Nephew Dodds

On my Round TUIT is a task to work through Nana's photo album scanning the photos, and publishing them, some for identification purposes.
The album itself has seen better days,

but does hold a treasure trove of photos, mostly from the DAVIDSON/BAIN side of the family, some even identified, albeit well after the event, by my late Aunt Isabel HENDERSON. These notes were invaluable to me when I began, all those years ago, to try and work out who on earth was who, and where they all came from.
Whereas the BAIN and HENDERSON side of the family has some chance of finding others in NZ with the same photos and some family knowledge, I am the sole remaining DAVIDSON descendant from the two brothers (Adam and James) who emigrated in the late 1870s, all of their siblings remaining in Scotland, with only Agnes (below) moving away - to Gateshead.
The next generations spread further afield with representatives in Canada and Australia as well.

The photo selected today was labelled as a nephew of Grandfather Davidsons named DODDS.

Research had indicated that he was therefore likely to be a son of William DODDS and Agnes Robertson DAVIDSON who married at Chirnside (Berwickshire) in 1869 where the known sons are James (born Chirnside, 1870), John (b. Chirnside, 1871) or William (b. abt 1877 Gateshead).
The only other obviously identified photo of this branch is of a family group

labelled as "Mr & Mrs DODDS & family Grandfather Davidsons relations", with the reverse showing the photographer as Woodcock & Robinson.
This same photographic studio was responsible for other unlabelled photographs in the album  (same backdrop) that seem likely to be the prior generation of either the FAIRBAIRN or DAVIDSON forebears of my Great Grandad Adam DAVIDSON, and it is assumed, his sister in the photograph above, Agnes Robertson DODDS nee DAVIDSON.
BUT, those two children look further apart in age than James and John would be, and if the younger is actually a girl and Rosina, where's her other older brother? (All survived to adulthood.)
Wonder why there's no photo of daughter Rosina Hunter DODDS (b. 1874, Chirnside)?

Anyone recognise these photos?

Here's a WikiTree descendant chart from John DAVIDSON, father of Adam and Agnes.
Anyone interested in contributing to WikiTree to update the family knowledge would be most welcome, registration is free.

Agnes not Isabella & a twofer

While checking off yet more data before publishing yet another update, I strayed back onto my shortest family tree, the DAVIDSONs (that of my great grandfather Adam) and decided to check whether or not I would have more luck pinning a few more twigs down.

Just as I picked a correct death cert. from the options available on ScotlandsPeople, in came an email.

This is a line I've not looked at for at least 3 years, probably more, and many years ago the entire tree consisted of some 30 people until the Australian contingent popped out of the woodwork.
The email was from one of the Australian contingent, a descendant of the sister of the chap whose death I had just found!

Only managed to add about 3 descendants and 2 wives into the tree on two of the lines remaining in Scotland but several more fates have been found, including that of Isabella, daughter of John DAVIDSON and Isabella FORD.  The family story was that Margaret Greig DAVIDSON had emigrated to meet up with her sister, and the sister had been very tentatively identified as Isabella. Now however, with the increasing availability of records, the sister is more likely to be Agnes given there's one of the right age and birthplace emigrating to Queensland towards the end of 1891, especially as Isabella's death was found in Chirnside in 1909 - immediately preceding her aunt Mary JEFFREY nee DAVIDSON's on the same page - so two for the price of one!

At least John was a DAVIDSON

Another set of DNA results just in, the representative for my DAVIDSON line of John DAVIDSON of Chirnside, whom I've suspected of being illegitimate given that his 1900 death cert merely gives a mother's name (Ann COLLINS), and no father at all.
At least it does look like he was a DAVIDSON as there a couple of low level matches. Nothing to get excited about unless the matches' upgrade to 67 markers shows a great match, or a paper trail can be worked out to link an 1841 Earsdon, Northumberland DAVISON with presumed Scottish forbears, to my brick wall, John, born abt 1817 Chirnside, Berwickshire.
The DAVIDSON DNA project chap pointed out that our non-Davidson surname matches had a lot of Chisholm's, adding that this would suggest a ancient connection before the advent of surnames. The Chisholm's according to legend saved the life of one of the Scottish kings in the 14th century and were granted land in Inverness-shire. This area in Scotland was also the home of the Davidson Clan or Clan Dhai or MacDaibheid.

John has been my brickwall for many years, and some years ago I decided to see if the story that Nana told her little boy (my Dad Les), that the people living on Conroy's Gully on the back road into Alexandra, with the huge old walnut tree, were our DAVIDSON cousins.
The first part of the story was indeed true, yes a family by the name of DAVIDSON used to live there. Memory has played false with me however, in that I remember that my research led me back to an Aberdeen family, but no, it looks like they were of Muthill, Perthshire instead, with absolutely no obvious connection to John, so Nana was telling porkies.

Looking at the family again today reminded me that the research turned up another connection to the Bounty in that both this DAVIDSON family, and my Great Aunt's husband, Doug FLETCHER, were descendants of the THOMSON family, early settlers in Port Chalmers, Otago, NZ. This THOMSON family leading back to the HEYWOOD family of H.M.S. Bounty fame.