Theory blown

Ah well, win some lose some, or in this case, lose one, win some.
My  recently created RICHARDSON page outlined my theory that  the James who married Margaret MABON, and was widowed in 1812, went on to marry Christian OUTERSON and emigrate to Quebec.
A descendant of James & Margaret has popped out of the woodwork and shared his DNA results (many thanks).
These have been converted, where possible, to match our existing FamilyTree DNA results and now appear on the RICHARDSON page at DNA Surnames.
They make it look unlikely that we are talking about the same James here.

The "win" in the equation however is that we now have three matching Border RICHARDSON trees!
Exactly where they connect however remains to be seen.

Three trees down, how many others to go?

And Henry too?

The growing RICHARDSON page has been updated to include the family of Henry and Ann (PRESTON) RICHARDSON, where Henry appears to track back to James RICHARDSON & Isabel PRINGLE of Over Roxburgh.
Henry and Ann were also eschewing the established curch for the Morebattle Gateshaw sessions around the same time as James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON, and had emigrated to Quebec by 1832, as had James and Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON, which James may, or may not, be one and the same.

Usual plea - any direct male RICHARDSON of Henry and Ann out there interested enough in their family history who would be willing to join the RICHARDSON DNA project to see if there's a match to John and Ralph?

Also added to the page is a timeline of relevant events to the above RICHARDSON families against the lifespans of some of the main characters. Suggestions of significant events to be added welcome.

With all this RICHARDSON activity, especially the repeating use of Andrew as a family name, and the extension from Morebattle to Roxburgh, the family of Andrew and Mary (WATSON) RICHARDSON also came back into view. They've been lurking in my database LornaPotential for many years as this tree inter-connects many times over with assorted lines in mine. So a brief descendant list for them as been added as well - the connection to the above being Roxburgh rather than Morebattle however, with Crailing thrown in.

Cracked it!

Patience, perseverance, and not believing what we've been told - or at least interpreting it less literally, given that the Sth side of the St Lawrence river would have been/is rather close to St Lawrence County in New York State.
Adam Brown RICHARDSON's census data all indicated he was born in New York around 1835.
The recent flurry of activity trying to connect him to the Bermuda RICHARDSON family that turned out to be that of James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON was inconclusive, but there is a growing body of circumstantial evidence of a connection - my theory being that James remarried, to Christian OUTERSON.
Who has finally been found to be Adam's mother.
A very big thank you to those behind the indexes on the Huntingdon County and the Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois website.
I was actually looking for anything that provided evidence for the age of James, Christian's husband, that may add even more fuel to my theory of this being his second marriage, and had turned my attention to Quebec, given that their son Robert's bio stated that he had emigrated at age 6 to Quebec, and taken part in the Patriot War of Canada at aged 16-17.
Still pinning my hopes on a heads of household census of 1841 for Chateauguay, but as there's also a James shown as being buried in 1840, I'm not holding my breath.
 

I'm almost convinced

But have I convinced anyone else?
Some additional circumstantial evidence for the theory of the the two James families, that of James and Margaret (MABON) RICHARDSON, and that of James & Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON being one and the same James:
-  George (mother MABON) also emigrated to the States and is to be found in Omro, Winnebago, Wisconsin in 1860 three census pages before his presumed step-brother Robert who has his mother Christian (OUTERSON) living with him.
- George 's wife is Margaret MELDRUM
- David, George's assumed step brother names his daughter Ella Meldrum RICHARDSON
- a snippet view of "New Brunswick Lineages" on google books brought to my attention by John shows James as 1770 (Edinburgh) -1850 (Lower Canada) - which age makes it highly likely that he remarried (Christian was born around 1796)
So, just maybe John's Adam, born 1835 New York, belongs to James and Christian? This is only 3 years after their last known Scottish son was born.
All pure speculation of course, but even though there isn't, yet, a proven dna signature for James' line(s), we do still have a Bermuda, and a New York connection.

Love to hear from any direct male line RICHARDSON descendants of the above families who might like to explore this further.

Speculation rife

Couldn't quite give up on the RICHARDSONs.
Went back to my 2008 notes from the Morebattle Gateshaw session records to see if there might be a re-marriage of the widowed James, whose wife Margaret MABON had died in childbirth in 1812.
Although 8 years seems a little too long to wait to get a mother to his bairns, the family of James and Christian (OUTERSON) RICHARDSON came back into view. There's nothing on the 1820 Eckford marriage entry that indicates James was a widower, just that he was from Morebattle.
I'd never managed to find traces of them in Scottish censuses.
Spurred on by reminding myself that they had a son named Archibald Moffat RICHARDSON (Morebattle, 1832), I widened the net to the States.
An Archibald Moffat name is just too much of a coincidence given the Bermuda James' wife Mary MOFFATT, and her father Archibald MOFFATT.

Son Robert pops up in Winnebago Co., Wisconsin by 1850, stating he was born in Canada! Later censuses correct that back to Scotland, with 1900 adding an emigration date of 1841, and the 1860 having (mother assumed) Christy RICHARDSON, aged 64, born Scotland with the family.
His two subsequent remarriage indexes, between them, show his parents as James RICHARDSON and Christiana "OTTASUS" !
The mistranscriptions of OUTERSON abound, but that one takes the cake.

With the hint of Canada being somehow significant the net got wider.
Up popped son Andrew, with (assumed mother) Christian in the Quebec household in 1881.
Andrew thought he had emigrated in 1837.
One family tree has decided that Christian was born in Yorkshire (census records both indicated Scotland) - but as the Bermuda James married and had one child in Leeds, this may have been a bit of lingering family misinformation?

Another tree claims David for the James/Christian family but I haven't yet verified that one, other than yes, he's the right age, and of more than passing interest, is to be found in Oneida county, New York in one census - where Thomas of Bermuda settled. Well, the same county anyway, Thomas was at Trenton, David at Deerfield - which appear to be about 12 miles apart.

Just maybe, one day we'll find that John's Adam, born 1835 in New York, does belong to James of Morebattle after all, but the father not the son?  He's only 3 years after Archibald Moffat RICHARDSON was born in Morebattle to Christian.