Curate with a hearing problem?

There seems to be a bit of a trend about oral traditions/hearing issues here at the moment.

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been republished to include the last few months worth of updates.
Many updates are the result of checking off research from the early days when so few sources were readily available - in particular some of the dates for the family of Anna Maria ANDREWS  and John Lidderdale PURDIE (having been prompted by a DNA match with a descendant), but also some of the BAINs.
The most recent set however were for the family of Richard MATTERS/METTERS and Elizabeth NORRISH thanks to a smartmatch from MyHeritage alerting me to a tree posted by a descendant.
From Devon to London to Argentina to Devon to New Zealand.
I've found a 5th cousin lives over the hill from me!
This exercise reminded me that I'd never satisfactorily resolved/tidied up the family of Ann daughter of Richard and Elizabeth, nor found the baptisms for the family.
The latter turned out to be because back when that research was first done, Non Conformist baptisms weren't as readily available. Now they are indexed on FamilySearch and Ancestry (at least), with the images available on TheGenealogist.co.uk
That solved I turned my attention back to Ann's marriage to John BORROWMAN.
Still no joy.
Has anyone found it?
The best I could come up with was John's marriage in 1848 to a Mary Ann MEADOWS.
Right father and father's occupation, date fits known info, ie Ann shown in the 1851 census where she was living at home with her parents, shown as Ann BORROWMAN, married, and Richard/Elizabeth's granddaughter Fanny Barford MATTERS aged 3 born Devonport in the household.
The first  child for Ann and John I know about is son John born 1853.
Fanny later shows up with John and Ann as daughter, Fanny BORROWMAN, but her marriage certificate to George BURDICK shows her father as _____ and herself as Fanny BORROWMAN nee MATTERS, spinster

So, can anyone claim a Mary Ann MEADOWS of full age, X her mark, father Richard MEADOWS, farmer, who married John BORROWMAN, carpenter Royal Navy residence at marriage HMS Wellesley?
Is this Ann MATTERS as recorded by a Curate unused to the local accent? But if so, why Mary Ann?

Twenty years is too long

I spend rather too long on trying to join dots on long dead, distant relatives at the expense of maintaining contact with the living.
I was forcibly reminded of this the other day when I finally figured out a long time puzzle in the family tree and went to share it with a descendant of John BAIN and Sinclair MANSON whom I knew would be interested *.
Too late. She had died in the too long an interval since we'd been in contact, which I was rather shocked to note was 20 years ago.
That did lead me into an, ongoing, update on the more modern branches of my BAIN relatives in New Zealand.
Two others lost in the interim (so far), but I did also re-connect with the last surviving representative of her generation - great to catch up, and to get another representative down from Donald BAIN and Maggie TAYLOR into the DNA tested category for posterity and future research into our Caithness inter-connections.
If interested in exploring your genetic connections, do consider a FamilyFinder test from FamilyTreeDNA, and if a descendant of Donald and Maggie, the autosomal DNA project FFLornaHen would love to hear from you.

* For anyone else who may be interested in the ancestry of John WARES, whose death index/certificate I'd not found all those years ago - the phrase in probate records "who died on or about (insert date here)", covers a multitude of sins, but I'd never found one two years out before.
In years past I'd given up looking through the fiche index for the matching death.
Now, we can simply click on a website.
There he was, right day and month, two years later than the probate stated he had died (yes it was a probate well after the event).
Turns out that his parents were John WARES and Janet BAIN in Staxigoe, Wick, Caithness.
FamilySearch tree has been updated to connect him to his parents, my WorldConnect Database LornaHenderson will be updated shortly.
No known connection, yet, between his mother Janet BAIN and his wife Jamesina BAIN's families.

Chromosome map update

Inspired by the GRAHAM dna story over the last two posts (and finally figuring out an easier way to produce the formatted data required), here's the current state of own chromosome maps.
I don't yet know whether any traces of this GRAHAM dna can be detected in my own genes (as opposed to my maternal aunts') as not all of those involved have uploaded to GEDMatch, yet, for the smaller segments to be checked.

The links to the respective surnames involved are to one of WikiTree's wonderful DNA features.
Just some of the more distant lines identified are added as labels on this post.

Paternal side map, ie my Dad's HENDERSON and DAVIDSON ancestry (Surnames involved):

Maternal side map, ie my Mum's ANDREWS and ROWE ancestry (Surnames involved):

Quite a few empty spots to go yet, not sure I'll live long enough to fill in all the gaps.

How would you like to be remembered?

This comment prompted by a headstone in the wonderful old Ballachly Cemetery in Latheron Parish, Caithness.
"Don(ald) Cumming (Sutherland) law clerk and genealogist 10.6.1889"
The bracketted text being my inclusion to clarify the abbreviated transcription recorded in the Caithness Monumental Inscriptions Pre 1855 published by The Scottish Genealogy Society 1992.

Donald and his parents and siblings, and my John BAIN and Catherine GRAY, are two of only 13 headstones surviving to be transcribed in this small cemetery.

See John BAIN's page for some scene setting and further pictures by scrolling down/searching the place index to find Ballachly and clicking on the little info icon.

Loose end tied up

Over the years I'd often idly wondered whether or not there was a connection between my BAIN ancestors from Caithness, and those of a BAIN family with origins supposedly from Caithness, who lived in my childhood district (Central Otago, NZ).
Failing a connection to mine, what about one to the other BAIN family who also arrived in Dunedin about the same time, give or take 10-20 years, in the 1860s/1870s?
Attempts at connecting the latter BAIN family, that of William and Jacobina (MANSON) BAIN to my BAINs had failed, but we did end up connecting them, distantly, by the MANSONs.

The Central Otago BAINs worked back to a William, butcher, brought up in Kaikourai, Dunedin, emigrating about 1857 from Wick with his parents.
His marriage certificate said his parents were a George & Jessie BAIN and the most likely candidate was George Traill BAIN in Dunedin, BUT George and Jessie hadn't married until 1864, which didn't really "fit".

This week an idle web search brought up an article in the Otago Daily Times (the Dunedin paper) about a BAIN family reunion last year for descendants of George Traill BAIN and included a snippet that George had emigrated with wife Elizabeth, dtrs Catherine and Margaret and son William, in 1862 on the Silisia, wife and an infant dying on the voyage. George's cousin Janet later coming out to look after the children, and then marrying George.
Bingo.
This was sufficient information to identify the likely family as being that of William BAIN & Catherine SUTHERLAND of Thurdistoft (1841) then Tain (Catherine, 1851).
A fellow member of the Caithness Family History Society's message board had provided their 1841 census details some years ago, and it included Margaret, Catherine and William, of the right ages.

After all that it doesn't look as if they're likely to match my BAINs of Latheron (Clashscribie), but it was a satisfying loose end tied up.

Match or not?

Margaret BAIN nee SUTHERLAND of Stockyard Hill has been included on my main webpages.
This was prompted by a MyHeritage message that someone interested in the SUTHERLAND side of this tree had confirmed the MyHeritage "SmartMatch" for 3 of the family, but rejected that for Margaret and her father.
Hopefully they'll look further and realise the error of their ways

8th: OAG twigs

Ancestry's Recent Member Connect Activity alerted me to someone researching the family of David & Johnina (BAIN) OAG, so I had a look to see what light might be shed on exactly how many children Johnina actually had.
Time is running out for first hand knowledge as apparently there is only one of the children still living.
As yet I have no corroboration that Christina married to a James someone with children Alec, Dora and Jean, and supposed sister Janet married to a John someone with children Jean, John, James, do actually belong in this family.
Wonder if Janet is actually half sister Janet Flett BAIN instead? To date I've not sighted the latter beyond 1901.
Can anyone shed further light on this?

Few more twigs

My BAIN descendant chart has been republished, both because it has a few more twigs on it thanks to Caroline who kindly sent me the Pulteneytown (Wick, Caithness) 1911 census for Archibald and Elizabeth (FORBES) MILLER, and because it has now been updated to the newer interactive expandable format I'm gradually converting most charts to.
This inspired me to also tidy up Archibald's siblings by checking his father's 1911 census.
Supposedly 2 of the sons & 1 dtr (Jessie) were in Canada when he (Archibald Snr) died in 1925.
As the 1911 shows 8 children, 3 no longer living, and by 1925 another son had died (WWI), that only leaves Archibald and William for Canada, as Donald was in Scotland.
More digging needed.

23rd: Another twig in Canada

Heard from Natalie this week, filling me in on what happened to Jane Henderson BAIN.
She and James GUNN emigrated to Canada around 1920, settling in Tantallon, Saskatchewan.
More details to come, but that's another line from John and Catherine (GRAY) BAIN whose fate is now know.
Updates will appear in my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson in due course.

Most work lately has been on FAIRBAIRNs, trying to resolve the unresolveable - piecing together early families with too little information, and in the current instance, seeing if the view of the Earlston/Smailholm/Legerwood world that some others have that conflicts with my view, can be resolved using the dna view of the families of the time.
Think we're going to have to resort to mitochondrial dna to add to the view of that world, if and only if, we can find direct female line descendants willing to help. See the FAIRBAIRN blog.

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!

21st: SUTHERLAND Treasure Trove

My "Originals" sub site has been updated to include the beginnings of the publication of a treasure trove of family memorabilia received courtesy of a very kind lady in Melbourne.
She had been clearing a relative's house and found a large number of items belonging to a family she did not recognise as hers. Having determined that they really were no connection to her, she did some web searching for anyone researching the family, that of Alexander Bain SUTHERLAND and his sister Jessie.
(It is believed that her relative was a friend of Sandy's and that he had helped clear his house after his death, and Sandy had obviously done the same for his sister Jessie).
Her search found my web pages. So I now have a wonderful box full of family bits and pieces that most certainly bring the family of John and Jane (McKENZIE) SUTHERLAND to life rather more than previously.
I had already benefitted in my research on this family by having a friendly genealogist in the Shetlands contacting people who may have known, or known of them, so I was already one step ahead of the bare names, dates and places, but this is magic.
Heaps of postcards, some letters, some official documents, many photos (of course, most unnamed, but several look identifiable).
With only a very few of the documents scanned and examined for clues, I have already been able to pinpoint which of the many Jessie SUTHERLANDs heading for Australia she was (having her passport certainly helped, although I'm not so sure Jessie SUTHERLAND would have approved of the use of her passport photo, I know that I would hate to have mine published!), found the death of Jessie's uncle, John McKENZIE, son of James & Janet (BAIN) McKENZIE), identified the wife of Matthew Williamson SUTHERLAND, and finally determined which of them was the schoolteacher.
The Shetlands memory banks were sure that one of the family was a teacher, and assorted people assigned this occupation to different siblings.
It was Jamie, there's a letter from him to Sandy dated Nov 1947, from the Mertoun Schoolhouse, St Boswells, Roxburghshire.
It will all take quite some time to sort through.
Many of the postcards are from all over the place. Looks like Jessie collected them, and people obliged by sending one from wherever they were.
I've already spotted one of Cockingford, down in Devon, which can hardly have had a connection to this family, but most certainly does connect to my Dawe family!
And one of a train stuck in a huge snow drift in Thurso - wonder if the current winter is similar?

19th: SHEARERs in Canada

The BAIN descendants chart has been republished to include a few more of the family of Catherine McKENZIE and James SHEARER who emigrated to Toronto in 1887/8.
I've just noticed that she has never been included in my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson, so this will be remedied next update (dtr of Janet BAIN and James McKENZIE Clashmaharribeg, Lybster).
Still two of them to be accounted for, a Lizzie found in the 1881 census but not later (and there was an Elizabeth Jane born several years later in Canada), and identification of the informant for Catherine's death.
By elimination she is probably dtr Janet as Mrs James BRUCE, but I haven't found her marriage as yet. Whichever daughter she was, she was living at 96A Ashburnham Rd Toronto in Jul 1929.

14th: OneWorldTree - check the sources

Oh the joys of "researchers" attaching people to their trees on the strength of Ancestry's hints without checking the sources.
I've just noticed that OneWorldTree, Ancestry's attempt to do what OneGreatFamily do rather better, has assigned a son Robert (born 1811 Anderston) to my John and Catherine (GRAY) BAIN, and he now appears in several trees, many of which erroneously include rather a lot of the descendants of John and Catherine as their relations.
I checked why Ancestry seem to think he belongs to John and Catherine and see that if you examine the sources, they've taken the data from two tree submissions, one being the Rootsweb tree of mine that they pinched many years back (and which I can no longer access to correct in any way shape or form - for the current version, see WorldConnect db LornaHenderson). That tree shows a male born 1826 to John and Catherine.
The other tree source is that of a Robert born 1818 Anderston Scotland to a John and Isabella (MacDONALD) and married to a Barbara FERGUSON, and dying in Polk, Minnesota in 1904.
Whereas John and Catherine have a large gap in their children that he could fit in, the Anderston Scotland Robert has siblings born in 1820 in Anderston when John and Catherine had Elizabeth up in Caithness, so it seems rather unlikely he fits with John and Catherine at all.
Check the sources!

Shifting Alistair

One result of the correspondence with Sheena was a re-examination of the family of Diana Berry BAIN and Donald SWANSON. (Their son John SWANSON married a relative of Sheena's).
My initial data on the family had come with two sons for Donald and Diana, John and Alister. I'd never been able to confirm Alister's existence, and have now decided that he is probably Alexandra Mowat SWANSON, John's son instead, as Sheena advised he was also known as Alistair.
Sheena's family story also assigns a son John George Waters SWANSON to John and Alexandrina (Alice) SWANSON, John being Diana's son.
The 1916 Manitoba census does show a John G SWANSON in the family of John and Alice SWANSON, who may or may not be this family - the doubt being that Alex M seems to have turned into an Alice T.
I found a London Gazette entry (Nov 1945) mentioning a Capt John George Waters SWANSON of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps being recognised for gallant and distinguished services in Italy who seems a likely match.

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been updated to include the latest round of updates, as has OneGreatFamily.

more buses

I think I've commented before about the bus saying: nothing for ages, then along come two at once?
I've been working on a FAIRBAIRN family with Eckford connections to try and find candidates for the FAIRBAIRN dna project.
My attention strayed, as it often does, to a different Robert FAIRBAIRN I'd found in the wonderful London records now more readily available.
One of the sons was from Yoxford, Suffolk, a place I'd never heard of, and obviously none of the census enumerators had either as it variously appeared against his name as Yufford, Foxford, as well as the more often listed, and presumably correct, Yoxford.
Then along came an email (or two, or three) from Sheena about a mutual interest we have in the family of David & Johnina (BAIN) Oag. Sheena and I aren't related, but are both connected to this family, one way or another.
So, once again, I checked off what additional info had come my way, and looked to see what else might be found.
This time, I found a new ancestry tree had been posted dealing with a branch of these BAINs that I knew had New Zealand connections but had never tracked down.
I have now confirmed the marriage of the additional NZ BAIN link, that of Albert Victor KEABLE and Hughina Bain MATHIESON.
Not entirely sure how ever they came to met up and marry in Caithness as Albert gave his address as of Heveringham, Yoxford, Suffolk.
With a more accurate spelling of Albert's surname, I am now in contact with one of the descendants, and in the process have tied up several other loose ends.

Back to the BAINs and their multitudinous descendants

Bobby has been in touch with a descendant of William MOWAT and Alexandrina BAIN, so I had a quick check on what new snippets might be found.
Filled in the line down to this newfound rellie, and also found several marriages for the rest of William and Alexandrina's family.
BAIN descendant chart updated, as will be my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson sometime soon.
The only new surname that added to the tree was BURRETT, all the rest of the newfound spice were the usual Caithness suspects: GUNN, DUNNET, SUTHERLAND, ROSIE.
Investigated the ROSIE a little further, and sure enough there's a connection.
The Alexander ROSIE I've just added in as husband of Margaret MOWAT, was the son of Angus & Jean (BREMNER) ROSIE.
Angus had a brother George (their parents are Alexander ROSIE and Elizabeth SHEARER), who married Annie SWANSON. A dtr Jessie married Alexander John BAIN, another of our BAIN twigs.
These linkages will show up next WorldConnect update.

28th: Continuing in update mode

My main web pages have been fully reloaded, others will follow as time permits.

Full set of BAIN dna results now in. Too early to tell if we have an accurate DNA signature for the line of John BAIN (married Catherine GRAY) as there are no matches to other tested BAIN families (see full BAIN dna project).
We only have one representative for our BAIN line and would very much like a second line to be represented to confirm this dna signature.

BAINs

Bobby's preliminary dna results are in, so DNA Surnames now includes the first BAIN kit, yet another of my main lines represented.
Way too early days to say where that will lead, but no immediate matches to others in the project already.

See also the other DNA project diaries to keep track of what's changed there, mainly the FAIRBAIRN one as several pedigrees have been added over time, and more results are now in, adding to the jigsaw of the Borders FAIRBAIRNs.

8th: One less OAG

A descendant of David and Johnina (BAIN) OAG has found me, and provided some updates for her branch of the family (many thanks Lindsay).
This revived my interest in attempting to verify, yet again, exactly how many children Johnina actually had.
I have been told 13 survived out of 22, and have (had) 22 names/dates, but I haven't managed to verify 3 of them. This latest contact makes me think that John born 8 Mar 1910 is one and the same as Jackie supposedly born 15 Mar 1911 (unverifed), especially when you realise that Hugh was verifed as born 15 May 1911 (bdm 43/145) and the only John reg. 1911 in Wick was 43/74, so unlikely to be a twin. The clincher for me being that Jackie died 1961 and the only death registration that matches is a John of the right age. So, my version of the family has shrunk by one child, and I'm still trying to verify the births of a Christina, supposedly married to a James someone, and of Janet supposedly married to John someone.

Any advance on 21 for poor Johnina, and married names for Matilda, Christina, Janet?

Bobby also provided some updates to descendants of John and Elizabeth (CLYNE) BAIN.

Of all of the above very little will be visible on the web pages, apart from the BAIN chart, which has been updated.

Addenda - BAINs for a change

Met up with one of my NZ BAIN "cousins" today for the first time. Apart from it being good to actually meet, it was also rather interesting to find out how we were connected to his wife via a different branch of Caithness BAINs.
A couple of years ago they had met one of her relations at Spittal. Donald had mentioned blacksmiths and McBEATH connections, so I assumed it would be the South Calder BAINs, and so it turned out. John BAIN (1799-1882) who married Helen McBEATH, whose family connect several times over to my/our BAINs in the GRAY and TAYLOR families. Further details on those that connect to my forest can be found on my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson.