15th: John found in action?

(Refer to previous posts dated the 10th and the 3rd)
Ross and I have been mulling over the implications of the newfound baptism of John to John Fairbairn of Grenville, and reviewing what we do and  don't know, and what the dna evidence tells us.
Then along came a copy of a document from the Fairbairn file at the archives of Wellington County, Ontario (thank you Duncan, you don't know what you started!).  It was undated, and unsourced, but was obviously a tree that I'd been given extracts from previously many years ago.
(I've included the tree on the DNA Project Patriarchs page, along with links to the dna project supplementary pages where you can find some commentary on the erroneous family linkages shown).
The archivist advises that it was catalogued in 1994, and submitted by a Nora CARLAW of Elora, now deceased.
From the document she would appear likely to be a descendant of David and Charity (WALKER) FAIRBAIRN.
Whereas the tree contains many errors of fact in linking up earlier generations, it has provided two very significant clues with regard to the family of what we had previously shown as David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, namely that Jane's husband was a John, not a David, and gave his date and cause of death.

All of which has led me to republish the web pages for the following two Johns:
John, son of Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN, and
John, son of "John or David" and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN.

You may be interested in the discussion on the former John's web page.

I haven't yet bitten the bullet and merged the families, as there's still the puzzle over William and Aylsie (ELLIOT) FAIRBAIRN, given as parents to the William who married Jean (WANLESS), to re-evaluate the evidence for.

As the notes for John state, it would be really really great to find a proven direct FAIRBAIRN male line descendant of the families concerned for the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project to see what additional weight can be given to this re-evaluation:
"John or David" & Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN
Archibald & Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN
David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN
Walter & Agnes (ROBINSON) FAIRBAIRN

10th: What do you make of this?

What would you interpret the forenames of the above squiggle as?

He is enumerated in the 1852 Hull, Quebec census, a few entries below Jane FAIRBURN (aka FAIRBAIRN) with her assumed sons James (later married Mary SMITH, Jane's niece via her sister Agnes SMITH nee WILLIAMSON) and John (married Sarah DAUGHTERTY and moved to Stillwater, Washington).

We'd like to prove that he is Jane's son, hopefully with an extant death cert or obit. that conclusively states whether Jane was married to John or David FAIRBAIRN.

New information found (see re John's son John) has led to a re-evaluation of supposedly known information for this family.

With records indicating that there was both a John and a David in the area, and assorted records assigning their assumed families indiscriminately between the two, and often with the wife for both being Jane WILLIAMSON, it's been an interesting exercise.

The jury is most definitely still out, but tending to Jane being married to a John, who seems to have died in 1847, from a fall from a horse if newly received information is accurate.

Children Agnes, James and John rather look like they belong to John and Jane, with possibly Archibald (marr. Margaret GRAHAM) and William George (marr. Sarah FARRELL) belonging to David and wife unknown..

David marr. to Charity WALKER could belong to either, but I'm currently leaning towards him being John and Jane's!

Anyone with hard facts about these families? The family information is rather contradictory, one even throwing an Archie in as married to Jane WILLIAMSON.

3rd: David or John revisited

What was the Latest Update, re John and Sarah (DAUGHTERTY) FAIRBAIRN back in March rather looks like it might have just been upturned.
Today I stumbled across a Quebec 1834 baptism (born 1833) that just has to be him, and may well overturn my sceptism as to the accuracy of his marriage and death certs.
I'm mulling over the options and implications, but for at the moment, he stays as a son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN. (My currently favoured revised theory is that there's a brother John for David and William.)

Re the blog entry for 27th Nov: the Flora DAWE mentioned didn't marry either a COMBELLACK or a CHARLES, so it's back to the drawing board.

And for those interested in COMBELLACKs, I've kickstarted a COMBELLACK Surname DNA Project to help any of you wishing to explore further the inter-relationships of assorted COMBELLACK trees.
Supporting web pages etc yet to be developed, but the basic join link is active.

13th: DNA Match, Hoquiam triangle

Updated John A FAIRBAIRN's page to reflect the latest findings from the DNA project - check the project diary - which is showing a good match between John's descendant and that of his uncle William. So it looks like my theory that John, despite all the varying ages and birth places, and two misleading certificates (marriage and death), that he really is the son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN.
So, that's the relationship between the Hoquiam triangle proven, even if we don't know how the Sunderland side fits in.
Also updated the Neverending story, including changing the 11 years to 13, given it's been there a couple of years now.

Marriage found; dna*2 day

Ross's hunch, back in 2003, from the 1841/2 Grenville census, that David, son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN was married earlier than to Charity, looks accurate. At that time the census merely showed how many people of what sex, age and marital status were in the household, and it implied that David and a young wife were in the house, although David and Charity didn't marry until 1845, and her age didn't match that of the other married female in the house besides Jane, David's mother.
While looking for something else, as so often happens, I stumbled upon a marriage in 1841 of a David FAIRBAIRN and Prudential ARNOLD in the Presbyterian Church records in the Drouin colleciton showing they were married at "Grenville, Ottawa" by William MAIR, Minister of Grenville & Chatham, witnesses were John BLAIR and John TOPLAND.
In the same set of records were David and Charity's marriage, and the baptism of their son David.

The FAIRBAIRN DNA project is looking set to examine more closely the "cousin" relationships that have so taxed my brain and genealogical inventiveness. William has joined as a rep. of the line of John A FAIRBAIRN Snr of Stillwater, whose son John A of Hoquiam is the one these relationships were all reported to: Angus s/o the above David and Charity (WALKER) F.; Albert who emigrated from Sunderland to Hoquiam, an unlikely choice about 100 years after John Snr's parents had left Scotland; and Walter to Clarissa.
How I currently see these relationships can probably best be viewed starting at the dna oriented descendant chart for David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, and from the charts listed on William's dna page, not that his results are in yet, as the kit has only just been ordered, patience (not one of my strong points)!

It is obviously a dna day today. We now have a DAVIDSON representative who has been enrolled in the DAVIDSON project (not one of mine), that just might help us break thru the brick wall of finding more about John DAVIDSON. Although I strongly suspect he was the illegitimate son of the mother Ann COLLINS shown on his death cert, his father was more as like a DAVIDSON given the naming conventions of the time.

29th: When NOT to believe certificates?

Seem mostly to be dna-ing of late, trying to figure out how on earth the matched FAIRBAIRN families are likely to connect.
As a result of a lot more digging around in the OPRs, earlier parts of trees, and old mysteries. On the latter, I have bitten the bullet and decided that despite what two certificates say, the John FAIRBAIRN of Stillwater just has to be the son of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN.
This John is the chap whose descendant Walter claimed to be a cousin to his wife Clarissa, a descendant of David and Charity FAIRBAIRN, His marriage cert stated his father was Johnathan, and his death cert. gave his parents as John and Agnes (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, and he was most unhelpful in that I don't think any two records over his life gave consistent birth years and places, with his birth year ranging from c 1833 thru to 1841. I've documented my conclusions and reasoning on his newly created web page.
The FAIRBAIRN introductory page has had a bit of a revamp, reorder, and some more charts included (some descendants of the dna matched families).
Check the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project Diary for what changed as far as dna pages go.

What defines a "cousin"?

Earliest known ancestor for Walter is a John FAIRBAIRN, his son was John A Sr, married to Charity SMITHSON.
Clarissa is a descendant of David & Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, David being brother of William (marr. Jean WANLESS) FAIRBAIRN (see FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project for link to Archibald (marr. Alison CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN).
Census data shows Walter as "cousin" to Clarissa's father David, but also David as "cousin" to Walter's father William George.
Yesterday I stumbled upon a reference to papers donated to the University of North Dakota by a Lawrence D FAIRBAIRN, born Montana and decided to investigate. He turned out to be the son of Angus U(rquhart?) FAIRBAIRN, and therefore a descendant of David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRNs. Further web searches led me to assorted Eatonville papers of Washington State that reported the daily goings on of the community, including that Mr and Mrs John A FAIRBAIRN of Hoquiam had been visiting, John being stated as cousin of Angus.
No surprise there, John and the above Walter being related, as were Angus and Clarissa.
But when I added a search of my previous correspondence about Hoquiam into the mix, I was reminded that a couple of years ago Joe and I had swapped info on the family of John in Hoquiam, and Joe had said that his grandfather Albert's 1938 obit stated that John A in Hoquiam was his cousin. Albert had emigrated from Liverpool to Hoquiam early 1900s, his line works back to a Robert who married an Elizabeth TAYLOR in Newcastle on Tyne 1811 but came from Sunderland himself.
Given Robert's son John is demonstrably in England until 1851 at least, he isn't a candidate for the John A family.
So "cousins" is obviously a loosely defined term by current usage, and presents an interesting puzzle to solve.
FAIRBAIRN web page updated to include a descendant chart for the Cousins of the Cousins.
Once again, any dna project takers?

Mar 7, 2008: FAIRBAIRN DNA match

What an eventful day, genealogically speaking. Yesterday the preliminary 12 marker results arrived in for the 3rd kit of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project and to my surprise, showed a 12/12 match with both of the other 2 participants, neither of whom had ever been seriously considered as relations.
Sure, I'd speculated at times that, despite what others had said, that the William who married Jane WANLESS and the David who married Jane WILLIAMSON, who had emigrated to Quebec, might be the children of my Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER, purely on the basis of naming patterns of their children, and approximate ages, but proof was definitely lacking.
Then today, the rest of the results arrived showing a full 37/37 match with the descendant of Archibald and Mary (GRIERSON) FAIRBAIRN, and a 36/37 match with a descendant of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN.
I've spent a lot of today re-examining assorted claims and OPRs and will soon update the patriarchs page of the Surname project to reflect my findings, combining them as best I can with details reported to me, leaving exactly where they fit into the overall tree for another day, and possibly an upgraded dna test or two.
I'm still very drawn to attaching them to an Archibald as a father, but it would now have to be the one married to Mary GRIERSON instead. A 1790 date for William would fit in between two known children both baptised St Boswells but at different farms, and a 1799 date for David would definitely fit in between 1793 Margaret baptised when they were at Thornylaw, St Boswells, and 1804 George by when they had moved to Macksidemoor, Southdean.
As to the rumoured/believed connection to Sir William FAIRBAIRN's family via his schoolmaster uncle....
I believe that schoolmaster to be the William married to Margaret SCOTT. He was teaching at Bowden from 1778 to 1789 and from 1792 thru 1798 children are now being baptised in Galashiels. This latter period would fit the dates when Sir William was supposedly learning book-keeping from his Uncle in Gala.
In addition, this William looks very like the 53 yr old buried in the Galashiels Old Kirk Cemetery in 1810, which date coincides very nicely with the baptism of the William, son of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON, Apr 1756, Smailholm.
All in all, an eventful day indeed. It is wonderful to know that the work I have sporadically done on the descendants of William and David in Quebec has not been in vain, and that they are indeed all relations, just not sure where yet! Maybe one day soon we'll also figure out how come Walter A FAIRBAIRN is a cousin to his wife Clarissa. I now have more of a vested interest in the answer to that.
In the meantime, I've updated the FAIRBAIRN introductory page to include charts for William and David.
The other charts will also now include some new twigs for the family of John FAIRBAIRN and Bessie FLINT, and Robert FAIRBAIRN and Agnes LANDRETH/LAUNDRESS found while looking for others.

Feb 10, 2008: The EYRE affair?

Obviously a good year for FAIRBAIRNs. Having recently added George FAIRBAIRN and Janet PURDIE into the extended FAIRBAIRN family, I had found most of their children in assorted records, but not the dtr Margaret. All was explained. Here in NZ, about 3/4 hr drive away, is a descendant who has just contacted me, Margaret and her new husband emigrated to NZ shortly after their marriage in Melrose, Rox. The other Archibald FAIRBAIRN chart updated. Newly acquired surnames include: WILLIAMSON, EYRE, STENHOUSE, BRADBURY, THORNTON, in Dunedin, Auckland, and Wellington.

I've also been contacted by a MATTERS descendant in Washington State. Not yet exactly sure how she connects back to Joseph MATTERS and Mary CUDLIP, but that's her line apparently.