This is an attempt to let interested people know what is likely to have changed in my web pages and assorted online databases, eg at WorldConnect (LornaHenderson and LornaPotential ).

A copy of this in blog format, where you may add comments, corrections etc can be found in the GenBlog link above (and is more often updated, this version is in catch-up mode). An advantage of that format is also the ability to filter by "labels" ie the surname and place keywords I try to remember to put under each post, and also that I get notified if a comment is posted, unlike the guestbook.

I make no pretence of this log being a complete list of changes, just the points I remember to update these pages with. Items listed most recent first, and also exist on my GenBlog, which can be subscribed to as a feed, and filtered for topics of interest.
Love to hear about any relations, additions or corrections.

Jun 2009

13th: I was stuck on my TURNBULLs, and had been contacted by a chap with an interest in Peter's GRAINGERS (in America rather than Worcester by this stage). Names like Canute, Ebissa, Quendrid, are rather more interesting to search, and excepting the vagaries of indexed versions of their names, mostly findable. Peter's GRAINGER pages have therefore been updated with a few more twigs on the charts.

11th: Anyone still thinking about joining in the fascination of dna projects but put off by the cost, now is an excellent time to jump in.
Family Tree DNA are offering a great discount on their Y-DNA37 test, throwing in an mtDNA test for less than the usual price of just the Y-DNA37 and significantly less than the usual price for this combined test.
37 markers is a good entry level for genealogical purposes, and can always be upgraded to 67 at a later stage if interesting matches ensue.
Find your surname of choice, and join the relevant project.
The ones I have an interest in are all on the DNA Projects Portal, but a search at either the World Families Network pages, or Family Tree DNA will give you more options.

10th:Confirmation received that Douglas Maes TURNBULL did indeed marry Madeline Hilda IZON in Hartford, Northwich, Chester, in 1914.
Didn't have a great deal of success with any subsequent sightings, other than a possibility of her being the Mrs Douglas TURNBULL arriving back into the UK from Montreal, with 3 yr old son Eric, UK address being Hempstead, Herts, future inteded residence "foreign".
Thought a name like IZON, father John Parnell IZON, might be reasonably easy to trace back a little way out of curiousity, but there are rather too many of the latter around for any certainty of identification.

8th: 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.

May 2009

30th: Prompted by Karen's STEPHENSON letters I realised I'd not looked for the more modern day twigs of the TURNBULL family in the 1911 census.
Only had partial success with that, but did obtain several sightings of Sir Robert's son Noel and wife Ivy Florence on assorted passenger lists travelling to/from Marseilles, Madiera and England over the years (and finally found Ivy's surname - Burborough).
Have not yet determined whether or not Robert's brother Walter Maes TURNBULL's family has any surviving descendants but should shortly know whether or not Walter's son Douglas Maes TURNBULL is the Douglas marrying a Madeline Hilda IZON in 1914 or not.

28th: Just like the buses! Nothing in the guestbook for a while, then 2 postings come along at once.
One from Karen drawing my attention to a book of memoirs of David Stephenson, '50 years on the London and North Western Railway' (McCorquodale & Co. Limited, Cardington St, Euston, N.W. 1891, ed Leopold Turner), which she had found on-line. Included in it are several letters to the Rev. Robert TURNBULL from David Stephenson, and also some mention of "Bob" the lodger with the Stephenson family in Nuneaton. That takes some family knowledge to translate! "Bob" is the Rev. Robert TURNBULL's son Robert, later Sir Robert TURNBULL, Superintendent of the Line for the LNWR.
In the 1871 census he was indeed shown as a visitor (19 yr old railway clerk) in the household of David STEVENSON (49 yr old railway manager). David's family included a 6mth old daughter Edith, Karen's great grandmother. Small, inter-connected, world.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention Karen, look forward to hearing if there are more unpublished letters that may have survived between the STEPHENSONs and the TURNBULLs.
The other was from Karina in Winnipeg letting me know what had happened to a twig of the inter-connected ROWE/DAWE tree. Updates to the charts will appear next time I publish.

17th:Realised that in my last web page update that I'd forgotten to check and upload the page for John FAIRBAIRN of New York. Now remedied, as is the incorrect chart that was attached to Archibald and Jane (BLAKEY) FAIRBAIRN.

Currently working on Emma dtr of William George FAIRBAIRN and Sarah Ann FARRELL. This being prompted by Betsy trying yet again to find out what happened to her William George, and my finding this William's death cert in Michigan instead.
I'd been putting off investigating Emma further for quite some time, as the data I had was contradictory. It still is. What a woman. I'd previously discounted an id of her as being the one married to John Noble CARRUTHERS 1888 Otter Lake, Pontiac Co, Quebec, as the info I had at the time said that one was an Emily Marion born in Cavan Co, Ireland in 1869, instead of the 1863/4 Ontario or Quebec I had for Emma (7 born Ontario in 1871) or Amma (17 born Quebec in the 1881) at home with her parents.
So far for the Emma with John Noble CARRUTHERS I've added a birth date of Feb 1847 Ontario (1911 census Saanich), Feb 1854 Canada (1900 Bear Creek Twp, Emmet Co, Michigan), and the expected circa Mar 1865 Ontario (1901 Victoria, BC). The 1869 Ireland apparently comes from her 1948 death cert in Portland, Multomah Co, Oregon!
Even Reby adds to the confusion for the family as she apparently has Emma and her sisters Jane E and Anna with dates in the right relationship but 10 yrs out. I guess I'll give in, now that at least one of the records with John has a plausible date/place, and add Emily Marion into the Quebec FAIRBAIRN family. She fits in well by the criteria of never knowing, or giving, an accurate age or date of birth!

15th: Remember how I claimed to be related to the Hound of the Baskervilles ? (Hounding ROWEs, Baskerville Connection, and Elementary my dear ROWE)

Here's the hotel, and a story about the recent family reunion: Duchy Hotel ROWE family reunion

14th: Betsy has made contact with a branch of our FAIRBAIRNs (descendants of David F. and Jane HERD) in British Columbia. This prompted me to review what records I hadn't yet checked for this line.
Missing was the now available 1916 census for Saskatchewan, so I've finally found the names of the 3 in the family I knew I was missing.
The FAIRBAIRN chart from Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN has therefore now been updated.

FamilyTree DNA have advertised an upgrade promotion. Those eligible should receive an email with more details and a link to order at a discounted price (I've yet to see such an email, but the flier I received as an admin says that is what will happen). The promotion runs for a week and should be a good chance to upgrade where we would very much like to see what happens in some specific markers.

Check out the FAIRBAIRN DNA Blog for more results for the New York connection, which is looking good!

13th: Don't you know it!
The minute that you run a major update, new findings always hove into view!

I'd been avoiding checking the newly available online (from ScotlandsPeople) Scottish OPR Deaths and Burials as I knew
a) they were very sparse records
b) often didn't have much conclusive details
c) that I'd get sidetracked from all sorts of things as a result.

Not even sure why I decided to check for something today, but for whatever reason I've started looking at some of the Roxburgh FAIRBAIRNs, and have already found the burial, or at least the mortcloth payment, for Archibald FAIRBAIRN of St Boswells, and a rather more puzzling, but very informative, entry for Margaret PURDIE nee FAIRBAIRN and her son William, in the Melrose OPRs.
The least of the puzzle is trying to figure out where the family was in 1848, so if anyone can point me to what I interpret as Cairlion, presumably in the Parish of Melrose, I would appreciate it, as my web searches to date only bring up Arthurian references to Cair Lion.
The more major part of the puzzle is that it clearly states that son William PURDIE died the day after she did, and was aged 23, which age is plausible as Margaret and Charles PURDIE married in Melrose in 1821.
However, I already had a son William for this couple, whose 1864 marriage cert to Ann ROBSON says he was a 19 yr old shepherd, so born c 1845/6ish. Census data mostly corroborates this, although the 1901 transcription on ancestry does imply 1843ish. Whichever you believe, all point to a birthdate prior to the death of an older brother William in the family.
A closer search of the IGI showed I'd missed a couple of baptisms in Melrose for the family with mother Margaret spelt as Margt. The relevant FAIRBAIRN chart has been updated.


12th: In the last couple of days Ed has brought to my attention that one of his New York FAIRBAIRNs had not died young and without a family, as previously thought.
He'd found a reference in the 1933 Catskill Mountain News archives referring to Delacey FAIRBAIRN having visited "home", aka Margaretville, from Floral Park, L.I. New York.
Research added a wife (Ernestine SHERBER) and two children, Marie and James, and showed that by now his surname had morphed into FAIRBEN.
Earlier references in the same newspapaer archives showed this spelling as early as 1884.

It was therefore finally time to get all the last couple of months updates to the database published, so the Rootsweb WorldConnect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential have been fully reloaded with whatever research has added in that time.
The main tree change was probably bringing the New York FAIRBAIRNs in from LornaPotential into LornaHenderson as they are definitely related, as per findings from the FAIRBAIRN DNA project, but there have been a heap of others.

PS It does rather look like that although we've found a branch of the FAIRBAIRN tribe, we have also tragically lost one of the younger ones. It has not yet been proven that Keith G. FAIRBEN of Floral Park, one of the ambulance people who lost their lives on 9-11, is definitely a descendant of Walter Delacey's, but place and dates make it likely.
6th: What with the number of changes of late, the exciting developments out of the Fairbairn DNA Project etc it is time I did a full site update. The newly released version of Second Site, allows me to easily include some additional information on people not included on the site with a page of their own. The main change as a result of this is that below each person's page, if they have family, lifespan dates (mth/year only) now show.
Big Brother has therefore had a full refresh. If I've missed some links somewhere, please let me know.

Apart from a general tidy-up the main changes that I can remember are: I see that there's a clutch of "Recent changes" shown for the LOCKIE/RUNCIMAN family, but they can be ignored, I was simply attaching a source document and tidying up some source citations, no new information involved.

5th: Johnnie comes marching home: Well "Johnnie" actually left Scotland prior to the American Civil War, and in fact had been in NY State for nigh on 20 years before becoming embroiled in it even.
The Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary has the details on the latest findings that explain this comment more fully, but basically, I think we're well on the way to welcoming the John son of a Walter FAIRBAIRN of Roxburghshire, who was in Delaware Co, NY by at least 1841, probably earlier, into the family of Walter and Agnes (ROBERTSON/ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.

Nearly three weeks since a post must be a record for me. Been busy doing lots of things, but the main one was testing for a new release of Second Site 3, the program I use to generate my web pages, particularly for the newly introduced component of it to cope with dna results and charts. The preliminary result of the changes can now be seen in the DNA Projects Portal Lineages section where most of the surnames recorded there now have a dna section on that site instead of referring you off to other sites.

Whatever else I've been up to will eventually surface in the web and online database updates that will follow in due course.

Apr 2009

18th: Further to the new FAIRBAIRN dna results, from yesterday, I've updated the page for the Archibald who married Janet SCOTT.
Still want to find a representative for the dna project down from Archibald's assumed brothers Walter, marr. Agnes ROBISON/ROBERTSON, David, marr. Jane HERD, and James, marr. Joan FORSYTH, to prove this Archibald is really their brother, not to mention the much more speculative "brother", Robert, marr. Kate (SCOTT?). Must be someone out there willing to help out.

17th: Addenda: 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.

17th: More Fairbairns of course.
Today I received the preliminary dna results for Doug, a descendant of the miller Robert FAIRBAIRN of Vegreville, Alberta, son of an Archibald of Scotland and Jane of England. 12/12 with the presumed descendant of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN via their son Archibald.
This latter Archibald had a son Archibald baptised in St Boswells in 1813, whom I had assumed, until recently, to have died prior to 1841.
However I had been researching more Ontario and Alberta FAIRBAIRNs and one lot led back to an Archibald and Jane (BLAKEY) whom I thought just might be the couple marrying in Tynemouth in 1841. That marriage cert showed Archibald as son of a gardener, Archibald. Age fitted, occupation of father possible, but not previously known.
Only 12 markers so far, but a perfect match with the representative of the line of Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN, which Archibald I believe is the son of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN.
Oh it would be so good to find a known, proven representative of Archibald and Alison to truly confirm this, but for now, I'll rest on my laurels for a while at having proven another theory, and placed the Ontario/Alberta family in the overall tree.

Descendant chart for Archibald and Alison updated, more to follow, particularly on the DNA Projects Portal site (check the dna blogs for further data when it is available, there's a list of them on the overall DNA Projects Portal Blog).

16th: This comment being prompted by publishing the ROW data for a new member of the ROW(E) DNA project. As he had roots in Devon, I've incorporated him into the ROWE related pages of the DNA Projects Portal. There's absolutely no way we'll ever find a paper trail to prove any connection, which connection is most likely pre-genealogical timeframes, but nonetheless, on the markers so far, there is indication of a (very distant) connection.

Have been re-examining info I have on the family of Ralph Archibald & Helen (CROW) FAIRBAIRN, and the WIGHTs of Longformacus, both families being forbears of David RICHARDSON (no relation). In due course his data will be included on their respective dna projects (FAIRBAIRN, WIGHT) in the hope of finding participants, but again, I keep getting sidetracked.

15th: Poor Great Grannie. Her web page has been further delayed as I continued tidying up the NY FAIRBAIRN branch that Ed and I think (hope) will turn out to belong to my Walter and Agnes (ROBISON/ROBERTSON) FAIRBAIRN. Still haven't updated any of my online databases (everytime I get close, another set of relations or new information pops out of the woodwork and sidetracks me).
However, I have updated the NY FAIRBAIRN descendant chart to show where I've got too (they'd better end up related after all the work it took trying to find them in rather inventively indexed census records!). Not everyone has been "found", so this chart is by no means complete.

12th: Seem to have covered a fair breadth of the forest today: McADIEs from Caithness *2, one lot the potential London descendants, the other the Australian connection, including a link (I think) to a separate FAIRBAIRN family, that of George FAIRBAIRN and Virignia ARMYTAGE, yet to be explored; a newfound twig of my FAIRBAIRNs in Pennsylvania; more of the NY FAIRBAIRNs;

I can feel some updates coming on, but there's a few loose ends to tie up before it is worth republishing both WorldConnect databases: LornaPotential and LornaHenderson

In addition a pedigree was received, and posted, for the ROWE dna project, yet another family originating in Devon, and although only some of his results are in, there does appear to be a (very) distant match to my Devon ROWE family.

Great grannie's web page didn't get a look in.

11th: Back to the New York FAIRBAIRNs of Delaware and Ulster Counties. While trying, still unsuccessfully, to find Lucia FAIRBBAIRN, dtr of John Francis, aka Frank, FAIRBAIRN and Delilah in 1910 and 1920 I stumbled across an instance of a chap recorded twice in the 1920.
Hillis FAIRBAIRN shows up once with Frank and Lucia (AVERY) FAIRBAIRN as their unmarried son working on a railway section (census taken 22-24 Jan). With the next entry being the widowed father of his wife Olive.
And also, on 25 Jan 1920 at home with his wife Olive and son David J FAIRBAIRN, enumerated as FAIRBEN with occupation as laborer Nth D? Section.
Lucia was subsequently found when it was pointed out to me that I'd misread her birth date in the census. Once I'd corrected that, things fell into place rather better, even if she was enumerated as Lutia A and indexed as Luter in one of them! Updates to the published info will follow in due course.

10th: Still meant to be doing other things, but I couldn't resist checking for one of the FAIRBAIRN families in the 1911, that of Archibald Henderson & Fanny Waite (FAIRBAIRN) FAIRBAIRN.  The index showed them living in Gateshead but with slightly different names to those expected, so I shelled out for the image. 
Nellie has turned into Helen Douglas, born Ednam; John into John Douglas; Isabella from earlier census records has become Elizabeth (which does match her birth registration).<br>
The address of 73 Crossley Terrace allowed me to connect up the Edward FAIRBAIRN I'd found travelling to and fro between England and Canada between 1931 and 1936 (and possibly earlier) as Archibald and Fanny's son.<br>
This FAIRBAIRN family is an amalgam of that of <a href="http://familytree.lornahen.com/dcfairbairnjamesthomsonmabel.htm">James & Mabel/Mary Bell (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN of Eckford</a>, and that of the Ednam blacksmiths.  Still working on getting a dna representative for this line.<br>

8th: As the lack of posts signify, I've been a bit preoccupied this week, annual accounts to get to the auditor, and other things interfering with the fun stuff in life.

Took some time out from that however to do a quick update to the descendant chart for John & Elizabeth (MILLER) FAIRBAIRN of New York, as Rosalie couldn't see where she fitted into the overall scheme of things. More updates to come as I realised I hadn't finished checking off several of them in the census records etc. We'll soon know if all this is work on relations rather than just potential relations as a dna kit is winging it's way to the lab. Not that I'll want to believe it if we don't get an immediate match as I've more or less convinced myself that this John is a son of my Walter and Agnes (ROBISON/ROBERTSON) FAIRBAIRN of Morebattle, given he fits a gap in the known children, and we're looking for a son John to make the naming pattern fit.

4th: Received a surprising email last night, from Lyall in Westport whose grandfather had land next to land called "Crebers" locally.
He was wondering what I could tell him about Harry son of John A CREBER and Adelaide DOIDGE, original owner of said land.
Given that I had him born in Victoria (1863), and his father dying in Victoria (1886) I'd simply assumed they'd stayed put in Australia. Which turns out to be far from the case.
An immigration record on the "Claud Hamilton" showed the family moving from Melbourne to Hokitika in 1866, yet his two known siblings were born in the 1870s, back in Victoria.
Mum Adelaide shows up in the 1893 electoral rolls as a Matron at Larrikins, Westland and a death of the right age is recorded in 1914.
Harry married a Mary Elizabeth KING at Westport in his mother's house in 1901.
Papers Past has turned up some delightful little snippets, including that H Creber, assumed to be Harry, was coming third in an egg laying contest (!) with his silver wyandottes in 1905 (15 eggs that week 109 year to date).
Mary Elizabeth looks like she died 1937; Harry's brother John Ambrose looks like the 1899 death of the right age; but as yet, Harry eludes us, not being obvious in either NZ or Victorian death indexes.
Also in the area, gold mining at Kanieri, is an Ambrose CREBER, who may, or may not, be Harry's uncle. This family had both a John Ambrose, and an Ambrose, in the same family, both baptised Whitchurch, Devon.
So, never believe anyone saying our ancestors never moved around very much.

Made time to review the earliest WIGHTs. Bye bye Janet SWORD, hello Margaret HOUD.

More updates in the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project - check out the Project Diary.

3rd: Given my WIGHT activity at the moment, I thought it was time to publish what I had on the supposed earliest WIGHT in my tree, James, marr. to Jennat SWORD. However, as I say on the page, reviewing them after a number of years, I have to admit I need to recheck the links given I have them as having two sons named James, and the youngest looks rather unlikely to be the parents of James who married Issobel THOMSON.

Also published, on the WIGHT Surname DNA Project, is an abbreviated chart of their descendants in the hope a representative may be found.

Looking at the gaps in my knowledge, I started trying to find what happened to Robert the son of Robert WIGHT and Janet SCOTT. And quickly realised why I appear not to have progressed far with that line. Can't find them after 1881 in England or Scotland, and as yet, nor in USA or Canada. All I managed to advance was to finally find his marriage to Mary, despite Scotland's People having indexed Robert as WRIGHT, instead of the WIGHT his certificate states (correction lodged), and changed her from UnknownSurname into Mary BOYD.

Web pages updated to include an introductory page for The Wights.

1st: The passing of Sinton WIGHT, mentioned on the 26th, made me realise that if I want to find dna representatives of most of my main families to find more links by using the science now available, I'd better make sure I find participants. But for WIGHTs, firstly a project was needed as none currently existed.
A WIGHT Surname DNA project now exists, and even has its first participant, not one of mine, but a transfer from the National Geographic Genographic Project, with very early Massachusetts WIGHTs from England (and an unusual haplotype).

Check the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project diary for some exciting updates. In a few weeks time we may finally find out whether or not Ed's and my theory about the John in New York whose father was a Walter FAIRBAIRN of Roxburghshire, is or isn't, a son of Walter and Agnes (ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.
Depending on the degree of (mis)match, we may yet need another participant from the NY line, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, as it has taken so long to find a willing taker. Fingers crossed.

And yet more Caithness BAINs. Stuart has contacted me, presumably having seen the blog entries about the Manitoba BAINs the other day. His relations, although he's in England. Must be something in the spring air over the other side of the world at the moment, waking everyone up.

Mar 2009

31st: Contacted by Katherine about her William McADIE, wondering if he might be the William son of George and Elizabeth (ROSIE) McADIE in my database. Jury still out. I don't have anything certain about this William beyond 1841, although he may be the mystery, unidentified William in Victoria, Australia witnessing assorted events in his brother Robert's family.
I suggested that possibly her William was the son of the George, son of William McADIE and Susanna MULLICAN, but a descendant of that family pointed out that his William had died in Forres in 1865. Back to the drawing board, so just maybe a farmer's son did become an outdoors HM Customs Officer in England after all.

A lot of people obviously think it's time I was dragged away from Borders DNA projects and did some more Caithness research, or even some closer to home.

Next one out of the woodwork was an email from a much closer BAIN cousin who was wondering if I was the person he was looking for - had been in contact with his sister some years ago, had something to do with the Kapiti Genealogy Society. Yes on both counts. Back when I last tried to find him, no wonder I couldn't find him where I expected to in the Sth Island, he was living much much closer, just over the hill, in the same town, probably no more than 10 mins away from where I used to live!
Time to drag out Nana's old photo album and see what I can find in it for him for when we meet up in a week or two.

How I found his sister, and why, is one of my favourite "it's a small world" stories. Several years ago a BAIN researcher I was in contact with in Australia decided that a quest he'd been given was in the too hard basket.
"Find my WW11 BAIN penpal in NZ". I think I was given a forename, but that was it. I had one in my database of an age to be around at the time concerned, a 2nd? cousin of mine I'd never contacted, but knew where she was. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I decided to ring her and at the very least get a bit of the BAIN tree updated. However, it turned out that yes, she was the penpal concerned, and had vivid memories of sending off food parcels to London. End result, penpals back in contact and my tree a tad more accurate in the family of John BAIN & Margaret McMILLAN.
Donald advises that he and his wife were in Caithness a couple of years ago, and that his wife also has BAIN connections from near Halkirk. Curiousity aroused, but will have to wait until we meet. Apparently a different lot, with McBEATH connections at Spittal.

30th: Bobby asked if I thought the niece, Margaret McDONALD, shown living with William TAYLOR and Janet GRAY in 1841 and 1851 at Sibster, Halkirk might be the dtr of William McDONALD and Margaret GUNN.
That was indeed where I had also thought she might belong, but had never investigated further to see if there was any link to our Isabella McDONALD, first wife of said William TAYLOR.
So much more information is now more readily available, so I set off to solve the mystery. We were both wrong, as were the census records. Niece indeed! She was William's grandchild, illegitimate dtr of Christina (housemaid) with a George McDONALD, (merchant). No wonder I'd not found her in subsequent census returns before this, she died aged 29 in 1859. Another mystery solved, and a bit of the database straightened out. That particular family have real trouble naming their relationships correctly!

Found a Sth African site that had some useful information on it (http://www.ancestry24.co.za). Didn't find anything on my FAIRBAIRNs, but did find a bit more out about the family of the newspaper FAIRBAIRN there. Some of the family are on OneGreatFamily and show John as being born Ledgerwood, BEW 1794, which raised my interest a tad. Any male FAIRBAIRN descendants out there interested in joining the FAIRBAIRN dna project?

29th: As a result of yesterday's findings, I've updated the BAIN descendant chart to show where these MANSONs fit.
WorldConnect db LornaHenderson updates yet to come. Had to laugh at the effect of a Scottish accent on a Canadian census enumerator.
James and Catherine Isabella (BAIN) MANSON's son George Gordon was enumerated as Church G MANSON.
Looks like one daughter (Jane Elizabeth) died tragically young (10), and that the eldest daughter Ellen Alice, married an Edward BOYES. The above George may or may not have married an Eva ROBINSON, who also died young (22), but I don't have enough evidence for that leap as yet.

28th: Some years ago I unravelled some discrepancies about a couple of Catherine BAINs, one the dtr of James BAIN and Helen SUTHERLAND, the other the dtr of Donald BAIN and Maggie TAYLOR.
The latter died 1904, the former couldn't be found in Scotland.
I think I've found her.

While checking off some of the British Guianian FAIRBAIRNs who had emigrated to Manitoba, I strayed off into checking off what else I hadn't already checked against the Manitoba BDMs, and against the 1916 Canadian Census, available again now. (Interesting indexing on the FAIRBAIRNs, they were indexed as FAUBARIN, with a birthplace that clearly read British Guiana, but was indexed as British Columbia, took me a while to find them!).

In checking off the Manitoba BDMs, I re-discovered the family of James and Catherine Isabella MANSON in Brandon, whose 1891 marriage was indexed with Katherine as BARIE.
However, today's checking of a son's birth clearly showed her as Catherine Isabella BAIN, and a census showed her as born Jul 1866. This just happens to match the data for Catherine, dtr of James and Helen (SUTHERLAND) BAIN. Her husband James MANSON's sister Elizabeth married Donald BAIN, Catherine's brother, and descendants of Donald and Elizabeth (MANSON) BAIN had family letters that indicated a connection between the families, but didn't know what it was.
QED, a successful conclusion to the day.

Decided to branch out in my DNA studies, and add in another of my main research lines. I've applied to set up a WIGHT project. The pages are rather preliminary, as FamilyTree DNA haven't yet approved it as a project, but none currently exists, and it doesn't seem to be claimed by WHITE or WIGHTMAN as an alternate name.

26th: Sad to hear of Peter Sinton WIGHT's death today. One of the few of my Scottish WIGHT relations that I've actually met. Back in 1995 I bowled into Denholm, stopped a passing stranger and asked if anyone by the name of WIGHT still lived in the village, explaining that Peter Sinton WIGHT, the brother of my great grandmother, Helen Sinton WIGHT, had lived there, but that was back in 1929. The helpful lady told me that there was indeed a Sinton still in the village, and his brother, "and that's Sinton's daughter there, off to play golf".
Had to be related!
I went to the house indicated only to find that he was away visiting his son, but another friendly face popped out of the house across the way asking what I was after.
Turned out that he was the golf widower, the son-in-law. Who took me around the corner to introduce me to some other relations. Not that I figured out at the time how they fitted in. Took many years before I did that, and even then it was only by chance that the daughter of this last household and I found out some time into some correspondence we were having about assorted Borders families, that she was the person I'd been looking for, having met her fleetingly back in 1995.
In 2006 we all met, on a swelteringly hot summers day.
Way back when I started all this genealogical digging, I really never thought that I would end up actually meeting living relations in Scotland. Seemed way too long a stretch given that Helen Sinton WIGHT (daughter of Walter WIGHT and Helen SINTON) had emigrated to New Zealand, on her own, back in 1875!!
R.I.P. Sinton it was good to have met you, however fleetingly.

25th: My cup runneth over ..
...with yet more WINE(S).
Thanks to Mike, a descendant of the IRELAND branch of the WINES forest, I've been reviewing where I'd got too on some of the Sth Petherton WINES and related families.
Having tidied up and expanded his particular branch, that of William IRELAND, son of George IRELAND and Anna NAPPER, he added that one of William's siblings had married a Bert HILLARD.
I noticed in passing that one of the earlier generations of WINES had also married a HILLARD and idly searched for Bert's parents to see if there was a connection.
Haven't yet figured that one out as I found Bert's mother was a Susan WINES.
Which trail led me to Windsor Castle, and a census entry I'd extracted some years ago.
When looking for a different Mary WINES, I'd found a Mary WINES of Sth Petherton enumerated as a confectionery maid in Windsor Castle in 1881, on page 5 of the schedule.
Page one began The Queen, Head, widow 61, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and continued with HRH Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice, occupations listed as prince and princess, then a visitor, 43 year old widow, Eugenie, occupation given as "ex Empress of the French", etc etc etc.
I now believe that this Mary, confectionery maid is the above Susan's sister, and that they are both children of Thomas and Ann (STUCKEY or STACEY) WINES, Thomas being my 3rd cousin 3 times removed (well he was born in 1821 and I wasn't), and the son of Joseph and Jane (HUNT) WINES Always interesting to find the unexpected places one ends up following leads and hunches in this business. Next WorldConnect db update will show a few more branches, and several updated dates/places for the above lot.

Another of the FAIRBAIRN DNA kits has made it back to the lab.

21st: Casting around as a result of the DNA match on the RICHARDSONs, led me to review what I had on some John RICHARDSONs. Made me realise that I should get around to checking a note I'd made to myself about 9 years ago to check whether or not the tailor in Edinburgh, born Morebattle, was the son of John and Elizabeth (SHIEL) RICHARDSON or not. He was, despite an erroneous transcription of his age in the 1891 census which threw me off the scent for a while. Along the way I also combined two Alexander Blair RICHARDSONs sitting awaiting some attention. Couldn't find what happened to all of John and Ann (BLAIR) RICHARDSON's children, but most have been accounted for somewhere.
Son Adam may or may not be the one with wife Mary showing up in census returns down in Chester as a musician.
So, because of this, and whatever other updates I've made over the last month, I've reloaded my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson, and put the updates out onto OneGreatFamily .

Also added a few more people and places of interest on AncestralAtlas too.

20th: A descendant of Walter and Mary (FAIRBAIRN) LILLY has found me, and has provided some family obits which have allowed me to update some of the HAMLIN descendants in particular. Thank you Steve, good to "meet" you, they updates will show up in my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson next update.

17th: 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.

16th: Ralph's dna results arrived at last, and show a 34/37 match with a descendant of and Adam RICHARDSON, born 1835 New York of Scottish parents (ie rather distant, but definitely worth investigating).
Hardly a conclusive match, and certainly no immediate candidates spring to mind, but given Adam had a middle name of BROWN, just possibly he's a descendant of this family in my LornaPotential database: Adam and Margaret (BROWN) RICHARDSON, married 1788 Hawick, ROX.
I had researched them for possible connections to "our" RICHARDSONs because both families were from the Borders, and had ended up in Edinburgh, one in Lauriston Gardens, the other in Lauriston Terrace (I've not found out how close these streets are).
If there are any male RICHARDSON descendants of Adam and Margaret out there willing to test this theory out further, we'd love to hear from you.
Also decided to help out by joining the indexing project at FamilySearch.
Least I can do for all the help they've given the genealogical community over the years with their filming of original records. I'd been holding off in that I thought I might not be able to commit enough time to make it worthwhile, but a "batch" is a very manageable size, easily done in a few minutes (or at least it was for the two initial batches of Cheshire records I've contributed so far).

13th: 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.

7th: Realised I'd not finished working thru the Earlston MIs for FAIRBAIRNs.
Haven't found anything unexpected as yet, other than several of the Ednam blacksmith line's daughters seem to have lived in Earlston.

6th: Further to the posting on the 24th Feb: I was looking for likely (male) descendants of Robert and Agnes (BLACK) FAIRBAIRN, Robert possibly being a descendant of Robert and Agnes (LANDRETH) FAIRBAIRN. One line came to a premature end in WW1, that of the David son of David & Margaret (WHILLANS) FAIRBAIRN, as he died unmarried (but with a dtr Alison BELL aged 11 showing as a dependent on his military record).
But in the process I unexpectedly found a marriage back in Jedburgh of one of the Stody, Norfolk line of David (Snr)'s brother Robert. 1903 Jedburgh, David FAIRBAIRN married Eleanor FAIR.
Wonder why he went back to Jedburgh from Norfolk when I thought most of the family had moved south?
The dna project would like to hear from a descendant of David and Margaret (WHILLANS) FAIRBIARN to match against the recruit from his brother Robert's line (marr. Isabella WEAVER).

1st: Displacement activity time again. Meeting minutes are nowhere near as exciting as finding connections in genealogy.
This weekend's find was the St Mary's Museum in Ontario with a gallery of photos that included some of my FAIRBAIRN relations and their connections. Most were donated by a David WHITE, whom I did not have in my database.
I realised that I hadn't yet traced the children of Archibald James FAIRBAIRN and Mary McLEOD beyond the 1881 census.
The marriage of their daughter Jannet FAIRBAIRN to James Brine WHITE, was quickly found, as were the births of several children, including a David Cathcart WHITE, and an Archibald Fairbairn WHITE.
General web searches also found references to a David C WHITE as Mayor of St Mary's in 1944.
An email to the Manager of the St Marys Museum and Archive was responded too very quickly, confirming my suspicion that the two David WHITEs were one and the same person, and added as an aside, that the Brine in David's father's name was from his connection to a Tolpuddle martyr.
I really wasn't going to get sidetracked, as I thought these martyrs were further back in history, but no, James BRINE only died in 1902, and David was his grandson.
The Museum is currently housed in a building built by George TRACY, father of the Jane TRACY who married the above Archibald James FAIRBAIRN's father.

Feb 2009

28th: The marriage cert. for Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Jane BLAKEY turned up today.
It shows Archibald's father as yet another Archibald FAIRBAIRN, a gardener. There's an Archibald of exactly the right age, son of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Janet SCOTT, born St Boswells, 1813.
I don't have father Archibald's occupation as a gardener however, more normally he shows up as the ubiquitous ag. lab., occasionally farm steward, and in 1841 when the presumed son Archibald married, the father shows as an ag lab at Greenwells Glenburney at Melrose.
As a descendant of Archibald and Jane FAIRBAIRN is in the dna project, if this hunch is correct, Doug (F-14) should be a very good match to Martin (F-1) our first project participant.
If he isn't, then I guess we need to keep digging to find distant cousins of both Martin and Doug to confirm their line's dna signature, or find another Archibald of the right age and place.
Anyone have any other Archibald/Archibald father/son pairs where the son was born Scotland around 1813?

26th: Rightly or wrongly I've decided that the Jessie SINTON of Southdean who married Donald McFADEN is highly likely to be the daughter of James SINTON and Barbary OLIVER.
I'm possibly inventing history here, but given that Barbary died in 1809, a few short years after her marriage in 1804 and Jessie's age consistently implies she was born about 1810, that just possibly, Barbary died in childbirth.
The place names connected with Jessie and Donald whilst still in Scotland also lead me to believe there is a close connection to these SINTONs. QED.
Anyway, I've updated the SINTON chart to reflect this. It was bugging me way too much having Jessie floating around without parents when there just had to be a connection.

24th: Again, check the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project Diary for the latest pedigree loaded, and the theory behind how they might connect to the lineage of Robert and Agnes (LANDRETH) FAIRBAIRN.
Would be good to prove that connection.

23rd: Check the Fairbairn DNA project diary for the links/details re the newly loaded pedigree - that of the family of Archibald and Jane (BLAKEY) FAIRBAIRN who emigrated from Northumberland to Ontario. One son, Archibald, moved to Parry Sound, another lived Orangeville, Wellington Co/Dufferin Co. Another, Robert, a miller, moved to Vegreville, Alberta, with descendants moving back to Ontario.

Archibald was a blacksmith, and the majority of the few available records, say he was born Scotland;
Probably complete coincidence, but the family of one other of the DNA project members were also in Orangeville, Dufferin Co at one stage.

I have now absolutely no idea where I was researching during the digging on the above, or who I was looking at, that led me to check for some updated details for the family of Abraham ANDREWS of Martock (then St Lukes, Middlesex), but next WorldConnect update there should be some more confirmed dates and places for the family.

22nd: While digging around in Ontario Fairbairns today (getting ready to publish the lineage of our latest recruit in the FAIRBAIRN dna project), I had to chuckle at a note on a birth certificate. Jenet FAIRBAIRN was born Jul 1883 (Oakville, Halton Co, dtr of Archiblad FAIRBAIRN and Mary Jane CAVANA) but the birth wasn't registered until March the following year, and was annotated:
"neglected to register owing to selection of a name for the child".
Don't know why they bothered giving an excuse, they only seem to have registered two of the family of at least 7 children.

21st: Thanks to Helen, a 4th cousin in BC, the BAIN/ROSIE family has had a few snippets added. I took the opportunity to remove a stray David that had snuck into the family from another researcher as I cannot, as yet, find any corroboration he belonged to George ROSIE and Isabella BAIN. Most of the updates will be behind the scenes into the realms of the living, and thus not online.
In the process I received a cute picture of the 2 yr old Lucas, 7th great grandson of John BAIN, who shared his fair hair and blue eyes.

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been reloaded. This update was for any snippets on the above BAIN/ROSIEs, but also to bring the family of Donald McFADEN and Jessie SINTON across from my db LornaPotential into the rellies, even if we're unlikely to prove where she connects.

The BAIN and SINTON descendant charts have also been refreshed.

20th: I'm growing a theory here. When James, son of Peter and Janet (Donaldson) SINTON died in 1855 his death cert implied that his son John was aged 45 and still alive. Over the years I've only really found one remotely likely candidate, in Ontario, and wasn't very thrilled that he'd be him at all.
Today I stumbled across a slightly too young John in Ross & Cromarty, a shepherd (right occupation for a farmer's son), who occasionally decided to say he was born in Bowden, ROX (well, ancestry says Bomden, ROX, and in one census Bowden, SEL). I've not checked the original to reassure myself that the FINTON, and SENTER names the family has been indexed as are really SINTON, but was intrigued enough by this chap to chase him thru the records to see where it lead.
He died in 1881 and his death cert. does indeed say his parents were a James SINTON and Margaret. However, I cannot turn his mother's maiden name into WILKIE. Nearest interpretation is GILLES, and even that isn't certain.

Anyone out there researching the family of John SINTON and Catherine CROSS of Kiltearn, Ross and Cromarty? Over the years the family were at: Leadgown, Contin Parish; Swordale, Kiltearn Parish; Boath, Alness; Associated surnames so far are ROSS and McKAY, with one daughter (a Rachel, a name significant in the family of James and Margaret) moving to Dores, Inverness; a son John moving to Bonar, Sutherland and the fates of the rest of the family yet to be discovered.

18th: Looking at the ROBSON connection, if any, between Isabella Sinton and her sister Margaret:
Margaret had her brother-in-law George Robson living with her and her husband Thomas Robson; George's death cert shows his parents as George Robson, carter, and Margaret m.s. Pertis, the informant being George's nephew, Richard Robson of Maisondieu. Isabella's husband was Richard Robson, and they lived at Maisondieu.
This Richard Snr's death cert shows his parents as Thomas Robson, blacksmith and Margaret m.s. Pertis (the informant was Richard and Isabella's eldest son Thomas).
Am I looking for one woman with two husbands or simply two Robson brothers who cannot remember their grandfather's name and occupation? If I go for the 2 out of 3 aint bad rule, I found that Margaret's husband Thomas also survived into civil registration and his dth cert shows his parents as Thomas Robson, blacksmith and Peggy m.s. Pertis, with Margaret being the informant.
Wonder if Pertis is actually Porteous?

17th: I've been catching up on the family of Donald McFADEN and Jessie SINTON, and trying to figure out if I could find any clues as to where Jessie fitted into the Southdean SINTONs. My guess is as daughter of James SINTON and Barbara OLIVER, given the Oliver names in the children, but against this id is that there are no Barbara's in the known family, even if the second son is indeed James.
In the process, I decided to re-check James' baptism for any further clues. Nothing I hadn't already explored, BUT the next entry caught my attention rather more this time.
It was for the baptism of a John, son of a John DONALDSON & Elizabeth SMITH.
Given the SINTON activity, and that I'd never really explored anything at all about Peter SINTON's wife Janet DONALDSON, I decided to follow this family around to see where it might lead. Nowhere in particular, although I did find that John Snr was the son of a John DONALDSON and Margaret DEANS. They are probably not of an age to be Janet DONALDSON's parents (possibly John is a brother, or more likely a nephew), but it did lead me to my breakthrough for the day.
I looked at the gaps in the children of Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and thought I'd see if there might be a Margaret surviving into civil registration.
There was. One Margaret ROBSON nee SINTON. Haven't yet checked if there's any relationship between Margaret's husband, Thomas ROBSON, carrier of Jedburgh, and Margaret's sister Isabella's husband Richard ROBSON, but have expanded the SINTON tree somewhat by tracking Thomas and Margaret's family down to 1901.
Newly connected names: HERBERTSON, BAIRD, LITSTER, GIBSON; Places include Jedburgh and Kinross, with a spell in Kelvin. I've only found one daughter, Jessie ROBSON, who had two illegitimate children, a James DOUGLAS and a Margaret HERBERTSON. She also seems to have married a John BAIRD but I've no idea what happened to him, just that she reverted to using his surname and saying she was married in two census returns, but her death cert states she was single. The 1852 marriage entry for a John BAIRD and Jessie ROBSON doesn't have any real clues that it is the right Jessie, and they were certainly never together in a census.

15th: Finally found proof that the HAMLIN family I'd been following around census records in Wisconsin was indeed the family of one of my FAIRBAIRN's. I'd not yet traced all of David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN's children and grandchildren. Their daughter Mary married a Walter LILLY and it is their dtr Jane I've been tracing and eventually found proof that the Jane F HAMLIN of an age to be her, was indeed nee LILLY. Many thanks to the kind person who transcribed the 1924 biography of her son James Harvey HAMLIN which appeared in a "History of Lincoln, Oneida, and Vilas Counties, Wisconsin", published in 1924.
I've not yet finished with the available records, but have updated the FAIRBAIRN descendant chart to show where I've got to on the newly included family. Added surnames include: HAMLIN, WENZEL, TARR, CLINE, and LEESE, so far; places Wisconsin (Lincoln Co, Oneida Co, Vilas Co) and Washington (Douglas Co, Chelan Co). As yet, I've not noticed anyone else researching this family.

14th: The importance of checking the primary source was driven home (again) today.
A few days ago I mentioned a contact via Rootschat re the SINTON/McFADEN family whom I believe connect, somehow, to my Southdean SINTONs.
When following up on this connection, I realised that we had different wives for James McFADEN, I had Elizabeth LEADBITTER, Bev had Elizabeth ATKINSON.
Mine had come from matching up James with an 1860 Newcastle bride Elizabeth at the same volume and folio number (10b/152) on FreeBMD, Bev's from researching her ATKINSON family connections.
First up, my (slightly) closer inspection showed an Elizabeth ATKINSON marriage in 1860 in Northumberland, but to a John MARSHALL, and in Tynemouth, not Newcastle, this from ancestry's marriages 1538-1940.
I then checked FreeBMD and noticed that there was an Elizabeth ATKINSON marriage in 1860 Newcastle, but volume/folio of 10b/150, whereas I had James as 10b/152.
Thankfully I didn't rest there. Baptisms of Elizabeth ATKINSON and LEADBITTER were both on the IGI, the former matching by year and place to the Elizabeth wife of James in the 1871 census, whereas Elizabeth LEADBITTER was older and of Hexham, not Corsenside.
A further search of FreeBMD finally revealed that there were two entries for James McFADEN in 1860 qtr 1, and an inspection of the original image attached to the 10b/152 entry showed it had been incorrectly transcribed from 10b/150. A correction has been lodged, and my LornaPotential db entry has now attached James to his correct wife.
Would still love to hear from anyone who knows how Jessie SINTON may fit into the Southdean SINTON famlies.

13th: The flurry of activity on the Caithness GRAY family as a result of Bobby finding and sharing his updated info on Ann SINCLAIR nee GRAY shows that several notes to myself several years ago to investigate whether or not Catherine GRAY's sisters married x and y have been proved to be valid hunches. We've done a lot of digging and swapping our finds over the last couple of days.
Another sister also survived well into civil registration times, living to age 93, Barbara GRAY, married James McGREGOR, lived at Baderyrie, Latheron.
That leaves the fates of sisters Elizabeth and Isobel GRAY to be determined.
For some time I'd wondered if Isobel was the one who married John SUTHERLAND, but that isn't the case. However, investigation of this did lead me to correct what I had on that family on my WorldConnect database LornaPotential, which will show these updates shortly (her parents weren't Alexander GRAY and Margaret SUTHERLAND, but David GRAY and Christian BAIN);
Newly connected surnames for my GRAY family now include: GUNN, more SINCLAIRs, MUNRO, BAIKIE, McLAREN; Places are: Thurso; Mid Clyth; Stemster; Lybster; Duffus (Moray); Charlestown (Little Dunkeld, Perthshire);
Mysteries: What happened to Mary SINCLAIR and Alexander GUNN, married 1860 Lybster, appear in 1861 census at Mid Clyth, then vanish.

Also did some work on the Tongside GRAY families, whom I'm sure do connect in somehow, if only I knew how/where: Alexander & Margaret (SUTHERLAND) GRAY, who lived next to my William & Isabella (MANSON) GRAY, as did their respective descendants over the years.

Both Rootsweb WorldConnect databases are in the process of being updated, so use these links to access them until the indexing catches up over the next 2-3 days: LornaHenderson, LornaPotential.

12th: The over-zealous enumerator in the census entry mentioned yesterday is probably explained by a careless transcriber.
The mother, head of the household, is described as deceased shoemaker's wife, so there's probably a missing " for ditto in the "deceased daughter" being enumerated.

11th: I don't yet know how accurate the Ancestry Census transcription I've just seen is, but I've just found a Janet SINCLAIR enumerated with an occupation of "deceased daughter"!
This being part of the investigations into the newfound GRAY twigs that Bobby put me onto. I don't think she's the Janet I'm looking for however.
The family being researched is that of Ann, dtr of Donald GRAY and Janet SUTHERLAND, and sister of the Catherine GRAY who married John BAIN, married a James SINCLAIR. Bobby found her 1857 death certificate and I'm fossicking to see what else I can find.
So far the extended family includes McGREGORs, and another SINCLAIR family.

10th:A descendant of Elizabeth BAIN's husband James SUTHERLAND's first wife has found my web pages, and suddenly discovered he has a whole heap of BAIN relations as well as the SUTHERLAND ones he knew about.
Good to hear from you Tim.

Found a conversation on Rootschat which I'd missed, re Jessie SINTON and Donald McFADEN. I'm fully convinced that Jessie is one of my Southdean SINTONs, but am at a loss to see exactly where she would fit. Good to "meet" you Bev.

9th: Something I've always loved about this hobby is the thoughtfulness and kindness found within the genealogical community, with most people sharing their finds and helping out.
Today this was exemplified by two emails which arrived in my inbox overnight from one of the lovely people who belong to Find A Grave (wonderful site where you may often be able to find headstones in far distant cemeteries).
He had photographed the headstone of George E & Eda M (CRAWFORD) HENDERSON, and then gone on to do some research about them, found my WorldConnect db and brought the headstone photo to my attention. Not only that, but suggested that I also look in the same cemetery, Mountain View Memorial Park, Barstow, San Bernardino Co, California, for their son George C HENDERSON. He hadn't submitted the latter's headstone photo, but the lovely people who had, also had his obituary listed, which has enabled me to track down at least some of the descendants on Facebook. Don't yet know if they are at all interested in their HENDERSON ancestry, time will tell.

Another recent story is that of the far flung impact of a casual comment after a committee meeting last week. One member mentioned that his family solicitor was a FAIRBAIRN, and he'd mentioned to him that he knew someone (me) heavily into researching FAIRBAIRNs.
At this point in the story I was privately a bit dismissive as very few of the FAIRBAIRNs in New Zealand appear to come from the Scottish Borders families that I'm researching most heavily. He then mentioned that the chap concerned had been born in Samoa. Likelihood of connection didn't rise at this point, but I did remember that many years ago I'd squirreled away some information about a James FAIRBAIRN of Glasgow who had been a policeman in Samoa. Again, no known connection, just information that may well come to be of use later. And so it turned out.
I pulled out the information and re-examined it for further clues, "just in case".
Sure enough, this was the solicitor's father, and I found sufficient information to identify James' birth in Govan in 1901, shortly after the Scottish census for that year. By now you'll have guessed there's a point to this story. No, at the time I'd squirrelled away the information I had no known interest whatsoever in Glaswegian policeman. But time moves on. Descendants of the family of James and Mary Bell/Mabel (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN had moved to Glasgow, and yes, this James was one of them.
I've been searching all over the world for this family, found descendants in Washington State, Brisbane, Leicester, knew some had emigrated to Canada, and only recently had found one of them in Saskatchewan in the 1916 census on the FamilySearch Record pilot (which resource seems to have vanished now, so timing was everything there). But no-one ever knew any had come to NZ, let alone were living in my next door town.
Alf and I have now met, and he has provided some more leads for families in the States, and we've swapped our known information. Now I have to work to co-opt him into the FAIRBAIRN dna project to determine whether or not, and if so, how closely, our respective Eckford families may be related.

8th: Not really sure what all I've changed since the last posting. Looking at the "Recent Changes" index from a rebuild of my Big Brother website I can see a clutch of Henderson updates, most of which aren't really visible changes, apart from Archibald, whose baptism entry gave me a new place to play with, Craigmill, which is now included on the map of Hatch Match and Despatch Events on the Henderson page. As I say in his blurb, I'd noted in the past that there was a Robert HENDERSON, Smith at Craigmill, which may or may not be significant as to Archibald's grandfather's forbears. The two Craigmill HENDERSON smiths are rather separated by time however.

Reasonably sure that the changes shown for 31 Jan and 5 Feb were cosmetic rather than real, but those shown for 7th & 8th Feb are real updates.

Behind the scenes Bobby has provided some updates to the BAIN family which are being investigated and will be reflected in WorldConnect db LornaHenderson updates in due course.

The FAIRBAIRN page has had a minor tweak or two, including the descendant chart of James and Mary Bell/Mabel (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN being brought onto the site instead of pointing off to my WorldConnect db LornaPotential, in the hope that one day (soon?) we may be able to prove a relationship between James and my family of Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN, given that both were involved with the Gateshaw Secession Church at Morebattle and lived for at time in Eckford Parish.

There were probably DNA project changes as well, so check out the respective project diaries (links at left).

Jan 2009

31st: Now I've always thought of tithes etc as divvied up after a harvest. This entry however implies that said one tenth was taken, literally, at harvest time! " ... this means the vicarage teinds payable from the produce of the lands and cot-yards.
These two men had so artfully arranged their stooks of corn that every tenth stook would contain the thinnest and poorest corn, to the prejudice of the laird or the minister when drawing their teinds."
This from the Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill 1685-1807

30th: Further results in for the Sunderland/Hoquiam side of the FAIRBAIRN "cousins" triangle.
Still a good match with the rest of Lineage 1. It will be interesting to see if Bill matches Roy more closely than Joe does, given their families, over time, have all stated relationships to each other.
Keep checking the Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary for breaking news, and send along any likely candidates to join the project. All welcome.

28th: Found this link when looking for something else.
The same site carries the story of the New Zealanders tragically killed at the station there in 1917.

26th: Preliminary results in for one side of the FAIRBAIRN "cousins" triangle - and a match (11/12 and 12/12), but interestingly a better match (so far) to the second group of FAIRBAIRNs in Lineage 1 than the family he is supposedly a cousin of.

25th: Anyone out there researching the HENDERSON family of William and Marion (ROBERTSON) HENDERSON of Burnbank, Par. of Kilmadock, Perth? It's just over the parish boundary from the Bridge of Allan, Par. of Lecropt.
Ian has revived my attempts to find Archibald HENDERSON's parents and has independently come up with the same favoured contender as I did many years ago.
Well, by time and place, he's the only real contender in the surviving parish records around the area.
Pros: family has the right names, children named Archibald, David and Mary, in near enough to the right area, and definitely in the right timeframe.
Cons: farmers, not blacksmiths. No James obvious to account for the earlier smith at the Bridge of Allan.
Someone at some time in the past was researching the family as there are several patron submission on the IGI for them, albeit placing them at Burnbank in LKS and AYR rather than PER, but the dates match the real baptisms etc in Kilmadock, PER.

24th: Check the Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary for some updates.
Can anyone pinpoint the source of the "Genealogical Tree of Clan Fairbairn Compiled from the year 1563"? Picture of said cover attached to John's page on the DNA Projects Portal to jog memories.

19th: William HENDERSON doesn't look like he likes photographers!
(Thank you for getting in touch, and sharing the photo Ian)

18th: While looking for something else, I happened upon the Californian death index entry in 1986 for Robert Howard FAIRBAIRN. Which surprised me somewhat as I had him dying in 1950, albeit with a bit of a question mark as he was mentioned in a family diary in 1955. With a bit more digging, and finally getting round to examining the rest of the Minnesota death certs that turned up, which I had coincidentally ordered recently, I came to the conclusion that there were 3 Robert FAIRBAIRNs in this family, only two of whom were actually in my db.
Father Robert Safley F. was the one who had died in 1950, instead of the 1935 I'd entered for him.
Son (from his 2nd marriage to Alice) Robert Safley F. was the 1935 death - rather tragic really, a 10 yr old who had an accident, which proved fatal, at his father's well drilling operation.
Older son Robert Howard F. (from his 2st marriage to Barbara FAIRCHILD, a cousin), has therefore to be the 1986 one. I hadn't entered the younger Robert at all as a census entry implied he belonged to Alice rather than Robert, but his death cert states his father as Robert.
So, if the census entry was wrong about Robert, they may also be wrong about his sister Lorraine too. She appears to have married a Wendell William McNEILL in Cottonwood Co, Minnesota, and died in Dakota Co, Minnesota.
Perhaps someone can confirm I've the right Lorraine? Mother Alice FAIRBAIRN, formerly BENSON nee COUSINS?

And to cap off the day, found an entry in my guestbook that added to the HENDERSON tribe. A previously unknown to me dtr to William HENDERSON and Marian Glen AITKEN.

Also brought a few more of the newfound ROWE branch up to 1901, the GLANVILLE connection (Frank Josephus Richard GLANVILLE married Sarah Ann PARSONS).

The three affected descendant charts have all been updated: Rowe, Fairbairn, Henderson.

17th: Check the SINTON DNA project diary for updates to that project. The Irish contingent are also a match!

15th: The Michigan marriages continue to intrigue. One lady was obviously used as a model by Elizabeth TAYLOR, as she, also an Elizabeth, married the same chap twice, 1893 and 1909, with their son recorded in the 1900 census under her maiden surname (WILLMAN), and in 1910 census under her regained married name (McCURDY).

Another of the FAIRBAIRN families really can't make up their mind whether their surname is LAMPSON or SAMPSON. Frederick LAMPSON's marriage is witnessed by his brother Robert SAMPSON. But I do assume these registers are transcripts of original certificates here as the handwriting does seem rather uniform, and accuracy of transcriptions does rather vary.
A sister Helen M is shown as marrying as SAMPSON with her father indexed as William R, the R presumably being a misinterpreted F from someone whose handwriting is as bad as mine.

14th: A somewhat confused William:
Between marrying Rosa KUHNLE in 1896 and Josephine MARCOTTE in 1904, William E, son of David FAIRBAIRN and Charity WALKER seems to have had a brainstorm about who his parents were. By his second marriage he says they are Wm FAIRBAIRN and Deviza WADE !!!
I'm fully convinced that the two marriages are the same William E FAIRBAIRN because of census data that places his children from the first marriage with William and Josephine in a later census, and William shows he's on his second marriage in 1904.

The Michigan marriages data also includes the marr. of Phyllis I LAMPSON dtr of Joan Helen LAMPSON nee FAIRBAIRN as well, Joan being the granddaughter of James FAIRBAIRN and Joan FORSYTH.

13th: Well, that serendipity from yesterday was a wonderful sidetrack.
Along the way I've found another son of David FAIRBAIRN and Charity WALKER married in Michigan (William E) and got sidetracked onto trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out who an Isabella Elliot FAIRBAIRN was, born Ontario 1850, married the Rev James Anderson Ross DICKSON (somewhere, possibly London Ontario), and lived Galt Ontario.
And it reinforced how useful it can be to squirrel away information that just might come in useful later.
William E, the son of David and Charity married a Rosa KUHNLE, who sounded a bit familiar. Sure enough, I'd found and saved, and obit for Rosa FAIRBAIRN nee KUHNLE last year.
While trying to solve who Isabella Elliot FAIRBAIRN was I also stumbled upon the baptism of an Isabella MITCHELL, dtr of an Agnes FAIRBAIRN and Alexander MITCHELL baptised in Chatham, Ottawa River Canada East by the same Minister who married David FAIRBAIRN and his first wife Prudential ARNOLD.
Haven't figured out who this Agnes is either, anyone know?

12th: Serendipity strikes: Got sidetracked by Dick Eastman's newsletter advising that the the Family Search pilot (http://www.familysearch.org/ select Search Records, then Record Search Pilot) had added a heap of images of all sorts of records, so checked out what might be of interest.
Think they've been there a while, but what I did find were indexed images of Michigan marriages 1868-1925.
Checked out the FAIRBAIRNs and found at least two of particular interest (so far):
David s/o David and Charity (Walker)'s marriage to Mina Schryer COOK (which I knew was somewhere in Michigan)
and one that I didn't know was there at all, last sighting being 1901 census in Ratho North, WLN, Scotland. Jessie D d/o Walter FAIRBAIRN and Isabella SCOTT found marrying a John JONES in Detroit in 1924, much to my surprise.

11th: Another ROWE descendant found me via Genes Reunited and enabled me to bring another of the Hounds of the Baskerville connection down to present day, well at least a couple of living people down the bottom of the chain. dtr of James ROWE of the Railway Hotel fame married a George MOORE. Looks like they alone provided almost the entire population of Dartmoor Prison warders, plus a few further afield in Notthingham, Middlesex & Surrey - thank you Rowena.
ROWE chart updated.

9th: 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.

8th: 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!

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.

6th: Brief flurry of corrections on the RUNDLE/FOREMAN portion of the ANDREWS tree (not online so the error has presumably not been propagated), thanks David and Brenda.
The DAW(E) DNA project now has a representative of the family of Isaac enrolled, but at the risk of never being thought satisfied, another is still sought, on a different line, to confirm whatever dna signatures result.

4th: Began checking off descendants of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON from Burkes Peerage against OPRs, BDMs, Census data and The Times in preparation to publishing an abbreviated patriarch's entry on the DNA pages oriented towards lines that may have a living FAIRBAIRN representative at the end of the chain who just might be persuaded to join the project and provide a dna signature for the family in order to test the many claims by assorted trees that "we are related to Sir William FAIRBAIRN", often without any proof. Representatives from eg the Rev Adam Henderson FAIRBAIRN's, schoolmaster William's and Sir William's line would be wonderful.

3rd: Updated the FINLAYSON DNA results page, and linked David and Donald on the patriarchs page back to the dna projects portal site for additional info.

2nd: Added a (small) rogues gallery of FAIRBAIRN photos to the FAIRBAIRN family page. It only includes those already on their respective person pages, but does include one new one, that of Mary Joan LAWLESS nee FAIRCHILD's from Jim in Florida (5th cousin once removed).
Thanks Jim, I'll get round to adding the rest of the LAWLESS line in some year, but I did make a start from your data, and some that I had from census data etc. already, but not added to the db.

See FAIRBAIRNDNA project diary for some changes there from early records trying to figure out if there are any clues to be found on how to link the dna matched families (not a lot was the answer).

If you're wondering where the rest of the research log went, I've archived off the last 6 months of the 2008 into a new menu itme at left - 2008: Jul-Dec