Friday 8 March 2013

Canonbie FAIRBAIRNs

Certainly pays to advertise (ie publish trees online).
A potential newfound cousin popped out of the woodwork this week asking about Walter FAIRBAIRN and Grace ARMSTRONG.
She had inherited some family letters and was trying to figure out who was related to whom, knowing only that one or other of them was an uncle or aunt to her great grandparents.
I'm still awaiting a response to my information, but in the meantime have done a bit more digging on the family and pinned down another twig having found what looks like Walter and Grace's granddaughter Grace MURRAY in Manitoba.
Updates will added to the WorldConnect db LornaHenderson once proof found that it's the right Grace.

Monday 4 March 2013

Connections, Connections!

For publishing genealogy data on my webpages I use SecondSite, which is an extremely flexible, and very well supported add-on to my genealogy software of choice, The Master Genealogist (TMG).

However, I also use The Next Generation (TNG) for some smaller projects, which can be used directly as an online genealogy database,  and thus shared with others interested in the same families - sort of WikiTree but under local control.
It also is very well supported.

Both have dedicated, active,  user communities and I belong to mailing lists for both.
Some of you may be aware that About.com are running an online survey at the moment about the best genealogy software, online trees etc etc.
It is of course extremely selective, unscientific, and ballot box stuffing readily occurs.
Some on the TNG list were wondering what this SecondSite program was that was creeping up the votes.
Comments were a little ill-informed so I piped up and gave a link to a couple of my websites.

Didn't expect what happened next.
A private email turned up from Teresa saying we were 8th cousins!
Her website has a number of families of interest to me, and has allowed me to reduce the number of parentless South West Devon people in my database.  Of particular interest was the 1654 will of Walter NARRAMORE whose children are named as NORTHMORE.
Not that this helped me find my Elizabeth NORTHMORE.
Many of the NORTHOMOREs in my database are descendants of this Walter.

Walter lived at Ideford, but states in his will "I purchased of John Elford of Shister Esquire these Messuages Lands and Tenements called Chubstone otherwise Scotland lyin in Shutstor aforesaid for nynty and nyne yeares".

All of which was completely incidental to our relationship which is back at James BARTER of Lower Dittisham, Teresa descending from his daughter Mary, who married William LIGHT.

With the string of names in her tree from around this area of Devon, our trees probably interconnect many times over.