RICHARDSON/ANDERSON

Confirmed that James RICHARDSON did indeed marry Frances/Fanny ANDERSON, 1891, Glendale. Findmypast has a wonderful feature that you can tick so that name variants are searched for. Fanny appears not to be a recognised variant for Frances. Sure enough, as Susan has pointed out to me, James and Fanny did marry - in 1891, District of Glendale. Many thanks.

RICHARDSON twig confirmed

Ralph's facebook activity prompted me to take a look at some of the unconfirmed RICHARDSON descendants in my database which led me to James RICHARDSON, son of Adam & Margaret (CRANSTON) RICHARDSON. For quite some time I'd had him pegged as the unmarried shepherd in Northumberland in 1881, 1891, and the one in 1901 married to a Frances with a dtr Sarah. I'm now happy that he is the right James as in 1911 (at Cornhill on Tweed) he states that he was born Oxnam Row, Roxburghshire, instead of the less informative Scotland or Roxburghshire, Scotland in the other censuses. Bit confused about his wife's surname though. Two ancestry trees have her as Frances/Fanny ANDERSON but I can, as yet, only spot a marriage in the right timeframe (1911 census) to a Frances Louise HODGSON, and also as yet, no obvious marriage of a Frances ANDERSON to a HODGSON to account for that, nor any earlier sightings of a Frances HODGSON of the right age/birthplace.

3rd: Bits and pieces

Still rather busy on real life, but making a tad more time for little discoveries.

Checked my GenesReunited hot matches for the first time in ages recently and found several new connections, if not relations.
One from Shona led me back to my SINTON tree, adding in a Thomas STRATTON as the husband of Agnes LAURENCE and providing two children.
This of course prompted me to do a quick check around to see what else might be available on the surrounding family since I last looked some years ago.
Family now mostly brought up to 1901, with a few of the spice added, and an all too common death from typhoid found (Euphemia, who had married boiler maker master David ANDERSON and was living in Camlachie, Glasgow).

My main web pages SINTONs of Southdean descendant chart has been updated, as have the charts and page associated with Francis Douglas SINTON, one of the William and Isabella (SCOTT) SINTONs, whose mother was one of my WIGHTs.
Interestingly enough, his wife Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN has also recently popped back into research view as I was looking at her RUNCIMAN tree the other day trying to sort out who where her grandfather Thomas (married Alison CURRIE) belonged (before I realised my SINTON connection to the tree).
My conclusion, unproven, was that Thomas was the son of John RUNCIMAN and May WEATHERLY, given that Margaret's mum was a Margery Weatherly RUNCIMAN, and there's a Thomas born to a couple of that name in the right timeframe and place.

FAIRBAIRNs published

Published the updated John & Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN dna oriented patriarchs chart in the hope of finding willing participants to represent their respective lines.
Also check the FAIRBAIRN DNA project diary.

FAIRBAIRN descendants wanted...

Still plugging away trying to find living descendants on a couple of FAIRBAIRN lines to try and prove my theory of a relationship to Robert FAIRAIRN and Kate SCOTT of Napanee/Richmond Ontario and to my Archibald etc.
Anyone out there a descendant of the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Jane BLAKEY? From Northumberland to Ontario.
Son Archibald was in McMurrich Township, Parry Sound, another, Robert FAIRBAIRN married Martha HUSTON and settled at Vegreville, Alberta.
Another line of interest is that of William FAIRBAIRN and Katherine MORGAN.
Known sons: Archibald Goodison (married Lucinda ROBINSON and Margaret AULD, lived North Fredericksburg for a while); Robert (married Alberta GARRISON and last sighted in Qu'appelle, Saskatchewan); William (married Minnie ANDERSON), still in Richmond, Lennox & Addington, Ontario in 1901; Wellington.

Devon inter-related families strike again.
When I started checking further on the TOOP family (see 21st), I realised that further back up the TOOP tree most people with this lot in their online trees seem to think there's a John TOOP and Sarah WILLCOCK(S). This Sarah being of an age to the the dtr of Walter WILLCOCK and Mary MORRELL, and therefore more of my BARTER descendants. The BARTER connection being dependent on the correct id of the Ann BARTER who married Walter's father Walter.
Along the way I found another OXENHAM married in, and lost Thomas Reed DAWE. Anyone seen him after his 1872 marriage to either Ellen DAWE or Mary Gill WILLCOCK? This Mary Gill WILLCOCK is the dtr of Jane OXENHAM and Henry WILLCOCK, butcher of Horrabridge, and I stumbled on the family because Richard TOOP was with them in the 1851 census.
The other groom in the 1872 marriage page was a Henry LANGMAN, but at the moment I cannot find who married whom via census or death data.

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.