The danger of assumptions

From looking at the tree attached to a DNA match, I hoped / presumed / assumed that I'd found yet another piece of corroboration for our connection to the Jenkins/Buchanan family we have so many matches to.
Which got me quite excited.
These brickwalls (Archibald Henderson and and his daughter-in-law Amelia Millar) have been standing a long time.

So I spent a happy day or two researching and validating the line back from South Africa to Perthshire.
I've never read a will before where someone was divvying up a town amongst his children: to x the railway station to y the post office to z the store.....

Between them, the two sibling kits involved had shared matches to a satisfactory selection of my Henderson/Millar cousins. Both kits were managed by a person we didn't match, so her relationship to the matches wasn't readily visible.

Thankfully this was a responsive tester and the flaw in my assumption was quickly revealed.
She was their mother, and it was her line that led back to Jenkins/Buchanan family via a branch in South Africa.
And we didn't match her. 

The matches were over 30cMs, so it was extremely unlikely this was a testing company glitch unfortunately.

So back to the drawing board and over to the paternal side of their tree, which was a bit sparse given this was why they had tested.

It didn't take me too long to realise that a Smith born in Central Otago around that time period just might be the Smith branch, well one of the Smith branches, in my tree.
All Smiths are related? Right?

Sure enough, he was already in my Henderson/Millar data.
I used to hold all these names / dates / places in my memory cells, but the explosion of people that you get interested in when exploring DNA matches means some just have to drop out to make room!

I feel old, the matches' grandmother is my 3rd cousin.

I was lacking the crucial link in my database down to the new matches as this 3rd cousin's sister had omitted to tell me the rest of the story back in 2003 and I would never have found this branch without family hints.
I feel some updates coming on.

Moral of the story: 

Shared matches and hope are not always enough to prove a theory.
If the mother had not also tested I'd likely never have realised the actual source of this DNA as at first glance nothing looked very promising to explain the link on the father's side.

The irony is that the matches will be related to the Jenkins/Buchanan family from both their parents - once we do figure out how I and my cousins connect to them given so many matches are telling us we do.
If only the right branch to test could be found, or pop out of the woodwork!

Who visited Porters Photographic Gallery in Perth in the 1870s?

I'd dearly love the carte below to be a wonderful clue to the mystery family of Amelia Millar - so I am posting this in the probably vain hope that someone  will recognise it from their family album and say that's xyz and get in touch.

It was found in the effects of my great aunt Nellie FLETCHER, aka Elizabeth Helen Sinton HENDERSON (1885-1981) and it is past time I published it in the hope of an identification.

 

I appear to be looking for a woman aged ??  in about the 1870s, presumably with two children aged about ?? and ??, within cooee of County Place, Perth, Scotland. Possibly widowed or with a camera shy husband?

A quick web search brought up the helpful page Scottish Photographers – 19th century

and showed that the Mr Porter in County Place Perth on the reverse of the carte was rather likely to be this chap:

Porter, James – County Place, Perth -1868/69-1878- and also George St. Perth by 1878

which dates seem likely to fit with the clothes of this unidentified woman with two children.

Add in that James Henderson and Amelia Millar, who are presumed to be the recipients of this carte, emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand, with those of their immediate family still remaining in Scotland, in 1874.

James and Amelia married in 1836 in Stirling but  had moved to Forth, Lanarkshire about 1840.

One son, Archibald, stayed in Scotland but was over in Carnwath, Lanarkshire, the rest emigrated between the early 1860s through to 1874.

James' father Archibald was a blacksmith at the Bridge of Allan and his wife Margaret McEwan's family, were long resident on/around the Kincardine Moss, Perthshire

Amelia's parents are - still - the subject of an onging brickwall search, but likely to be Millar and Chrystal families from around Kippen, Stirlingshire.

Where were James' siblings around this time?
Only William and John of his siblings are documented as staying in the area.

William at the Bridge of Allan, John in Tillicoultry, Clackmannshire.
The rest settled and had their families in Fife and Lanarkshire.

William is presumed to have died late 1840s to 1851, and his children are all accounted for in Australia well before this date, apart from the eldest Isabella, whose fate is still unknown.

John  had also moved to Lanarkshire from Tillicoultry about 1850, where all the children are accounted for in Ontario well before this time apart from Helen, whose fate is as yet unknown beyond the 1851 census in Cadder.

Love to hear from anyone with any answers or suggestions as to who this family are.

Progress on y_mt_DNA haplogroups?

 This post was written back in March 2020.  Six months down the track, having explored many many related, and un-related rabbit holes it is time I actually published it. Not a lot of progress has been made since then!

and for the downside....

For the second time on FamilySearch the same person has (re)merged my paternal grandfather with his namesake born in the same month and year, despite my collaborative note - which is now yet more detailed as to why NOT to merge them.

They were born a fortnight apart, one registered in Oamaru, the other in Palmerston North, ie separate islands of New Zealand.
The separate NZ Historical BDM index entries show their different parents had been added to a note on each, but that didn't deter this person.
Yes on the surface it looks like the one who married first may have moved islands and remarried but he didn't. He remarried a bit further north.
It doesn't help that the older fiche birth indexes for New Zealand don't make it easy to find them to add the place details to the exact birth dates and parents available from the Historical BDM index online at the Dept of Internal Affairs.
Both are indexed as Archifold Hinderson instead of Archibald Henderson!

This time I've added yet more research into the note on both profiles.
The North Islander has been placed safely up in Te Kuiti with his 2nd wife in the 1919 electoral roll, his father's obit has been added  as well, which places him in Cambridge (Waikato, North Island) whilst my granddad is recorded down in Woodhaugh, Dunedin in 1919 with his first and only wife Agnes later moving to Roxburgh, Otago (South Island).
I do know that he once ventured north, at least as far as Wellington, on his honeymoon, but he did not already have a son by then, at least not Cyril.

I've also sent the chap a message via FamilySearch to PLEASE STOP merging these Archibalds.

WikiTree has also been updated with a disambiguation note on Granddad, with the other chap now also added there, he is after all nearly family - his son married my mother's 2nd cousin!
But there are other things I'd rather have been researching last night in the time spent doing the additional research that should, hopefully STOP the "helpful" person from merging them again.

Thankfully such persistance is rare, and an apology has just been received.

This does not detract from the overall benefit of sharing tree research.
We do not own our ancestors but we do owe it to them to be remembered accurately.

Such trees do tend to get better over time as duplications are reduced, research notes added etc.

Just the other day I was re-examining the scant tree of a DNA match on Ancestry wondering where his missing link to my DAWE family was and this time round, someone had added exactly the link I was missing.
The FamilySearch tree has now been extended to link him back to the rest of his ancestors already there.
This allowed me to breakthrough that mystery and connect in a newfound 3rd cousin thanks to both DNA and the collaborative tree at FamilySearch.

So mark your key people to be "Watched" so you can keep an eye on changes, you never know what you will learn, or who you will "meet" as a result.

Archibald Henderson brickwall hints?

It may have been Amelia's turn, but somehow Archibald seems to be getting more attention as a result.

Keep an eye on my Archibald Henderson brick wall  page on WikiTree for updated info on potential connections, including links to the trees of interest where they are also on WikiTree.

Families of particular interest that are popping up in assorted DNA matches to descendants of James Henderson and Amelia Millar:

• Robert Buchanan and Janet Monteith (married 1738 Logie, Perthshire lived Kincardine by Doune, Perthshire))
• Peter Junkine/Jenkins and Mary Buchanan (married 1781 Port of Menteith, Perthshire)
• Donald Eadie and Jean Faichney (married 1788 Crieff, Perthshire, lived Muthill)
• William Faichney and Jean Innes (married 1795 Dunblane, Perthshire)

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Paternal side DNA mapping progress (lack thereof) snapshot

Decided to stop work on the DNA matches temporarily and produce a snapshot of DNA segments (10cMs and above) identifiable as being Paternal (see embedded WikiTree Widget below for Dad's pedigree) and able to be allocated to a grandparent, or not as the case may be (see the Chromosome Map Key).

Way too many grey spaces as yet!

Update: I forgot to add the "why".
By identifying as finely as possible where each bit of my dna comes from, it gets much easier to slot new matches into place.
Those of them matching at a spot that therefore looks to be a hint to a brickwall ancestor is then a prime target for further investigation as to how our trees may connect, and/or for any commonality between the trees of the matches at that spot for further leads on the connections.

The prime paternal brickwall ancestors:
Archibald HENDERSON blacksmith at the Bridge of Allan married 1804 to Margaret McEWAN from the Drip Moss, Kincardine by Doune
Amelia MILLAR, born Kippen, Stirlingshire about 1815, mother supposedly Miss CHRYSTAL
John DAVIDSON born Chirnside, Berwickshire about 1817 mother Ann COLLINS .

Some day I'd also like to find out more about:
Jane WIGHT's WIGHT side, Jane being the wife of Peter SINTON
Ann ROBINSON, mother of Walter FAIRBAIRN

Click on the image to enlarge, and check below for an interactive pedigree overview linked to WikiTree

 Looks like I need to recruit more cousins back up from my paternal grandmother Agnes Manson DAVIDSON - ie my Caithness BAIN and MANSON etc lines, or more FAIRBAIRN/DAVIDSONs, where the latter are in rather short supply.
Good sale on at FamilyTreeDNA until the end of the month - give yourself, and me, a Christmas present-  FamilyFinder down to $59US - any takers?

Paternal Grandfather Archibald HENDERSON:

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Paternal Grandmother Agnes Manson DAVIDSON:

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Segment Traceability

Just found a new toy at GEDMatch, not sure how long it has been there, but it is labelled as "new".

What on earth is THAT?
THAT is a pictorial representation of which of the atDNA tested descendants of Archibald HENDERSON and Margaret McEWAN who have uploaded their raw data file(s) from their test to GEDMatch, have matches to each other.
(Archibald and Margaret married in1804 at Stirling, Archibald being one of my brickwalls.)

The associated data and generational estimates between the matches are shown on the DNASurnames HENDERSON FamilyFinder page.
Other than being a pretty picture, the generation estimate table very quickly shows the randomness of atDNA inheritance and how many of the descendants shown did not inherit any significantly sized segments from Archibald & Margaret that also matched another tested descendant.

Now if the others tested would only upload to GEDmatch as well, we'd have a more complete picture - as well an ability to place several more of our matches who tested at other companies, or come in below the FamilyTreeDNA thresholds.

How far have I got?

New year, review time.
Thought it was time to produce some chromosome map snapshots and remind myself why I'm having all this fun (and frustration).
The following illustrates the match coverage on my 23 pairs of chromosomes that has been identified as to which side of my ancestry the match "fits" - maternal or paternal.

The predominance of the pink over the blue makes it rather obvious that I do not have any close living paternal relatives available to test. My two maternal aunts still alive (both in their 90s) have however done their bit to humour their niece, and seem to attract the lion's share of the matches.

Why am I doing this?
To break down, or at least chip, several brickwalls.
Have I succeeded?
Not a lot as yet, but then I never really make time to stop and analyse the gaps in the above and then focus on the matches that have to be related to the ancestors that are causing this descendant so many problems tracking where they came from.

Who are they?
Archibald HENDERSON, a blacksmith at the Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.
Where did he come from?
Y-DNA testing has as yet not produced any matches, atDNA has thrown up some intriguing matches that may well lead somewhere eventually.
Amelia MILLAR, mother supposedly a Miss CHRYSTAL. From Kippen in Stirlingshire.
We do have a fascinating match with a family that includes both MILLARs and CHRYSTALs but we need to confirm that this is the line that the matching DNA comes from.
Any descendants of David MILLAR and Elizabeth CHRYSTAL out there willing to try their luck to see if we can prove that.
Jane GIBSON, born Somerset, mother supposedly a Jane GIBSON. Where did she come from?
Although we have a reasonable amount of identified DNA segments from Simon ANDREWS an Jane GIBSON, we don't currently know which bits come from the ANDREWS side and which from the GIBSON side. Any descendants of Simon's siblings out there and willing to test to see what we can learn?
John DAVIDSON, born Chirnside, Berwickshire to an Ann COLLINS. Whereas we have quite a bit of FAIRBAIRN DNA identified from John's wife, specific DAVIDSON segments are hard to identify. Any descendants of any of John's children tested? The New Zealand contingent is fully represented - me, unless others ended up here, as I'm the last living descendant of Adam. His brother James and sister Helen had no known children.
Not forgetting the potential Irish connections of:
William AUSTIN who mysteriously disappeared in Australia presumably before his wife/widow married her ship's captain saying she was single with no former children (so much for my great grandmother who was nearly 2 by then!). My only hope here is to be able to identify more of the DNA inherited from the CLINTON/PARKER side of the family, so I would love to hear from any descendants of William CLINTON and Jemima PARKER who may be intrigued enough to help out here.
William CLINTON above. Someone must know where he came from.

The above are the problem ancestors that stop me completing the rows of ancestors at 3* and 4* great grandparents, the "lines of 32 and 64".
But until then I will continue having fun contacting and working with matches, forming triangulated groups that share an ancestor somewhere/when and seeing where that leads.

With kits either in process or en route to the lab several other theories may well be dis/proven, so there's always something fun to do.

Love to hear from you if any of the above look familiar, especially if you hold the key to the puzzle.

The atDNA tests involved here are either that offered by Ancestry DNA - provided you then upload your resulting raw data file to at least GEDMatch.com (free, donations accepted) and also preferably FamilyTreeDNA ($39US to transfer the file from Ancestry) - or simply directly with FamilyTreeDNA using their FamilyFinder test.
(I've currently gone off using 23andme, their website has been "in transition" for weeks and isn't that useable at the moment, with no current signs of improvement)

If a descendant of any of the above and you do end up on FamilyTreeDNA, do apply to join my autosomal DNA project there, FFLornaHen.

Look forward to making 2016 the year the breakthroughs happen - with YOUR help.

Who is Adam?

Does anyone have any evidence as to who the parents of Adam HENDERSON are?

Adam was:

• born abt 1815 Southdean, Roxburghshire, 
• married Janet EASTON in Oxnam 2 days prior to the 1841 census, 
• lived Swinside, Oxnam (1841), 
• popped up in West Middle, Cavers in 1851, 
• Hallrule Lodge, Bedrule (1861) and 
• Newton, Bedrule (1871) 
• before emigrating in 1873 with Janet and son George, 
• settling in Alma, Jackson Co., Wisconsin where several family already were.

Why am I asking?
I'm investigating an excellent DNA match between a descendant of Adam (via son Peter), myself, and two of my cousins (2nd and 3C1R) where we all descend from Peter SINTON & Jane WIGHT.
The most likely line of the match's pedigree that accounts for this is that of Peter Oliver HENDERSON who turns out to be the son of Adam and Janet (EASTON) HENDERSON

The indications currently are that Adam is highly likely to belong to Peter SINTON's family somewhere.
But where?

There's an 1808 marriage of an Oliver HENDERSON (Hawick) to an Isabel SINTON (Cavers) in the Cavers Parish register, which looks promising.
Although there's no further info known, the couple fits the timeframe, place, and naming pattern to be Adam's parents.
If Adam and Janet's son Peter Oliver was named for both Adam and Janet's fathers we do have a bit of a problem as the above Peter SINTON's sister Isabel, who is of an age, is accounted for and I don't know about any other Peters.

So, I'm on the look out for others claiming descent from any of the above who may already have joined in the fun of dna testing for genealogy, or be prepared to, so we can compare results and
confirm that the dna match is indeed pointing to Adam.
Missing bits of the papertrails would also be most welcome - a Wisconsin death record/obit for Adam naming his parents? The fate of Oliver HENDERSON and Isabel SINTON?

Check out Adam on FamilySearch  FamilyTree for some of the descendants identified / linked to date.

Potential matches/matches are welcome to join my FFLornaHen autosomal DNA project on FamilyTreeDNA, or if you are on GEDMatch.com please get in touch with your id number there so we can check out any potential connections.

Needle in haystack found

For many years a family story that Margaret HENDERSON and Robert SMITH's family also included a daughter who died as an infant on the voyage to NZ, sat in the too hard basket.
Find a SMITH somewhere between Lanarkshire and Otago around the 1880s?
When my original notes showed differing information as to which ship they came out on?

Wasn't actually that hard at all.
There weren't many SMITHs registered in Carnwath in the right timeframes, and really only one likely gap in the family, and only about 5 or 6 females registered at that time, 3 or 4 of them had middle names as well so they seemed unlikely, and several were on the verge of too close to other known children, which left the two most likely, a Jean and a Mary.
Yes, it took me two certs to get the right one, Mary.

Could I confirm the "died on voyage" story?
Well yes, that too fell into place. I picked the first of the two ship options provided, "Marlborough" or "Nelson", and searched PapersPast for the name in conjunction with "arrival" and "measles" in the approximate timeframe.

Although I've not found any passenger lists, yet, for the voyage of the "Marlborough" that arrived at Port Chalmers, it did have documented cases of measles on board (part of the information supplied by a fellow researcher re the ship).
The steerage passengers were embarked to "the island" (must find out more about that) and the cabin passengers allowed to stay on board the ship which now boasted a yellow quarantine flag.

The newspaper (Otago Witness Issue 1469, 10 January 1880, Page 14) reported "six deaths, all children, the eldest, being 10 years four from measles, one from suppurating sore throat, and one from acute bronchitis— the last death occurring on the 7th, when rounding Cape Saunders, the body being still on board the vessel."

What came up trumps however is this wonderful site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~patricia/Marlborough.htm
which documented the deaths, and included a three year old Mary SMITH, of measles.
Q.E.D.

A bonus of the above page about the "Marlborough" is the sad story of its fate.
The story of the  "Mary Celeste" sprang to mind - although the latter's crew weren't on board as skeletons. (If you think you know about the Marie Celeste, read the pages at the link!)

Henderson Chromosome Map

Results have arrived in from another branch of the family of James HENDERSON & Amelia MILLAR.
Further corroboration of one segment, and one newly identified one.
So time to update the chromosome map.
Check out http://familytree.lornahen.com/spHENDERSON.htm for the current state of play.

Moral or medical judgement?

(From an 1866 death certificate)

Found during investigations into a dna match between a descendant of a FAICHNEY/McTAVISH family from Dunblane and two of the extended HENDERSON/McEWAN family tree FamilyFinder participants.

If there are any dna tested descendants from the family of Fergus FAICHNEY and Mary McTAVISH who married at Dunblane in 1842 I'd love to hear from you to help rule in or out that this is the line where the match comes from.

Or, for that matter John McTAVISH and Margaret McDIARMID who married at Killin, Perthshire in 1811.

Henderson brick wall

One of my reasons for venturing into DNA testing for genealogy back in 2007 was to break through several brick walls.

Yes, there have been some successes, many intriguing finds, and a lot of new correspondents to share with.

No, I still have no more idea about where Archibald HENDERSON, or Amelia MILLAR for that matter, came from.

Here's the current state of play of mapped chromosome segments inherited/shared by the tested participants, along with those where their matches also match each other forming a triangulated group. The caveat however is that we do NOT know the segments are from the HENDERSON side of the ancestral couples shown, and for those marked as ... anc., the link can be back up either side of the couple, somewhere, somewhen.

In theory, one day a WOW moment will arrive when one of these matches holds the key in their trees and dna to break through that wall.

Click to enlarge

This picture, and any subsequent updates to it, may be found on both:

• the DNA Surnames HENDERSON pages

and

• the HENDERSON surname page on my personal family tree pages.

Any descendants of Archibald and Margaret interested in exploring this further would be most welcome to join my autosomal dna (atDNA) project FFLornaHen.
The inheritance of atDNA is such that even siblings can show up different segments, and thus more matches, to add into the mix to triangulate.

Government records are always accurate - yeah right!

Great granddad William HENDERSON has been getting some attention of late as more of the dna several of us inherited is identified.

It occurred to me however that I'd never actually looked at his official immigration records.
After all, I have the ship board diary he wrote and knew he arrived in Port Chalmers on the 8th July 1872, and travelling by steamer "Golden Age" to Dunedin the following day, going to the barracks.

With FamilySearch having digitized the assisted immigration records from our National Archives off I went to check the images.
Couldn't find him!
When the obvious fails, start looking at the less obvious.
The voyage has been identified, and thus indexed, as having arrived in Wellington.

Examination of the papers associated explained why.
Although the cover of the file shows the "William Davie" as "for Otago",

 the next page shows it as arriving Wellington.

Newspaper reports

do confirm that great granddad wasn't lost, and his diary does not show the ship landing anywhere at all other than Port Chalmers after it left Greenock.

William recorded most of the daily lat/long values during the voyage.
See the William Davie voyage for more details, click on the voyage link for the map, and the markers on the map for the dates and any notes.

Hoping something is true...

... isn't the same as it being true.
A couple of years ago I found some HAMILTON twigs in Australia.
The several trees on ancestry all claimed George HAMILTON and Isabella ORMISTON as their ancestors.
At the time I was on a quest to find a direct male line descendant of this couple (or for that matter any of the preceding generations) who might be willing to be a guinea pig and do his thing for family history by participating in the FAMILTON DNA Project.
Still looking - hint, hint! Remember that the line of the Ancrum weavers that we hope to match are of an unusual haplogroup for the Borders (G), which might add some interest to the search.

Information from an 1899 family tree had shown that several of the sons had indeed gone to Australia, nothing further known.

Superficially the information checked out but with nothing concrete to prove the linkage, and with, I do admit, a slight niggle as one of the death index entries had a wrong mother's forename.

Something led me back to the family this week.
Time moves on, more records are more readily available.

The main link to descendants was William Sydney HAMILTON, son of George HAMILTON and Catherine HENDERSON.
However he is now known to not be the one marrying DRYER and producing descendants, as his headstone shows he died aged 8 months and is buried with three of his siblings (Peter Henderson, Jessie, and Catherine HAMILTON) who all died as infants, and his mother Catherine Henderson HAMILTON of Argyll (not Ireland).

Further info was found this time round on the son who survived infancy, George.
So, several twigs lost and only one gained - IF the George marrying Catherine is indeed our George.
We do know that the George marrying Catherine was 28 in 1848, which fits, but that's circumstantial evidence as his death has not yet been found.
Some trees show George as the 1883 death indexed as parents George and Isabella. However the matching death notice shows that George as 21, native of Glasgow, where there's a matching birth indexed in Govan to George HAMILTON and Isabella BOW.

Son George married a Charlotte Jane McMASTER and produced at least one son, Gordon Cumming HAMILTON.
An note on a FamilySearch tree adds that he was the first to drive a car over the Blue Mountains from Sydney - haven't yet found any record of that.
Can anyone elaborate?
Can anyone fully confirm that this George married to Catherine HENDERSON is the son of George and Isabella (ORMISTON) HAMILTON?

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson that contains the basic BDM data for all the dead rellies and connections has been updated to reflect this change of tack, and bring in all the updates from the last few months.

All power to DNA!

New FamilyFinder DNA results are being received all the time, but it is often hard to see where the connection might be between respective trees, although there has to be a link, given the dna evidence.

There was an exception this week, which, once again, highlighted the random nature of autosomal dna inheritance.
But more importantly, they brought attention back to the Mary McEWAN that had been sitting in my database for many years potentially marked as being  the daughter of James McEWAN and Mary McLAREN, and thus niece of my 3*great grandmother Margaret McEWAN.
This potential duplicate for Mary had married a William DUNCANSON and emigrated to Tasmania in 1855. Others have long ago connected the families up as one and the same, but her age didn't quite match, although census data did place her in the right places about the right times, among other candidates.

This time around I found her death entry, which squashed my qualms about her age, although no parents were indexed.
This, coupled with a dna match between a descendant of Mary's and myself, and to my third cousin once removed, both of us descendants of Margaret McEWAN, Mary's aunt, means that she has been connected up to the family and a heap of new McEWAN descendants formally welcomed to the database.

For those interested in further technical detail:
Autosomal dna (atDNA) is the part of our genetic heritage that we inherit randomly from all of our ancestors, as compared to the mitochondrial dna everyone inherits from their mothers but only daughters can pass on to their children, or to the Y-DNA that sons inherit from their fathers, passing that inheritance on to their sons in turn. Both of the latter are far more certain at surviving the transmission process from parent to child more or less intact, but the former is a bit of a lottery as to what survives from which ancestor.

We now have autosomal dna (Family Finder) results from four descendants of Archibald  & Margaret (McEWAN) HENDERSON, and now one from a descendant of Margaret's brother James.

The only match that showed initially on Family Tree DNA, at the default settings, was between myself and my second cousin.  Disappointingly no match shows up between myself and another descendant of our shared James and Amelia (MILLAR) HENDERSON, nor between any of us to the descendant of James' sister Margaret, although the latter was not entirely unexpected. This sort of test is really only expected to detect significant matches back to a shared 4-6 generations ago, so it's always a bonus to find a match further back.

Further exploration via GedMatch, where the parameters may be tweaked, revealed that there are several matches slightly below the matching threshold used by FamilyTree DNA between at least three of us after all. Mostly between the descendant of the two Margarets, one the daughter of Archibald and Margaret (McEWAN) HENDERSON and the other the daughter of James & Amelia (MILLAR) HENDERSON. Could be completely random coincidence (called Identical by State, rather than the Identical by Descent that we are after) of course, but I prefer not to think so.

We now have this growing scientific evidence that supports our paper trails, and provides a good solid base for future matches to pinpoint where they might be from.
But it would be even better to get representatives to join the fun and add to the evidence for the less defined paper trails, those for Margaret and James' siblings William, Archibald, and John, who either emigrated themselves, or many descendants did, to Australia, America, and Canada respectively.  
I'm pinning my hopes on FamilyFinder evidence for William and John as both lines are rather short on direct male line HENDERSONs able to represent them. A Y-DNA representative  may eventually be able to be found for Archibald's line, but a FamilyFinder match would also be very welcome!

HENDERSONs again

Lack of recent posts doesn't mean no activity.
It's been HENDERSON time again, with contacts from descendants of at least two different children of Archibald and Margaret (McEWAN) HENDERSON - one in British Columbia, a descendant of their daughter Margaret, the other a descendant of their son John.

William HENDERSON

I've decided to claim the William HENDERSON married to Margaret SINCLAIR as "my" William.
Seems a bit too much to expect two William HENDERSON smiths at the Bridge of Allan with Archibald & Margaret as family names.
This adds SINCLAIR, TODD, BRADDISH, McCLURE and SPEAR (at least) into the HENDERSON names.
Interesting to note the occurrence of twins in this line, as well as in that of my James.

My family tree web pages (Big Brother) have been fully updated to reflect this, and any other snippets that have been included since last full update.
As several pages state:  love to hear from any descendants, particularly any with early photographs, or anyone willing to add to our knowledge of the HENDERSON dna.

As a result of the above update the HENDERSON page has had a bit of a revamp and more of the HENDERSON descendants' vital records (BDMs) now appear as pins on the map on that page.

Bridge of Allan smiths

Wonderful what a fresh pair of eyes does.
Robert's interest in my HENDERSONs, sparked by his relationship to Margaret COUPER, who married Archibald son of Archibald HENDERSON  & Margaret McEWAN, has had both of us reviewing available information on the other children, and descendants, of Archibald and Margaret (McEWAN) H.

I'd previously thought that their son William must have died prior to 1855, probably prior to 1841, as there were no obvious sightings anywhere, other than an 1841 census entry that would otherwise fit apart from it being claimed as William born 1810 Cowie Hill, Logie, by a researcher as the son of William HENDERSON & Jean DUNCAN that I'd been in contact with back in 1994.

The more I look at this family, the more I'm becoming convinced that this is indeed my William.
Proof definitely lacking however as he does indeed appear to have died between 1846 and 1851, with Margaret also appearing to have inconveniently died between 1851 and 1855.

However, 5 of the 6 children emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1857, possibly with their grandmother Elizabeth SINCLAIR nee WATSON, so I'm now scurrying around seeing what else I can find.

Reviewing the 1994 correspondence I now note that the birthdate/place and parents of William were tentative at the time, not proven - so time to be checked where possible - and with a bit of luck a suitable dna candidate found for the HENDERSON DNA project? (The latter currently looks a little unlikely as far as Y-DNA is concerned, but possibly FamilyFinder may show a match to one or other of the 4 of us tested for this line over either Family Finder and/or Y-DNA)

Anyone know anything about a William HENDERSON, smith at Bridge of Allan between 1841 and 1851 in particular?

Traps for not so young players

Still digging around in the family of Donald Cowper HENDERSON & Margaret BROWN.
Back in 2006 I'd found an ancestral file entry for the family showing they had a son James born about 1882 in Scotland, married to Della HAUCK - which family I'd never been able to validate, coming or going to/from Scotland to California, marrying, dying, nothing.
But I did have a brother in the family named Hinckley who married a Della someone.
For the latter I had at least found some evidence in records, including the "perfect" speicimen his father, the registrar, thought he was in his WWI draft registration below.

Think I've cracked that one.
James supposedly born 1882 Scotland turns out to be James Cowper HENDERSON, born Hinckley Stn, San Bernadino County, California in 1896, on exactly the same day as the above Hinckley always uses, with the same parents.
Haven't yet figured out who his supposed child is and reconciled the conflicting marriage information between census and military records.


The Californian branch adds in a few new names: KLEINSCHMIDT, McDONALD, BOGGS, FAYLE, EARLE, SMITH, GOLDING, TRAPNELL to add to those already there - ALLAN, HAWLEY, MILLER, CRAWFORD.

The descendant chart on the HENDERSON page  has been updated to reflect current status.