First you find her, then you lose her

A distant cousin popped up on WikiTree the other day, so I connected his ancestor, Janet SINTON up to her parents, James SINTON & Margaret WILKIE.
Then looked to see if there was any research outstanding on the family that might be advanced.

Janet had a sister Mary SINTON, aged 37, still living, when father James died in 1855.
But where was she between 1818 and 1855? What happened to her?
Past investigations had found no obvious death, marriage, or census entry in Scotland, and rather too many Mary anyones, preferably born Melrose or Bowden, in the 1851 census in Scotland, let alone of an age, born Scotland, in England.

So this time I tried immigration records - and turned up a Mary SINTON emigrating to New York on the "Yazoo", arriving in July 1838.
Bit of a long shot I thought - until I noticed the family above her on the passenger list.

John & Margaret FAIRBAIRN with family - known to have ended up in Ontario by Dec 1838, dying in Blandford.

Margaret was Mary's older sister.

So the chase has shifted from after 1855, likely Scotland, to finding any evidence of Mary after 1838, likely Canada but possibly USA, and her death after 1855 somewhere.

FAIRBAIRN sidetracks

Not sure what all the major changes of late have been. Busy chasing FAIRBAIRNs around the records and getting sidetracked, ie business as usual.
One I got sidetracked onto was Robert Brinckerhoff FAIRBAIRN, married Juliet ARNOLD. I couldn't place him and noone seems to be researching the family so I had a dig. Warden of St Stephens Episcopal College at Annandale, NY for many years. Born in NY in 1818, father a William from Scotland who emigrated 1796 and was a publisher in NY. Anyone claiming this family?

Another orphaned family I spent some time on, and couldn't immediately spot any researchers for, was that of Robert FAIRBAIRN of Duns, Berwick who emigrated to Bowmanville, Ontario.
There are memoirs on the web written by his son James Brougham FAIRBAIRN, Postmaster at Darlington Mills (now Bowmanville) and brother of an MP Thomas McCulloch FAIRBAIRN. Possibly also connected with the inventor of mini-golf another Thomas McCulloch FAIRBAIRN.
I've added an outline pedigree to the DNA Patriarch's page.

What I was sidetracked from was finally getting round to updating my info (thanks for the prompt Ed) on the family of John and Elisabeth (MILLER) FAIRBAIRN of New York, John being the one with a father Walter of Roxburghshire who may or may not be my one. Would be great to find a participant for the dna project to test this theory out. I've included a chart for John and Elisabeth on my FAIRBAIRN pages, and will update the pedigree outline on the DNA project patriarchs page in due course.