was Morag's tree. So an email was sent and I now have a newfound cousin in Canada, who replied promptly, and has given me some updates on her farflung branch.

** and even more.
Checking back to my database as I wrote the above, I realised that although I had corrected Robert's mother to Margaret WATSON, I had not noticed that I already had others of the correct family in my database already.
Robert had a brother James whose son James married in Quebec (1860 to Catherine PIDGEON).
When time permits an outline tree will probably be included in the Wanted! pages of the Fairbairn ONS/DNA project to see if there are any additional connections.

6th: Ignore "recent changes"

All of the supposed recent changes listed in that index for the 6th April are merely background database tidy ups, no new information.

3rd: Bits and pieces

Still rather busy on real life, but making a tad more time for little discoveries.

Checked my GenesReunited hot matches for the first time in ages recently and found several new connections, if not relations.
One from Shona led me back to my SINTON tree, adding in a Thomas STRATTON as the husband of Agnes LAURENCE and providing two children.
This of course prompted me to do a quick check around to see what else might be available on the surrounding family since I last looked some years ago.
Family now mostly brought up to 1901, with a few of the spice added, and an all too common death from typhoid found (Euphemia, who had married boiler maker master David ANDERSON and was living in Camlachie, Glasgow).

My main web pages SINTONs of Southdean descendant chart has been updated, as have the charts and page associated with Francis Douglas SINTON, one of the William and Isabella (SCOTT) SINTONs, whose mother was one of my WIGHTs.
Interestingly enough, his wife Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN has also recently popped back into research view as I was looking at her RUNCIMAN tree the other day trying to sort out who where her grandfather Thomas (married Alison CURRIE) belonged (before I realised my SINTON connection to the tree).
My conclusion, unproven, was that Thomas was the son of John RUNCIMAN and May WEATHERLY, given that Margaret's mum was a Margery Weatherly RUNCIMAN, and there's a Thomas born to a couple of that name in the right timeframe and place.