New year, new updates

2020 is starting off a lot better than 2019.
Not that I make resolutions for a New Year as I'll only break them within the first few days (no chocolate? pay more attention to housework?) I do tend to check what hasn't been updated lately.

My gateway web pages (LornaHen) the related more detailed family website (BigBrother) and the basic BDM snapshots of the deceased rellies and their connections (RootsWeb Worldconnect replacement) have all had a refresh.
It's been a while and several links had become obsolete or unworkable (WorldConnect in particular, why did they change it? It's not for the better.).
Research has also moved on and new connections made. You all know how genealogy and DNA goes!

Perhaps the revitalization from a New Year will also extend to the long overdue updates to DNASurnames, and the Fairbairn and Runciman sites as there have definitely been new findings in the first two in particular with BigY results arriving.

It's not that there hasn't been any activity, just that what has been updated has mostly been tidied up on the FamilySearch tree and WikiTree, as have a lot of DNA connection investigations.

For the more intriguing of the latter I've started using WikiTree custom pages to keep track of the connected families and DNA conclusions as a result of the investigations.

WikiTree allows you to create custom pages for anything you wish and operates a category system to link profiles of interest.
Most of these are eg by place, surname, one name studies etc which have a monitored hierarchy but can also include Personal Categories which you link to yourself as the main grouping.

If a person on WikiTree has been associated with a category a tiny almost invisible link will appear at the top of their profile page

clicking on the link takes you to the bottom of the page where there is a list of categories associated with the person, eg my fledgling investigation into what I hope will be new Turnbull matches

One resolution I have made, is to review my chromosome maps and hopefully show progress since last year. 

Maternal side Chromosome Map update

I see that my Paternal side chromosome map was last published Dec 2016.
The intention was for the companion Maternal side map to follow shortly thereafter, but 2017 had other plans.

Click to enlarge

A quick reminder for myself of the maternal brickwall ancestors that I hope DNA will one day aid in cracking (see embedded WikiTree Widgets below for each of my maternal grandparent's pedigrees):

• Jane GIBSON: supposedly born Martock, Somerset in 1812, married Simon ANDREWS in Martock, 1840 and emigrates to New Zealand on the "Timandra", arriving 1842.
• William AUSTIN: husband of Emma Parker CLINTON - disappears after arrival in Australia;  Emma remarries as a spinster with no children!
• William CLINTON: married Jemima PARKER in London, 1810 - and had the above daughter Emma Parker CLINTON

Way too many unknown grandparent segments as yet - but I hope that visual phasing* of my 3 first cousins' DNA will reduce that.
*Visual phasing links:

• https://isogg.org/wiki/Visual_phasing
• http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2016/11/21/visual-phasing-an-example-part-1-of-5/
• https://genealogylady.net/2017/05/02/down-the-dna-rabbit-hole-visual-phasing-with-two-siblings/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neB4oFlwJHA
  a hint: to mark who owns each crossover instead of the technique shown I used the owner's letter in a simple right justified cell which positioned the owner right next to the line.

My maternal grandfather's pedigree (WikiTree) - if you are a descendant of any of these PLEASE upload your autosomal DNA file (eg FamilyFinder from FamilyTreeDNA, Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andme) to GEDMatch.com and contact me.
Every little clue helps.

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

 My maternal grandmother's pedigree (WikiTree)

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

How many to go?

As you can probably deduce, I'm a DNA junkie.
Apart from using my autosomal DNA matches (and a lot of genealogical research) to map my chromosomes so that I know (eventually - I hope!) which bits on which chromosomes were inherited from which ancestors*, another of my aims to is document the haplogroups for each of my ancestors out to my 2*great grandparents (at least) -  yDNA and/or mtDNA.

Knowing this data is of help in working with autosomal DNA matches to rule in or out of contention certain lines, and you never do know what else you may learn.

So I thought it was time to take stock.
The above is a screen shot of my ancestry tree pedigree with the symbols I've attached for the appropriate haplogroups where known.

How am I doing?
Grandparents: one to go, George Ernest ANDREWS.
There's a test in progress for a descendant of Simon ANDREWS, due next month.

Great Grandparents: two to go, other than George Gibson ANDREWS who will be sorted next month.
Helen Sinton WIGHT (WorldConnect / WikiTree / Geni / FamilySearch) and
Ellen TURNBULL (WorldConnect / WikiTree / Geni / FamilySearch.

Can you help?
Concentrating on Helen Sinton WIGHT first.
Helen Sinton WIGHT has no living descendants who inherited her mitochondrial DNA.
Working back to her mother, Helen WIGHT nee SINTON (my webpages / WorldConnect / WikiTree) there may be some options, but although (or because) this WIGHT family is the one that started my whole genealogy journey back in the 1970s, it is the least documented, and very poorly sourced given how new I was to this back then! 

Can YOU help by contributing any knowledge you have on descendants of Helen?
The three main collaborative world trees that anyone can access for free, that I follow and work with are: WikiTree, Geni and FamilySearch.
Let's see if we can turn up any living descendants down any of the lines in general, hopefully at least one in particular that carries Helen's mitochondrial DNA AND one who may be convinced to indulge my curiousity.

Both WikiTree and Geni have DNA related tools that can be quickly checked for DNA candidates of interest - and easily rechecked as the tree grows:
WikiTree -  descendants of Helen who have inherited her mtDNA a short list - but I am working on an update as we speak. None on the current list are still with us, and the first two branches I've worked on don't appear to have any likely surviving candidates for mtDNA.
Geni - living descendants of Helen who have inherited her mtDNA (none as at Jul 2016)
FamilySearch - descendants of Helen WIGHT nee SINTON

Regardless of this specific quest for mitochondrial DNA candidates, there may well be some cousins still around who would be most welcome to contribute autosomal DNA and see what that adds to our overall DNA knowledge of connections.
Pop along to my atDNA project FFLornaHen on FamilyTreeDNA and order a FamilyFinder test, or test at Ancestry and then transfer that file to both GEDMatch.comhttp://GEDMatch.com and to FamilyTreeDNA so we can all fish in both ponds for matches and use the tools only available on the latter two sites to make the most of our investment(s).
I'd love to hear from any of you - contact form on most of my webpages.

* the main aim of all that work with my atDNA is to concentrate on the matches at the spots where I don't yet know which ancestor is to blame - can you hear the sounds of the crumbling brickwalls?
A wonderful side effect is of course confirming the family tree, testing theories, and as recently highlighted, finding new siblings for some of the ancestors.
Some of the distant cousins you get to "meet" may even be able to shed more light on our shared ancestors with photos, family knowledge etc.

Hidden in plain view

I do so love serendipity in genealogy.

Researching to answer a question on a list I monitor, about what may or may not have been possible when downloading family tree data out of FamilySearch* I decided to try using my own tree as the guineapig.
For some reason I chose James TURNBULL, my 2* great grandfather.
No idea why, I've not recently been working on the family at all.
If I had been, what I found might not have been a surprise, as I would have diligently noticed that the gaps in his information may well have been able to be filled long before now :).

A busy beaver (thank you Ellen) had attached an immigration passenger list to James' son James, whom I had assumed to have died in Cumberland prior to their emigration to New Zealand by around 1862/4 ish (according to conflicting death certs for the family).
Not that I'd ever found a satisfactory death entry for him in England.

James, Jane and all four children had departed from Liverpool in April 1862, arriving Melbourne in September.

Son James' 1863 death cert. shows they were living at Geelong, where James was working as a carpenter.

Some 20+ years ago I had painstakingly searched the assisted immigrants into New Zealand for James and Jane and concluded that they were not assisted here by the NZ government.

My excuse for leaving things there was that 20+ years ago records were by no means as easily accessible as now.
It's a poor excuse however as I could easily have subsequently checked the Victoria (Australia) to New Zealand - 1852-1923 migration fiche, which would have shown me  Mr James, Mrs James, Robert, Stephen and Ellen all on the "S.S. Tararua" departing Melbourne on the 10 Aug 1866.

Which date is 4 years later than implied by James' 1891 NZ death cert, and 2 years later than that implied by daughter Ellen's.
Where they disembarked however remains to be discovered.

Take your pick! My assumption is Wellington. The next snippet of previously gleaned information was that James was in Tikorangi when son Robert fell from a horse breaking his arm in 1873.
Which I suspect was meant to be Huirangi instead.


This information was definitely worth updating my website for.
James' entry on my webpages is now a little more complete and should shortly be even more so, as I've found that Archway has digitized the Taranaki Land District Primary Deeds Indexes 1856-1998. So instead of heading for Wellington, I'm working my way through assorted books online in the comfort of my own home, checking to see which relative bought, mortgaged or sold which parcel of land, swapping out every so often to the New Plymouth City Council Maps to figure out where each Lot was.

All because of a casual, completely unrelated, enquiry. 


*
The query was whether or not a gedcom from FamilySearch FamilyTree was
a) possible,
b) included the Memories and Photos attached.
The short answer being no.
The long answer: https://familysearch.org/ask/salesforce/viewArticle?urlname=GEDCOM-Frequently-Asked-Questions-FAQs&lang=en

But you can use those programs that integrate with the tree, eg RootsMagic and Legacy, to download (or upload) the basic data, just not the Memories and Photos.

Fate of Mary Ann LIVOCK

Remember how a while ago Michael popped out of the woodwork having identified the first wife of the Rev Robert TURNBULL?
And how we couldn't find her death? The closest match by place being a few weeks shy of when Robert remarried, which seemed unlikely undue haste.

Karen, a descendant of David STEVENSON and his wife Eliza (who turned out to be Mary Ann's sister) came up trumps.
She read the online correspondence of David STEVENSON rather more closely than I and found his report back to wife Eliza and the Rev Turnbull of a visit to Milverton in Somerset to see "poor Mary Ann's grave".
Somerset would never have featured on my radar as a place to look for Mary Ann's death.
Karen also found a transcript of the burials at St Michael's, Milverton, and I found several 1843 advertisements for the Milverton Classical and Commercial School, "Master Mr Turnbull".
He obviously couldn't teach Greek!

Mary Ann now appears on my webpages with her own page

Chromosome map update

The above is an update on my earlier Chromosome picture, but using a more comprehensive tool, thanks to Kitty Cooper's ChromosomeMapper.
The reason for this update is the small orange segment of dna on chromosome 15, a newly detected, triangulated match* between myself, two maternal aunts and Richard, my 6th cousin once removed.
I and the aunts descend from Elizabeth ALGAR and Richard PEEK, Richard descends from Elizabeth's brother Samuel ALGAR of Yealmpton, Devon.
Their parents, Samuel ALGAR & Sarah LOWRY married in 1720, at Yealmpton.

There aren't quite as many unmapped areas as all the grey indicates on the above, I've simply left off the match segments from the very close relations where there is insufficient information on matches to enable segments to be tied to specific earlier ancestors.

To identify more of the grey bits, and thus help break through some of the brick walls, I would particularly love to hear from descendants of the following of my ancestral lines who may be interested in exploring their genetic heritage, and thus help pinpoint where some of the many  matches "fit":
- William CLINTON & Jemima PARKER
- Robert TURNBULL & Eleanor SCOTT
- Andrew GRAHAM & Jane GRAHAM
- William BATY & Sarah BATY
- John DAVIDSON & Agnes FAIRBAIRN
Check out my FamilyFinder project FFLornaHen, and the FAQs about FamilyTree DNA's  FamilyFinder test, and if willing to help, please contact me (details on footer of most of my webpages)

* for an explanation on mapping and triangulation, see this article in Roberta Estes' DNAeXplained blog

First the bridesmaid, then the bride

Another example of why it pays to advertise, ie publish your research, and the gaps.
In my inbox today arrived a certificate and a note  saying "I think I've found the first wife of the Rev. Robert TURNBULL for you".
Sure enough!!
The Robert on the cert. was shown as a schoolmaster, son of a carpenter Robert.
So far so good.
Even better, one of the witnesses was a Dav[id] STEVENSON.
The Revd Robert's son Robert, later Sir Robert of the LNWR, is to be found in the 1871  census as a visitor in the household of a David STEVENSON, a railway manager, born Islington, MDX.

And just to make even more certain, another of the witnesses was one Louisa Philippine MAES.

Timeline:
Jan 1843 Robert marries Mary Ann LIVOCK, daughter of John LIVOCK, Coal Merchant.
Nov 1844 Robert marries, as a widower, Louisa Philippine MAES.

Now to find Mary Ann's death.
One possibility in Pancras looks a few short weeks prior to Robert's marriage to Louisa!!
There are others to investigate.

My benefactor was interested in the LIVOCK family because of John William LIVOCK the architect who had designed railway stations.
He had added that Mary Ann's sister Eliza married David STEVENSON, the witness, and with whom (Sir) Robert was in 1871.
This branch of the TURNBULL family does seem to attract railway connections.

Now I'm on the hunt to identify Mary Ann and Eliza's mother as she appears to have been born in Cumberland.
This family may well do a full research circle, Cumberland to St Pancras and back to Cumberland. 

SINTON twigs

Email from Dave greeted me this morning, researching Archibald Douglas TURNBULL (Jnr).
Did I know his wife's name? All he had was BROWN and couldn't find a marriage in England.
He was one step ahead of me, I didn't even have Archibald married.
I ended the day a few steps ahead - they married in Edinburgh, presumably because Mary Grace BROWN was working at Fleur, Coldingham at the time, even though she was Northumberland born and bred.
No idea if Mary is any connection to her husband's grandmother Jessie Douglas Carmichael BROWN, with or without an E, daughter of David BROWN(E) watchmaker born Edinburgh.

The SINTON descendant chart these TURNBULLs belong to has been updated with the above and one or two other connected dates, including that for the above Archibald's grandfather's 1934 death as there was a probate indexed in 1934 for Thomas Wilson TURNBULL of the right place, wife and children.
Some trees seem to claim this Thomas Wilson T. as the father of an Archibald Lancelot TURNBULL and have him dying in 1913 in Linlithgow, which date and/or place cannot be verified.

BATY/TURNBULL

Thank you Annie.
Annie has posted on my Guestbook a death notice from the Carlisle Journal, Saturday 11 Oct 1834, transcribed by Petra Mitchinson (on the Cumberland Rootsweb list)

"At Glasgow, on the 1st inst., in childbed, Ann, wife of Mr. John TURNBULL, and daughter of the late Mr. Wm. BATY, of Hornick Hill, near Longtown, in this county, aged 30 years, much respected." (I've changed the Hall to Hill)

This has to be the Annie born 1804, daughter of my William BATY and his second wife Mary SIMPSON.

With this hint FamilySearch shows that the "in childbed" refers to a daughter born, and died, 24th Sep.

Wonder if John TURNBULL connects to my other Arthuret and Nicol Forest TURNBULLs?

The only marriage found to date is in Glasgow of a John TURNBULL, chaise driver, to Ann BEATTIE in May 1934.  Can anyone claim them and/or disprove that this couple is the above John and Ann?

Ignore the BATY recent change index entries for 6th April other than Ann, the others were just typo fixes.

Wybunbury

Have had several interesting email conversations recently with Peter who was brought up in the Vicarage at Wybunbury, ie where the Rev. Robert TURNBULL was the Vicar for 18 years until his death in 1877. Amongst other things the conversation has resulted in a photo of the headstone I couldn't find back in 2006, plus a couple of pictures of the Vicarage, 1847 and 1966. All of which can now be seen in the places section of my main website under, yes, Wybunbury, Cheshire (CHS). Click on the little info icon next to Wybunbury. Still don't know who the first wife was though. Perhaps in another 6 years? Many thanks Peter.

Railway records

The heading is a bit of a misnomer.
I was following information that Ancestry had included a number of Railway records and thought I'd see what I could find about Sir Robert TURNBULL and his railway oriented offspring.
Oddly enough, and most unusually (not), I got sidetracked once I realised that it had been some time since I last checked what might now be more readily available for this family.
A number of wills have now been found in the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941, and several death dates and places found for assorted TURNBULLs, and the SPEAKMAN offspring in particular.
Along the way I found that one descendant, Lionel SPEAKMAN, went from Manager of the Furness Railway Co. to become London Manager, later Board Member, for Dalgety & Co. He appears in shipping records to-ing and fro-ing between the UK and Australia/New Zealand, and on one trip, was over in Perth catching up on his brother Robert Percy SPEAKMAN, who appears to have tried his hand at the Murchison Goldfields before taking up farming in Western Australia.

TURNBULLs to FAMILTON?

Still digging away at verifying the link back from my McEWAN descendant Sarah Margery JOHNSTON who married a George Miles/Myles TURNBULL, back up George's TURNBULLs to, supposedly, John TURNBULL and Bessie FAMILTON, the latter being of Earlston.
Admit I'm having a bit of trouble with the chain of evidence.

Can spot John and Bessie (FAMILTON) TURNBULL having children in Melrose, with John saying he was a weaver of Gattonside at his 1718 marriage.
Can spot what looks like their son Thomas marrying Peggy FORSAN and having several children in Melrose, including a John in 1769.

The trail back from George Miles TURNBULL reaches a Thomas TURNBULL married to Helen TAIT, with Thomas stated as born Melrose on both 1851 and 1861 census records, about 1804/5.
I've not seen his 1891 NZ death cert (which implies a birth abt 1801), but at least one tree assigns him to a John and Jane/Jean (CURRIE) TURNBULL, who married/called banns at Cavers (John) and Eckford (Jane) and were having children baptised 1794 (Gattonside) through 1806, but with no Thomas recorded.
The Melrose OPRs also record the burial of a John TURNBULL, feuar of Gattonside, aged 73 in 1827 (so born abt 1754), who would seem unlikely to be the 1769 baptism of John son of Thomas and Peggy (FORSAN) TURNBULL, who didn't marry until 1766.

There is a 1753 baptism in Melrose of a John to John TURNBUL & Janet USHER of Gattonside, witnesses James & John BOSTON, which surname also features as witness to the 1794 baptism of John and Jane (CURRIE) TURNBULL's daughter Janet in 1794, and as cautioner for the 1743 marriage of John TURNBULL to Janet USHER (both of Melrose).

Anyone else interested in these TURNBULLs with any comments? Until more info is available, I'll disconnect the link in my WorldConnect database LornaHenderson.

More connections

Yes the LEITH women noted a day or two ago were related, aunt/niece.
And the connections continued!

Sarah Abernethay LEITH married Thomas JOHNSTON, one of my McEWAN rellies.
Their daughter Sarah Margery JOHNSTON married a George Miles, (later Myles) TURNBULL.
An ancestry tree has this family, and shows George's TURNBULL ancestors as being of Melrose, with, wait for it, John TURNBULL and Bessie FAMILTON, who married at Earlston in 1718, at the end of the tree.

Bessie is highly likely to be one of my Earlston FAMILTONs, but we'll likely never prove that given we're back at the start of the Earlston registers here (at least I think we are, yet to fully re-check that bit).
I've not yet checked the reputed link from George's grdfather Thomas TURNBULL (b. abt 1801 Melrose, ROX, d. 1891 Georgefield, Waipahi, Otago) back to John and Bessie (FAMILTON) TURNBULL, but do note that John and Bessie's family were all baptised in Melrose from 1721 to 1737 and John was living at Gattonside when he married Bessie.

A snippet from the 1899 NZ obit of Helen TURNBULL nee TAIT, wife of Thomas, and grdmother of George Miles TURNBULL:
"... born in Berwickshire, Scotland, on the 5th July, 1814, and, with her husband and family, came to New Zealand in the ship Vicksburg in the year 1867 ... the deceased's father, Joseph Tait, an influential farmer on the Borders; sold to Lord Polworth the sheep that formed the nucleus of the world-famed flock of Border Leicesters."

6th: IZON redux

How many John Parnell IZONs can there be?
Or more accurately, why can't I find the one I'm looking for?
In the process of loading some overdue updates to OneGreatFamily I realised that I'd never fully convinced myself about Madeline Hilda IZON's parents.
I knew her father was a John Parnell IZON, timber merchant, deceased when Madeline married Douglas Maes TURNBULL (turns out he'd only died 8 days earlier).
But the only census data I could find had a John Parnell IZON with a wife Emma in about the right area and timeframe, but no Madeline/Hilda to be found.
This time round I found the family in 1911 and Emma was relegated to the dustbin of history as Madeline's mother turned out to be a Marion instead - additional proof being supplied by the National Probate Calendar (must have been a reasonably prosperous timber merchant, he left L6,300 in 1914).

Those interested are no doubt following the Fairbairn blog anyway, but I thought I'd mention here that the One Name Study pages have been updated to reflect my last few months of research into how the earlier generations may connect, aided by dna evidence, and a couple of very helpful wills (with some more people from the latter that are not yet identified, so yet to be fitted into the jigsaw, as is the latest exact match to the line closest to the modal for all of the matching Borders FAIRBAIRNs).

30th: Never enough backups; New sources

Nothing like a computer problem to make you realise you never have enough backups, or enough of the right bits of the system.
The computer repair (see 13th, %^&#$ Microsoft security patch "installed" on the 4th) continues apace, but did involve a repair of my Win XP Pro operating system, which resulted in a(n ongoing) reload of my software, although MOST of the settings remained intact and the data is fine.
Could take some time as yet.
Meanwhile, over on the laptop where my genealogy remains intact....

Assorted recent contacts include a branch of the RICHARDSONs in Australia - the WOONTONs, so some updates will ensue in due course.
It also occurred to me that it was time to do an update to OneGreatFamily with whatever I'd changed since last time, which seems to be back about March.
In the process of reviewing what I was about to upload I did of course spot that several more updates were also likely, given the inclusion of a heap of Cheshire records on FamilySearch (which link is only to the Parish registers, other useful indexes exist), and the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941 on ancestry.
The former allowed me to firm up several dates for the family of Walter Maes TURNBULL & Rosetta COURT, as well as identifying their third child, whose presence was known from the 1911 census, but no further details (a Lionel Maes TURNBULL).
The latter, filmed indexes to probates, are a welcome addition to the data now available online, showing death dates and places, along with dates/places for administrations granted to whom (and estate values).
I've already had some unexpected finds in there - several Scottish probates, granted in London, where I would not have thought of looking.

And then today an email out of the blue providing details from the death cert. of Catherine BAIN, whose 1904 death cert, apparently said she had died Fuarry, Kirkwall, at least according to the chap who transcribed it for me.
Obviously not a local. I'm now informed that it actually reads the Quarry, Halkirk - which is a tad more understandable!

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.

Megsmire

Back in 1994 I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Nichol Forest in Cumberland, where my TURNBULL ancestors (great grandmother Ellen TURNBULL and her parents) came from, and to research them in the Carlisle Record Office.
While there I noted any likely looking information that may at some stage connect, even if I didn't know exactly how, where or when at the time.
One such was the 1842 will of Walter of Megsmire (which place I visited, or at least where I decided it probably was from census data). It was a very detailed will, and sexist (but of its time), dividing his moss up into sixths, with each of five sons getting one sixth but three daughters sharing the remaining sixth.
Walter survived to appear in the 1841 census as a 75 year old, but that didn't lead me to match him up to the known Nichol Forest families.
Yesterday however George, a descendant, provided me with a copy of Walter's 1842 death cert, which gave his age as 80, and an added impetus to try again, given that between then and now much more research on TURNBULL baptisms had occurred.
I now believe Walter to be the son of James TURNBULL & Betty BELL, and baptised in 1762 (at Canonbie). This makes George and I 7th cousins, which has taken us at least 9 years of (very) intermittent correspondence trying to prove our relationship via the TURNBULLs.

With both yesterday's news re Lester LESLIE aka Jack WALSH, and this TURNBULL reshuffle, my webpages have been updated, and the next batch of changes included in my WorldConnect database LornaHenderson (Walter has been shifted from LornaPotential, which has also had an update, as has the data I contribute to OneGreatFamily, which can include other families unrelated to me, but of relevance to the FAIRBAIRN and RUNCIMAN DNA projects and One Name Studies - FAIRBAIRN, RUNCIMAN).

I even had a rush of blood to my head and also gave the much less often updated Rootsweb pages a refresh. They don't contain as much supplementary information as my main pages, but will hopefully still exist long after I've ceased paying for my own domain name.