Lorna's research logs and linksJun 2008
30th: Thought it was about time the Rootsweb pages were updated. I also did a behind the scenes tidyup, so I hope I didn't delete something necessary - let me know of any broken links/missing images etc.29th: Many thanks to the USGenWeb sites, and Betsy (yet again). Betsy found a History of Western Nebraska with a biography of a Robert H FAIRBAIRN, Jr which conclusively linked Clergyman Robert to newspaperman Robert, as one and the same person, his father. One more mystery solved.
Web pages updated, and Mary LILLY nee FAIRBAIRN included for good measure.
28th: I've admitted defeat - I cannot find what happened to Mattie FAIRCHILD, dtr of John and Lucinda (BOYCE) FAIRCHILD.
Known info: mentioned as the surviving daughter of Lucinda when she died in 1908, as Mrs J E SULLIVAN of Moorcroft, Wyoming. Mentioned by Grandma VIELE (so pre 1956), as last heard of in Modesto, California, as a nurse.
May have been called Winifred.
RootsWeb WorldConnect db updated, wont be available for searches for up to 36 hours, so use the facility to jump straight to database LornaHenderson
27th: FAIRBAIRN chart updated, yet again, to reflect latest findings, most updates were in the descendants of Mary FAIRBAIRN and Walter LILLY.
The id of Mary was definitely clinched for me when I found a "cousin" with them in 1920, one Lorraine E LEE, grddtr of Mary's sister Esther.
26th: Been busy chasing some of the FAIRBAIRN/SAFLEY family around in the census, and in the process, trying to figure out if I'd picked up the right Robert H, grdson of Robert and Helen (FAIRBAIRN) SAFLEY in the 1910 census. Decided that he couldn't possibly get from a to b between the two census days he appeared in (with parents James and Mary in Portland, Multomah Co, Oregon) on the 15th April 1910, with an uncle and aunt on the 21st (Brook Park, Pine Co, Minnesota).
Meanwhile Betsy had worked another of her miracles and found what looked like Mary dtr of David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN. She had also had made it to Mt Morris, Waushara Co, Wisconsin, where she pops up with husband Walter LILLY (married Huron Canada according to a patron submission on the IGI).
23rd: Interesting journey today. Checked off a marriage cert for one chap, looked at the other one on the page and realised it was one of the FAIRBAIRN/CLAPPERTON lot. So off I went checking what I did and didn't have for the family from assorted census data. Decided to cross check one census against a marriage, so got the cert, and realised that I already had the groom in my database down my RUNCIMAN tree. James WALLACE, descendant of William MERCER and Janet RUNCIMAN, married Janet CLAPPERTON, descendant of George FAIRBAIRN and Janet PURDIE. No, they weren't related, but both are distant relations of mine.
The FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project is growing - a descendant of the family of William FAIRBAIRN and May CARTER (married Greenlaw 1792) has joined, so that should be an interesting addition given where all the family lived - Greenlaw, Eccles, Earlston, Jedburgh, Bedrule, Ednam (with Dumfries, and Kirkcudbright thrown in for good measure).
22nd: And Betsy found David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN's dtr Elsie too. So more of the family have been documented. Elsie married Joseph L BROTT, variously described as born Canada, Michigan or New York. Apparently has two children, so it does look likely that the 1850 census Jane is hers (still to be found after that census though).
20th: Think I've found David and Jane (HERD) FAIRBAIRN's dtr Jane in the States as well.
On the Waushara County, Wisconsin GenWeb site there are some marriages transcribed from the Wautoma Courthouse records, including an 1854 marriage of a Jane FAIRBAIRN and a Joseph PROCTOR. Census data shows that Jane was born Scotland c 1824, AND they lived in Mt Morris, Waushara County, which is also where David and Jane were to be found at one stage.
Dtr Elvira married a Joseph MILES and lived Dale, Cottonwood, Minnesota, then Garfield, Washington State.
Anyone got any obits to prove these connections?
Jane appears to have disappeared between 1880 (Dale, Cottonwood, Minnesota living with dtr and son-in-law) and 1900. I've not found Alvira (MILES) beyond 1900 (River, Garfield Co, Washington) as yet.
19th: Betsy and I have convinced each other that she has found yet another dtr for David FAIRBAIRN and Jane HERD. The Jane TRACY who married David & Jane's son Archibald had a brother George who is listed on ancestral file as marrying a Martha FAIRBORN, who just happened to be born St Mary, Perth, Ontario, 1834. Looks like another example of siblings marrying siblings. The circumstantial evidence includes the fact that in the 1870 census George and Martha have moved from Perth to Mt Morris, Wisconsin, which just happens to be where David and Jane are now living as well. A George and Elizabeth of an age to be his parents are also with them.
In 1870 George and Martha are shown with two children, Anna and George, both born Canada. Betsy excelled herself and found an Annie of the right age, with parents given as George and Martha, marrying back in St Marys, Perth, to a clergyman Robert O KELLOGG.
Darned if I can find the TRACY family in Canada in 1851 though, or anywhere in 1880. It looks as if Anna/Annie died in California about 1886 and their only dtr shortly before that.
In the process of ferreting around in Ontario records, several more twigs have also been added/updated on the Quebec FAIRBAIRNs (mainly the family of Clarissa Harlow FAIRBAIRN and Elihu Robert MARSTON, but several others as well).
Also found another dtr for the family of John FAIRBAIRN and Margaret SINTON, a Rachel popped up with them in 1851, and I later found her 1929 death in Blandford, Ontario.
Depending of course on when you are reading this, any of the links above pointing to WorldConnect wont necessarily show the updates, as I haven't uploaded them yet, but any pointing to charts on my domain web pages have been.
16th: Another successful conclusion to a few days searching. I've been trying to find what happened to Robert the son of David FAIRBAIRN and Jane HERD, and had been following a couple of candidates around Wisconsin and Iowa records, both Robert H FAIRBAIRN/FAIRBURN, one married to a Lucy, with sons Lewis D and Robert (1860 and 1870 census) and another married to a Sarah, with dtrs Bird and Ora, but with a possible son David from a prior marriage (later census records).
I'd given up trying to prove they were one and the same person and decided to go public on GenForum asking if anyone recognised the families and could help.
And 5 minutes later, decided to also check out, and post, to the Rootsweb Iowa board, which I searched for FAIRBAIRNs first. Didn't find any, but when I searched for Chickasaw I did find a link to the Iowa GenWeb pages, where I plugged in FAIRBAIRN to see what would come up.
Lo and behold, Robert H FAIRBAIRN pops up straight away, as Robert Hurd, or Herd, FAIRBAIRN, author of a 1919 history of the county, born Napanee, Ontario. So, what with his mother's maiden name explaining the H in the census records, and a birth place the same as sister Eshter, I'd found the right chap, despite the fact that he was an attorney and newspaper editor and publisher, neither occupation being typical in the family.
Haven't proven the Lucy link though.
Rootsweb LornaHenderson db updated, and pages added to the web for both Robert Herd FAIRBAIRN, and his father David.
13th: I continue to be amazed, or more accurately, incredulous, at Ancestry's OneWorldTree. I just hate the way it automatically combines data, presents it as fact, and makes it look I've contributed rubbish data! I've tried getting them to remove the original gedcom they used way back for my data, but all I've succeeded in doing is that they've changed the last update date from the really old ?1995? date, to a more modern one, which makes it even worse.
So, if you are looking at OneWorldTree and follow links back to the sources that show data supposedly contributed by me, don't necessarily believe what you see there, jump out to the web pages (at least that link is accurate) and look at the current data on WorldConnect.
11th: Still sorting out FAIRBAIRNs, tracking them around Ontario, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, California +++, and in the process wondering if some of the other Lennox Co, Ontario families are also connected, particularly any with connections to Napanee, where David and Jane's dtr Esther's obit says she was born (in 1840).
Added a couple more photos to the web, including an unidentified dashing young chap clad in tartan, in Hamilton, Ontario, and a lovely photo of James and Joan's dtr Barbara.
Thanks Betsy and Melinda, respectively.
6th: Another very successful FAIRBAIRN day, culminating in 3 fewer James FAIRBAIRNs in my database.
For some reason I decided to check the actual marriage entry for Alison, dtr of James and Joan (FORSYTH) FAIRBAIRN. What a bonus. She was described as of Melrose bridge bar, and a few entries down the page was a James FAIRBAIRN of the same place, marrying an Elizabeth LAIDLAW. I'd stumbled across James' 2nd marriage!
I then found I already had James and Elizabeth in 1851, but hadn't known who she was, so had never connected them, but had tentatively identified that James as the one an Elizabeth LAIDLAW or FAIRBAIRN, relict of James of Lantonhall, and if that held, he was highly likely to also be the James F. who erected a headstone to his uncle James CROSSER. So, all these James' have now been combined, and James FAIRBAIRN's web page updated.
Several more twigs have been identified from US census records as well, and more snippets received from Melinda to add to the picture of our Civil War veteran, John FAIRBAIRN aka FAIRCHILD.
5th: John, son of James and Joan (FORSYTH) FAIRBAIRN is now on the web, with what I suspect could be the reason for his name change from FAIRBAIRN to FAIRCHILD!
4th: GenesReunited has come up trumps again. A while ago I found another FAIRBAIRN twig had married a FOTHERINGHAM from the Orkneys. And there she was on GR. The descendant (Diana) has now been in touch, extending the family of James and Agnes down to present day (Hampshire mainly).
I'm in the process of getting John, son of James and Joan (FORSYTH) FAIRBAIRN onto the web as Melinda has come up with a couple of photos and some family snippets that illustrate the relationship evidence.
3rd: Checking off some OneGreatFamily merges I found yet another AINSLIE twig that I had as dying, and found that the date involved was actually her marriage date. This time I decided to check my original info, no I hadn't misinterpreted my source, the data was from a patron submission on the IGI and clearly shows her as dead on that date! Jane d/o Robert AINSLIE and Agnes WELSH has also been revived and is now shown as married to her police constable husband Peter SCOTT.
2nd: Major update to the FAIRBAIRN, (or should I say FAIRCHILD?) tree. About a month ago I was contacted by a lady with FAIRBAIRNs in Iowa but I couldn't spot any immediate connection. Sanna, bless her cotton socks, dug out an old message I'd posted to help someone else with some Iowa FAIRBAIRN data and kept me in the loop when she found more.
Betsy kept digging, turning up FAIRBAIRN/SAFLEY cousins marrying FAIRCHILD cousins between a family of a James and of a David, in Ontario and Iowa/Nebraska/Connecticut/Washington ++. Then she got back in touch, having found my plea for "what happened to this family - that of the James in Selkirk in 1841 with children named Alison, Archibald etc.
Both her David and her James had children named Alison and Archibald, the family stories for her James matched by name, date and age, the family in Selkirk in 1841. With a lot more digging, over the space of the last couple of days, we've confirmed what happened to David and James, sons of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER.
The FAIRBAIRN family tree has grown somewhat as a result.
And even better, one of the prior researchers of the American line has reminiscences from "Grandma Viele", which bring them to life, and photos, some of which will gradually be added to the web.
In the meantime I've added one of the newfound Archibald FAIRBAIRNs to the web pages to add a bit of colour to the family story.
Watch this space.
May 2008
25th: Mostly FAIRBAIRN tidyups of late. A lead from Alison added a RIDDELL branch to the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Mary GRIERSON (I had noted the marriage of an Agnes FAIRBAIRN to a John RIDDELL, but never explored further), and several others have had a few dates/places confirmed/added, including the family of Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes HENDERSON.Another WINES branch has also been brought forward in present day Australia thanks to Gary B., whom I calculate is a 6th cousin.
21st: Birth certs have arrived to confirm my educated guesses as to the fate of John A T WIGHT. Yes he did move south into Northumberland, become a member of the Constabulary, and marry Elizabeth PERCIVAL. Son John George WIGHT was born Stocksfield Broomley where J A T W was a Police Constable, and dtr Janet Hobkirk WIGHT was born in the Police Station at Rothbury where J Q T W was by then a Sergeant of Police.
Having fun checking FAIRBAIRN loose ends and tidying all sorts of things up as I realise I have duplications in my database, now that I can access census records more readily.
I had previously concentrated on all the Archibald and Alison/Alice FAIRBAIRNs I could find, but given the recent-ish DNA revelations, I've extended investigations to Roberts, and Georges - but keep getting sidetracked, surprise surprise.
Did stumble across the death of Robert son of George FAIRBAIRN and Janet PURDIE, so there are several more twigs on that tree, which someone else has obviously been interested in, as there are patron submissions on the IGI for the family of Robert and Elizabeth (WAYNESS) FAIRBAIRN.
All of which gave some light relief from trying to sort out the discrepancies in the family of William FAIRBAIRN & Sarah FARRELL.
16th: The SINTON chart has a few new twigs on it. I was checking off my recent batch of updates to OneGreatFamily
The other main branch of the family updated was that of Agnes Isabella AINSLIE and James COMMON, who now have a few more children identified as I found them in the 1901 census. (Agnes is the above Elizabeth's sister).
Rootsweb pages about to be brought up to date after a 2 month lull.
14th: The Original documents subsite has had the rest of the 1894 Tasmanian letter images included, as are all the people referenced, implicitly or explicitly. Would still love to track down present day DAW descendants of this lot (and any other lines for that matter).
DNA testing of a matrilineal descendant of Jane ANDREWS nee GIBSON has shown her to belong to "Jasmine" of the "Seven Daughters of Eve, as the descendant was haplotype J1a. There are some links at the bottom of Jane's page about this.
13th: Guestbook problems have been explained. Yes, they were to do with the integration of Rootsweb into Ancestry, a domain name included in the code for all the guestbooks has to change, would have been nice to have been told that.
At least the existing postings haven't been lost.
I've fixed most of the entry points into the Guestbook, except the Rootsweb Freepages site.
In doing so, my Paradise hosted Homepages have also had an overdue update, given it has been 5 months since they were last updated.
11th: Few more tweaks and additions to the Original documents subsite. Letter from Australia partially added (more to come), some letters/photos resized for better viewing, Isaac DAW(E) from Tasmania and wife Emma GREEN included on pages.
10th: Something seems to have changed with the Rootsweb GuestBooks, all posts are rejecting. I've logged an error and hope this will be temporary, and that the existing posts wont be lost, as I suspect this is something to do with the integration of Rootsweb into ancestry.com.
Been busy identifying and adding RICHARDSON photos to my database, thanks to Grace's photo album, nothing new online there as yet though.
Have included an 1842 letter home from Taranaki in the original documents subsite. It was written/dictated by Simon ANDREWS to his parents, and included in a book of "Letters From Settlers & Labouring Emigrants, in the New Zealand Company's Settlements of Wellington, Nelson, & New Plymouth" published in 1843. I note that it is now on Google books.
So this means that Simon ANDREWS, my 2greats, is finally online in my web pages, albeit only for his basic info. It's a fact of my life that those of the closest rellies that aren't on the web yet, have a bit too much data available, and I've not spent the time winnowing it down for the web.
The will of Margaret MOSSMAN nee SCOTT has a few more bits transcribed, and behind the scenes a bit more data on some of the people involved.
9th: While checking something else I noticed that I'd not found what happened to the family of Daniel & Maggie (Margaret Wilkie SINTON) GIBSON.
Didn't find them all, but several updates have occured, namely: Daniel died after 1881 as Maggie remarried, as a widow, in 1887 to Henry ROSS, adding yet another blacksmith to my extended family. They appear to have moved to Lanarkshire (Airdrie) from Falkirk. Son Peter died single in 1950, the informant being a Fred WARK (possibly of the family he was with in the 1901 census); David Irvine GIBSON died at Stonehouse in 1939, married and with at least one child, James Stewart GIBSON. His marriage to James' mother Sarah Brown STEWART shows David as a widower, so there's another marriage to find as yet; the 1891 census added another child to the family, another Daniel. With a large gap between the 1873 Jane Rae and this new Daniel, c 1882, there may well be others yet to be found.
Maggie died in 1897, after which Henry appears to have remarried as he pops up in 1901 with an Elizabeth as a wife, and several more step-children by name McGREGOR (as opposed to 1891 when it was his GIBSON step children that finally allowed me to find Maggie et al in that census.
7th: Today was a GRAHAM day as a bunch of certificates turned up. Some hits, one miss that turned out a near miss.
Can't seem to find the marriage of David and Jane, both GRAHAM. I therefore ordered the marr. cert of a Jane GRAHAM around the right time and place, but she turns out to have married a Joseph SINTON instead, son of James SINTON, gamekeeper (currently eluding me, although he's probably the one married to Ann IRVING).
Also in the batch was the marriage of John GRAHAM to Elizabeth GRAHAM, so I have pleasure in welcoming their family in from my LornaPotential database as John was indeed the son of George GRAHAM, farmer, and therefore assumed to be the one married to Easet CARRUTHERS (this id being aided by John & Elizabeth's first dtr being Mary Easet GRAHAM).
Elizabeth was the dtr of an Edward and there's probably another connection there as that looks like the family of Edward GRAHAM and Elizabeth BAXTER, with children William, Elizabeth, Andrew, Mary, this latter lady shows up as the inn keeper at the Graham's Arms in West Linton with niece Elizabeth as barmaid (dtr of John & Elizabeth above).
Back to identifying photos and attaching them to the right RICHARDSONs....
6th: What a productive day for the RICHARDSON tree.
I decided to try harder to find who might currently have the snuff box. And succeeded. The snuff box is safe and still in the family, and I might even get to see it, or at the very least a photograph of it and the letter.
I can't quite believe that little mystery was solved so quickly and satisfactorily. Nor can the two other cousins who have been helping me in the updates to the tree.
And that wasn't the end of it.
The 1986 chart from Judy, the grddtr of William Record RICHARDSON, showed a daughter to Andrew William Alexander RICHARDSON Jnr, with a possible marriage to a MORGAN, and no known surname to AWAR's wife Mary Sarah Gertrude. It was an easy leap to add an S to the MORGAN and try and figure out if they were connected once I'd confirmed the marriage of Elizabeth Eleanor RICHARDSON to Rodney Evan MORGANS.
This turns out to be another example of cousins marrying cousins. Betty, dtr of AWA and Mary (MORGANS) RICHARDSON married the son of Leopold Carodoc MORGANS, her mother Mary's brother. This relationship info from a phone conversation with the grandson of a third sibling, Alfred Henry MORGANS, all 3 are children of Evan MORGANS, who left Wales a MORGAN and arrived, and stayed, a MORGANS.
4th: A bit more detective work on John A T WIGHT's marriage showed that the bride was indeed highly likely to be Elizabeth PERCIVAL. Not only was she in the area in 1901, but her mother was an Isabella IVISON, and there's a birth registered Alnwick in 1905 of an Isabella Ivison WIGHT. So the circumstantial evidence is indeed mounting, so much so that I've included them in the WIGHT tree as such, and will hopefully verify the id by a birth cert.
Prompted by all that success I guess I'd better complete the family and figure out what happened to John A T's sister Helen after her marriage.
Another RICHARDSON will included on my "Original documents" sub site - prompted by also including the two family letters (1961) that mention the snuff horn/box ?presented to? James RICHARDSON of the Eastern & Western Hammermen of Portsburgh, Edinburgh.
Does anyone know where it currently is, including hopefully, the letter inside it explaining it?
3rd: Jane TELFER/TELFORD nee SINTON has now been included on my web pages.
More info received from Peter, the descendant of Leslie Bowman CADELL & Agnes Taylor LYONS, which has brought that line down to the present.
2nd: The newfound descendant (Margaret Elliot WIGHT) of John WIGHT and Jessie HOPKIRK turns out to have married a David KING, confection baker from Ayr.
Brother John Adam T WIGHT moved south, at least temporarily, as in 1901 he shows up as a police constable in Corbridge, Northumberland,, although it looks like he may have stayed south and joined my growing collection of Northumberland constabulary relations, as there's a marriage in 1902 to either Elizabeth PERCIVAL or Margaret BELL, and a birth of a Janet Hobkirk WIGHT in Rothbury in 1909 that looks like it might match this family. I suspect Elizabeth is the more likely candidate as she appears to be in Corbridge in 1901 and was born in Rockcliff, Cumberland, which would fit with the Brampton Cumberland marriage.
Sister Helen Thomson WIGHT married a Robert Baptie CAMPBELL, stone mason and was living Heiton in 1901. WIGHT tree updated.
1st: Check out the updated Originals pages.
A RICHARDSON will has been added, although I've not yet linked hardly any of the people mentioned in the document (I'm still on the first page marvelling at how many houses she had to leave to her nieces and nephews).
This will is part of a bundle of photos and letters delivered today by Grace from Hataitai, quite a bonus really as I was only expecting the will. It's one of those coincidence things again. I rang her yesterday to tell her about being contacted by the grddtr of William Record RICHARDSON, only to be greeted by, "Lorna, I was going to ring you tonight, I'm coming out your way tomorrow and was hoping to meet you and give you the will to copy".
A most welcome surprise, and visit, I'll be busy scanning for a while now.
I'm even more convinced that Jane TELFER nee SINTON in Sth Australia is my Helen's sister. Same chubby face. I'll pop a page up on the web for her when I surface a bit more. In the meantime, a few of the new twigs will be on the SINTON chart.
April 2008
29th: An interesting couple of days working on my favourite trees, the Border WIGHTs and SINTONs.Both arose from GenesReunited contacts, and although it has turned out that neither are conclusively linked, information has been updated, thanks to Stephen, for prompting more research on the families of John WIGHT and Jessie HOBKIRK, resulting in another child for the family. Also to Bill, ex of Jedburgh, now in Oz for our SINTON correspondence, during which it turned out that I'd met his Mum back in 1995!
Was able to set him straight about some of his earlier SINTON connections (family of James SINTON and Isabella FLEMING, whom I've now added to the SINTON Surname DNA Project patriarchs page), and may even find someone to join the DNA project to see if they do or don't relate to my Southdean lot.
And just when I was settling back from a fun update session, in comes an email from Perth, WA asking if I knew anything about a Jane SINTON of Southdean who had married James TELFER.
Yes, but not much, just an 1836 marriage where Jane was of Southdean and James of Jedburgh. I'd not found anything further in Scotland for the couple. No wonder really as they'd emigrated, arriving Adelaide in 1839. The Jedburgh OPR added that James was a farm servant of Edgerston, in Jedburgh Parish and Jane of Dikeraw, Parish of Chesters (where the SINTON descendant Janet MATHER nee SINTON was from about 1810 thru at least 1841) and Verity provided the birth/death dates and children. This latter showed a 2nd son Peter and 1st dtr Jane, which, together with a birth date/place for mother Jane of 1812, Southdean, means I'm happy to welcome them to the family of Peter SINTON and Jane WIGHT, and look forward to learning more.
27th: Thought it was probably time I did an update to my Rootsweb WorldConnect database LornaHenderson. It seems to have grown somewhat since the last update a couple of months ago!
Same warning as earlier, the Quebec FAIRBAIRN families are likely to have quite a few people floating around without parents or full details as I'm only gradually working through the checking off what I do/don't have.
Have also updated the FAIRBAIRN page to include a tree for the "cousins" to the Quebec FAIRBAIRNs.
And wonder of wonders, a descendant of the mysterious William Record RICHARDSON has been in touch!
26th: Read the never ending story about the tale of the FAIRBAIRN research to date on Archibald and William/David, culminating in the dna matches between the three lines not previously believed related.
The relevant FAIRBAIRN page and related charts likewise are also now updated to reflect my current thinking on the relationships between these families.
25th: Full 67 marker results for all three participants have now been received for the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project.
Earl and Roy match 67/67, with Martin a genetic distance (GD) of 3 away. Check out the Discussion page for how I currently interpret this.
Had a chat to the newfound (Australian) 5th cousin down the Caithness TAYLOR line. Should be able to fill in those gaps very soon.
22nd: Another letter added to the Devon letters pile, and assorted ROWE family members pages' updated as a result.
Behind the scenes I'm playing mix and match with several fragments, letters that begin and don't end, or end and don't begin, trying to figure out from the context where they all fit.
21st: I think I've figured out a satisfactory way to put Marion's ROWE & DAWE letters onto the web and integrate the web pages as near as I can.
Check out the beginnings of my Original source documents pages.
This subsite only contains people referenced in the source documents included.
I intend this mainly for the letters and possibly wills.
The data on the associated people is restricted to BMD data, along with transcripts of the letters (or other original documents).
So, some people will appear here with basic data but not appear with a narrative on the larger Big Brother site.
Some source documents other than the intended letters will also appear if they are attached to one of the BMD events, so there may be some unexpected bonuses in here.
And I've a LOT of tidying up to do to get all the letters published.
19th: Having fun working through my photographs of Marion's treasure trove of ROWE and DAWE letters. Interesting to see that the KING family get a mention in 1902 (Walter had just died and James was at Hatchell), and that the Williamstown Melbourne DAW contingent (David, son of Isaac, and brother to Honour and Thirza) appear to have been in regular contact with the Melbourne BROOKINGs, even though they weren't related, the connection being via the ROWEs.
But more importantly, I think I've just subtracted one from the family of William & Honour (DAWE) ROWE. I've never managed to find corroboration of the Fanny I'd ascribed to the family, born 25 Aug 1863, and also never managed to find corroboration of her brother Henry's birth. A scrap of paper amongst the letters may have solved this, as it gives Henry's birth as 25 Aug 1863. So either I've misread Fanny from my original source, or the original source was wrong. At the moment I'm tending to the idea that Fanny is a figment of my imagination.
The same scrap of paper has my Matthias' birth as 19th September 1852, instead of the 9th Oct I had. What do others have?
18th: Thankfully, the preliminary results from the two ROWE Surname DNA project participants (Max & Ernest) do show a match. No need to throw out years of research.
Would love to get the DAWE Surname DNA project kick started by finding some eligible (male, still DAW(E) surname) modern day DAWE descendants to participate.
17th: Lovely story from the newfound GRAHAM cousins.
I don't know if it was the headstone of Grimston GRAHAM, or that of Stephen GRIMSTON (but would like to know if either are still visible), so all in all, it may well be complete chance that the unusual name has actually put relations in contact with each other!
14th: Updated GRAHAM chart to reflect all the newfound cousins. I'm even more convinced that this David is the son of Mary as I've now eliminated another David of about the same age from my enquiries.
Tonight's find was David's son Stephen. Family anecdote had him as going to work one day and disappearing, with rumours of long running feud with his boss, and talk of going to America. Couldn't find him there. The answer was much simpler, he'd merely moved across the Border and settled in Minto as signalman at Hassendean, dying in Hawick in 1924.
Still need lots of dates and places on the more recent descendants of David and Jane, but I've caught up with what Gary had, and checked off what I can.
12th: Finally beginning to catch breath. How come when you go away on a holiday, no matter how briefly, you have to work twice as hard beforehand and 3 times as hard afterwards to make up for the absence?
Mostly been working on checking off the family of David GRAHAM and Jane GRAHAM, David looking highly likely to be the one shown in the 1851 census as grandson of Stephen GRAHAM in English St, Longtown.
Have also been contacted by a grandson of one of my Caithness TAYLOR twigs, Agnes Taylor LYONS. Updates to follow.
9th: Several DNA results have come in over the weekend, the most exciting isn't one of mine, but the RUNCIMAN Surname DNA project has now shown a 36/37 marker match between a family in the States and one in New Zealand, which looks to have solved what happened to a branch of the family of James RUNCIMAN and Agnes HERRIOT.
8th: All things come to those who wait. A descendant of the Grimston GRAHAM I had noted from the BBC War Stories site has popped out of the woodwork. We've a few minor date discrepancies to sort out, but with a name like Grimston in the family I had high hopes that I'd finally found a living GRAHAM descendant for my Stephen of Longtown. At the moment the evidence is circumstantial, but highly so. Gary can get back from Grimston to a David and Jane, both GRAHAM. This David is shown as born Longtown 1841. The only David within 5 years of that age born Longtown that shows up on census data is the David son of Mary, and therefore the grdson of my Stephen. Gary's father seems to think that the more modern Grimston was named for a distant relation who used to be a stagecoach driver in the 1700s.
It will take a while, read a very long while, but over the next few months I hope to have sorted thru and published on the web, the treasure trove of letters and photos to/from the DAWE and ROWE families in England and Taranaki. I've been up to Auckland to visit Marion specifically to take photos of her treasured box of letters, and was absolutely amazed. I hadn't been prepared for the number of the letters, and the number of old photos was also a wonderful surprise.
Great to finally meet her after all these years too.
At a very quick glance, most of my photos have come out fine, but one or two aren't brilliantly focused and will take some deciphering. But at least there is now another copy of them all.
3rd: While looking for something else I happened to notice an 1858 death cert. for a Margaret WIGHT, mother's maiden name HALL and thought that might be interesting. Sure enough her parents were given as James WIGHT, joiner, dec'd and Isabella HALL, which matches the profile for her to be a sister to my Jane WIGHT who married Peter SINTON, although she could belong to one of the other James WIGHT/Isabella HALL couples. For now, I'll claim her as one of mine, because of the "joiner" occupation for James, and her birthplace of Jedburgh.
March 2008
31st: Interesting what you find when looking for other things. I was checking out the Ednam blacksmith FAIRBAIRNs, and in 1871 I found one Isabella RICHARDSON, 17 of Morebattle, as a servant in the household of Edward and Isabella (HOGARTH) FAIRBAIRN. Isabella is the dtr of James RICHARDSON and Mary HOGG, and went on to have two illegitimate sons, Robert and Alexander, and died at the rather young age of 23.27th: Noted a GenesReunited Hotmatch on the family of Janet SINTON & James Thomson LIDDLE today.
The researcher wasn't a relation, but made me realise there was more to be found on this family as I'd barely scratched the surface of available records.
SINTON tree updated as a result, as several descendants of Janet and James have now been traced forward in time. They seem to have mostly stayed around Galashiels, although I suspect Agnes moved south, given she married a David SPIERS, fitter of Poplar, Middlesex.
Interesting range of occupations amongst the siblings. Instead of them all being woollen weavers/piecers, power loom weavers, there was a blacksmith, a joiner, and a grocer, at least.
24th: Two postings in my Guestbook on the same day from newfound rellies, or at least since I last read it.
One had info on a new twig on the WIGHT/STEPHENSON line, which just happens to be the line where Harry and I have been chasing a mysterious Hugh STEPHENSON with dtr Margaret who married a John WIGHT, who may or may not have been the widower living in the same building in 1841 in the Fleshmarket, Edinburgh in 1841.
Hugh is highly likely to be the father of the Robert STEPHENSON who married Isabella WIGHT, so who on earth is John WIGHT, horse dealer, or is he just a complete coincidence?
The other was on the BAIN/SUTHERLAND line down from James BAIN's dtr Helen Sutherland BAIN who married George McDONALD. Good to know a bit more about that line.
Look forward to hearing more about both families.
WIGHT and BAIN descendant charts updated with interim findings.
22nd: As I've checked off quite a few of the Quebec FAIRBAIRN bits I already have, I've put a preliminary update of the rellies database onto MyHeritage, but not yet onto Rootsweb. If you check it out, don't be surprised about incomplete families, stray people without parents etc, I'm only marking people to be included as I find them in assorted BDM, census or cemetery records, or am otherewise convinced they exist and my data is something like accurate.
21st: Thanks to the wonderful people who selflessly transcribe and photograph headstones, I now have confirmation of several more links on the Quebec FAIRBAIRN chains. My special thanks to Anne CADY for Riverside Cemetery, Gouverneur NY and those who did Rupert Union Cemetery
Quebec FAIRBAIRN chart updated.
20th: Corrections made to the TOZER/DAYMOND portion of the KING chart thanks to a posting in my Guestbook by Eileen D.
19th: Few twigs on the Quebec FAIRBAIRN descendant chart confirmed/added (mostly on the HUDSON/McGILLIVRAY portions).
Read the will of Janet FAIRBAIRN nee SCOTT (d. Fens, St Boswells, 27 Dec 1891). Sole surviving son John James, but with a mysterious mention of an Eliza in an undated codicil presented along with her will.
"My Dear John James of the little money I leave will you give to Eliza if she is stil in want her friends in Australia will be able to tell you about her.."
I don't yet know if this family is connected or not, but a John James was a witness to the will of James RUNCIMAN, probably in his capacity as apprentice to Robert Romanes, writer of Lauder, it probably being significant that John James' grandmother was a Jane ROMANIS. Given the St Boswells connection, I'm hunting for a link to "my" St Boswells FAIRBAIRN families, although it does rather look more like they're from Legerwood originally.
17th: Confirmation received that I was indeed on the right trail for at least one of the children of Thomas Storror HULL and Ada Trimble DAVEY. Ada Norah HULL married Leonard REY in Heavitree, Oct 1929, Leonard a buyer, son of a Peter REY retired civil servant, & Ada d/o Thomas HULL a woollen merchant.
Marion has written to the last address I have for a Colin who looks like he might be their son, given he was last known to be on the same street in Exeter.
Transcript received, from Ernest, of the 1858 will of James ROWE, h/o Elizabeth COLMAN, which has completely convinced Ernest and I that we have indeed connnected James up to the correct father, Matthias (as opposed to his being his cousin James bap, 1788, the son of John and Charity (BLAGDON) ROWE). He leaves the Kantham property he inherited from his father, to his son Henry Colman ROWE jointly with wife Elizabeth. It also provides an alternate surname for dtr Jane, who the Lydford marriages on GenUKi show as marrying a Samuel GORDON. She is referred to as Jane GOODYEAR in the will, and I now can spot the other half of her marriage on FreeBMD as Samuel GOODER.
LornaPotential updated, mainly to remove the Quebec families of William & David FAIRBAIRN in readiness to publishing them in the rellies database LornaHenderson instead, but that will take some time as I check off what I do and don't have.
16th: Began wading thru some FAIRBAIRN wills to try and sort out some inconsistencies in some of the published trees.
As a result, I've updated the Patriarch's page on the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project to show some of the alternatives that may exist to previously published data.
Caution is recommended, check both my and other's data and reach your own conclusions.
Participants for the project on other lines particularly welcome. I can't quite believe that all three people currently tested all match, there have to be other lines out there somewhere!
The James LAPPIN/Marion HENDERSON branch found below (12th) has proved rather prolific. Robert has provided me with a heap of 1918 to 1940 birth extracts for the family in Lanarkshire, firstly Newlands, Uddingston, then Tannochside, then Bellshill, then Bridgeton, Glasgow. If this rings any bells for you, I'd love to hear from you. Marion is the dtr of William HENDERSON & Marion AITKEN, and these LAPPIN children are my 3rd cousins, from the Archibald branch of the family of James HENDERSON & Amelia MILLAR that remained in the UK when all the rest of the family emigrated to NZ.
14th: Tidied up a bit of a mixup down the BATY tree re TURNER/MORAN etc. As this was nearly into present day, it probably wasn't online but the BATY chart may have shown the confusion, now corrected.
This activity being spurred by a reply from another GR hot match - Scott, a descendant of Andrew BATY and Mary RICHARDSON. Hopefully discussions will ensue as he has Andrew connected to different parents than I do, so I've pointed him to my page on Andrew and hope he is convinced.
12th: GenesReunited has come up trumps with a new Hot Match.
A new contact showed up with a match on Archibald HENDERSON & Agnes TODD. Although she isn't a relation, I now know a bit more about what happened to their son William, last seen as the informant for his wife Marion Glen HENDERSON nee AITKEN's death in Glasgow in 1908, and before that in Torpichen in 1901, with three dtrs, Ellen Haddow K, Amelia and Marion.
At the time I couldn't find William's death, bit too hard to pick which he was likely to be. The GR contact, Moira, had a year, which I've now confirmed, and found that the Procurator Fiscal got involved as the cause was expanded from the medical diagnosis on his death cert to include the information that the injuries were "by accident received through fall of portion of wall of shaft in colliery". So I guess there was a colliery accident in Bothwell around Dec 1925/ Jan 1926, his spinal injuries being of 8 months duration.
Couldn't spot a fatal accident report on the excellent Scottish Mining Villages web site.
Found dtr Marion's marriage, to yet another LAPPIN, which seems to not be as unusal a name as I thought, as I found when I did an index search for likely births following the 1917 marriage and quickly gave up on that idea.
Another branch of the HENDERSON family has a LAPPIN, but without a lot more work, I cannot see any immediate connection.
William's second marriage (1919 to an Annie HALLEY nee CAMERON) appears to have produced yet another Archibald HENDERSON for the files, another second cousin once removed to be found.
Brief HENDERSON chart updated.
11th: Having great fun sorting out and revisiting assorted FAIRBAIRN families.
Roy mentioned blacksmiths today. So I reviewed what I knew about the Ednam blacksmith families only to find one connection I hadn't realised before, and another potential one, and of course, a new puzzle or two.
Reading the Galashiels OPR the other day re-checking that William F. definitely wasn't there, I came across the 1802 birth/baptism for John F. son of William FAIRBAIRN and Margaret THOMSON of "New Wooll". I believe this John to be the one who married Margaret SINTON and emigrated to Blandford, Ontario between 1835 and 1838. Two of their children were born when they were at Fairnalee, Galashiels, so when I found an 80 year old William FAIRBAIRN in the 1841 census at Fairnalee, I assumed he was John's father.
So far so good, apart from the fact that I also have a William FAIRBAIRN and Margaret THOMSON as the grandfather (via their son Edward) of a William FAIRBAIRN born New Wooler 1823. And I also have that William as buried in Ednam aged 61 in 1817. So, of an age, and place, but can't be both dead and alive in 1841. More work needed.
The potential connection with this family of blacksmiths is via this 1823 William's dtr Fanny who married an Archibald Henderson FAIRBAIRN, a potential descendant of one or t'other of the Archibalds.
FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project Patriarch pages updated with the pedigree of the above Archibald Henderson FAIRBAIRN's family in the hope that a descendant might join the project and help pinpoint where that family fits too.
8th: FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project pages updated to reflect the new results.
In particular, I've split Roy's supplied pedigree into two, the first being the definite lineage back to William who married Jean WANLESS, with his brother David, and the second being Sir William's line.
I've expanded the latter to show a few more salient connections in the hope that a participant may come forward for the project to help resolve whether or not Reby (Johnston) DODDS claim of a relationship in her book Who's Which (1970) is based in fact.
I confess to needing more proof, as the schoolmaster Reby refers too as the connection would appear NOT to be the William married to Elsie ELLIOT, but the one married to Margaret SCOTT.
How I'd love a time machine to go back and ask Reby why she has William and David's parents as William and Elise (ELLIOT) FAIRBAIRN, when indications are that their father is an Archibald.
7th: What an eventful day, genealogically speaking. Yesterday the preliminary 12 marker results arrived in for the 3rd kit of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project and to my surprise, showed a 12/12 match with both of the other 2 participants, neither of whom had ever been seriously considered as relations.
Sure, I'd speculated at times that, despite what others had said, that the William who married Jane WANLESS and the David who married Jane WILLIAMSON, who had emigrated to Quebec, might be the children of my Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER, purely on the basis of naming patterns of their children, and approximate ages, but proof was definitely lacking.
Then today, the rest of the results arrived showing a full 37/37 match with the descendant of Archibald and Mary (GRIERSON) FAIRBAIRN, and a 36/37 match with a descendant of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN.
I've spent a lot of today re-examining assorted claims and OPRs and will soon update the patriarchs page of the Surname project to reflect my findings, combining them as best I can with details reported to me, leaving exactly where they fit into the overall tree for another day, and possibly an upgraded dna test or two.
I'm still very drawn to attaching them to an Archibald as a father, but it would now have to be the one married to Mary GRIERSON instead. A 1790 date for William would fit in between two known children both baptised St Boswells but at different farms, and a 1799 date for David would definitely fit in between 1793 Margaret baptised when they were at Thornylaw, St Boswells, and 1804 George by when they had moved to Macksidemoor, Southdean.
As to the rumoured/believed connection to Sir William FAIRBAIRN's family via his schoolmaster uncle....
I believe that schoolmaster to be the William married to Margaret SCOTT. He was teaching at Bowden from 1778 to 1789 and from 1792 thru 1798 children are now being baptised in Galashiels. This latter period would fit the dates when Sir William was supposedly learning book-keeping from his Uncle in Gala.
In addition, this William looks very like the 53 yr old buried in the Galashiels Old Kirk Cemetery in 1810, which date coincides very nicely with the baptism of the William, son of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON, Apr 1756, Smailholm.
All in all, an eventful day indeed. It is wonderful to know that the work I have sporadically done on the descendants of William and David in Quebec has not been in vain, and that they are indeed all relations, just not sure where yet! Maybe one day soon we'll also figure out how come Walter A FAIRBAIRN is a cousin to his wife Clarissa. I now have more of a vested interest in the answer to that.
In the meantime, I've updated the FAIRBAIRN introductory page to include charts for William and David.
The other charts will also now include some new twigs for the family of John FAIRBAIRN and Bessie FLINT, and Robert FAIRBAIRN and Agnes LANDRETH/LAUNDRESS found while looking for others.
5th: Given the burst of activity on tracing the HULL/DAVEY family down to present day (and yes I did find the marriage of a Leonard REY and Ada Norah HULL - 1932 Exeter, so that is looking promising) I checked what else I might be missing on the related families.
I've had to bring Laura Ann COLLINGS back to last sighting 1891, rather than Pat's 1901 teaching in Suffolk, as that latter was a Laura A, with a sister Albertha E KING, widow, which is a different family of John & Elizabeth COLLINGS as far as I can currently tell, where Laura A is actually Laura Arabella Augusta, rather than Laura Ann, and Albertha E is Emma Sophia Albertha.
4th: Figured out where the newfound Australian branch of the FAIRBAIRN/BROOMFIELD/ADDISON family fits.
Michelle is the granddtr of Agnes May (aka Maisie) BARLOW nee WHITE, who obviously skipped the ditch and married in NSW.
I used the opportunity to track down a likely descendant of Agnes ADDISON nee BROOMFIELD's in Hokitika and update the tree. My last flurry of activity on this line was back in 1996 and ended up with a lot of "s/he married, and has x children", so there are still quite a few gaps to plug on that line. A quick search of the Electoral rolls did rather lead me to think, oh dear, I've left this a bit late, as the names I did have were of the older generation, and none were still around, but a punt on a likely surname in Hokitika got me started again.
The FAIRBAIRN descendant chart has been updated - yet again.
Also turned my attention back to DAVEY descendants. Marion would like to ensure that old ROWE/DAWE letters she has from her mother are kept in the family, so we are back looking for descendants of Thomas Storror and Ada Trimble (DAVEY) HULL.
Last known address Polsloe Rd, Exeter, 1922, two children, probably born around 1901-1905.
I've pieced together a plausible story that these are Kathleen Alice T HULL born 1901 and Ada Norah HULL born 1904, both the only HULL births registered in the District of St Thomas, Devon where Thomas and Ada married in 1900, but this is as yet unchecked by certificates or other means. Kathleen appears to have died aged 11 in 1913, but it looks like Ada married as I can spot the death of an Ada Norah REY, registered Exeter in 1991, with a birth date that would match this Ada Norah, and a Leonard REY of about the right age also dying in Exeter, so am currently trying to find anyone researching this possible family, or any descendants. There's also a Colin REY of Exeter on the electoral rolls, but only up to 2006, and he is of Polsloe RD, so that looks promising, other than he isn't in the current electoral roll, or the phone book online.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? Love to hear from you.
3rd: Places section of "Big Brother" web site updated to include a section on the Lumburn Mill. General confusion on how come this picture is a Dawe family one, when it has to have been taken after they'd all left the area or died.
No doubt whatsoever that it is the Lumburn Mill however.
The smartmatching feature of MyHeritage is indeed working. Within a day of reloading my basic tree there again, I've been contacted by two people, one a remote connection via the husband of Emma BISHOP (marr. William Walter PIDDINGTON in the States), with a secondary connection back to the DOOLE/OLDS of Taranaki etc, and a second, closer connection, with a descendant of Agnes ADDISON nee BROOMFIELD, exactly how yet to be determined.
2nd: Contacted by a ROSIE researcher on GenesReunited wondering if we had a match on William who married Margaret McADIE.
Her tree definitely showed a William of the right age and married to Margaret, but gave William's parents as Alexander ROSIE and Charlotta MANSON, whereas William's 1867 death cert says his parents are Alexander ROSIE and Elizabeth MANSON, so the jury is still out.
Mistake on death cert or another couple? At least one other tree (on WorldConnect) shows the same as her.
Nonetheless it did prompt me to check for a few more twigs, so now Elizabeth Jane, dtr of David Sinclair Wemyss McADIE & Margaret BAIN, has been found in 1901 with her husband William MacKAY and two daughters with a string of names each.
Assorted descendant charts updated: DAWE, ROWE, McADIE.
Also re-investigated MyHeritage, the site GenCircles morphed into.
Looks like they've fixed a few of the initial teething troubles, so have reloaded my basic BMD data there.
The smartmatching that was a good feature of GenCircles appears to be working.
February 2008
29th: A posting on the GenForum FUGE board elicited a prompt response and contact with two researchers of the name in Australia. Like me, they hadn't solved the problem of what happened to Samuel, Thomasin Ann and John Edwin, children of William FUGE and Mary Elizabeth HAMLEY, but were able to add several details, including most of the later baptisms and some exact marriage dates.But even more interestingly, this contact has finally lead to exact identification of the Lumburn Mill.
I was swapping Tavistock Library stories with one of the FUGE researchers, telling her about how I'd been trying to identify where assorted mills were that Isaac DAWE had been (Newton, Mill Hill, Lifton and Lumburn).
She had also been trying to identify the Lumburn mill as one of the FUGE wives' families had been there from between 1851 and 1861, presumably following on from my Isaac DAWE who had died in 1851 or his son Isaac who had emigrated to Australia by 1857.
When I was in Devon in Aug 2006 I had followed the river up from Lumburn to Middle Lumburn to Higher Lumburn taking pics of likely buildings for the Lumburn Mill, the first being on the A390 out of Tavistock just past the Lumburn bridge.
As my map didn't show any great water source near to this first set, well past the bridge, I assumed it wasn't the mill and had turned off onto the B road to the right, so didn't get to see the front of the first set of buildings I'd snapped from the bridge side.
However, Eleanor's 2003 photo from the other side is an exact match with the family photo that we have marked "Lumburn House and Mill" with assorted well dressed Victorians outside. Obviously the water is either hidden, or has been diverted over the centuries.
Marriage cert of William MATTERS arrived. I had picked the right bride - Mary GRIBBIN (of Newquay, Tavistock), dtr of Edward. Haven't yet found her/them in 1841 and 1851.
26th: William LAKEMAN and family moved from Taranaki to Melbourne via the brigantine "Active" in Jun 1859. The obits of William and wife Martha appear in the Taranaki Herald on Papers Past because of their connection with early Taranaki history, so there are many hints as to the rest of the extended family, which I'm gradually working through.
There's even an MP in there, son Allen representing Balranald for 4 years (the family soon left Melbourne and settled in Wagga Wagga).
25th: Forgot to mention (back on the 21st) that the Toronto descendant of Hugh HAMLEY and Elizabeth ROWE found a web reference to a William LAKEMAN of Bere Ferrers who would definitely fit the bill of being the grandson mentioned in the will of Matthias ROWE in 1836. I interpreted the will to refer to grandsons William, James and John LUKEMAN, but could easily re-interpret that as LAKEMAN. I found the baptisms of (I assume twins) brothers James Rowe and John sons of John (carpenter) & Mary LAKENHAM of Lydford in the Bere Ferrers registers in 1816. Check out William LAKEMAN, early resident of New Plymouth. I've not managed to find his baptism, but this is the right age, place, and I think parents. What I found most fascinating about this was the additional connection it gives me into Taranaki, and prior to the so called "first 6 ships" that brought my 2*great grandparents, and so many of the forbears of my Taranaki relations. Addenda: Found William's baptism in 1811, which has convinced me even further that he's the right chap. Interesting to re-read some of my New Plymouth history books in light of this new link. I've always thought of the first 6 ships as beginning the main European population of New Plymouth and environs, but the "Brougham" is described on 13 Feb 1841 as having "sailed on Monday last for Taranaki" (from Wellington). She has on board about sixty persons and a full cargo of houses".. and .. "With sixty persons Taranaki may be considered as colonised." (Rutherford and Skinner p xiv) The "Brougham" arrived in New Plymouth on the 12th Feb, and the "William Bryan" arrived on 30th March 1841, landing passengers on the 31st.
23rd: I do so love working on Devon families, so much economy of effort.
I was checking to see what might have happened to Elizabeth Hamley FUGE, so searched FreeBMD for a marriage. Up she popped in the Jun qtr of 1886 (Tavistock) along with a Walter Frederick CREBYK (as indexed) along with a Charles Henry HAMLEY and Hannah Laura HAMLYN.
I was reasonably sure that if I checked the image Walter Frederick CREBYK would be one of the many CREBERs in the area. The image was a little hard to read around his surname, but with the benefit of local research knowledge, I would have interpreted it as CREBER. But to make sure before I added a correction for the FreeBMD index, I looked for him in 1891. There he was, obligingly using his full name, and with wife Hannah Laura, QED. But before I went back to looking for Elizabeth Hamley FUGE and Charles Henry HAMLEY in 1891 (to prove they are the cousins they look like they are), I idly checked my database for Walter Frederick CREBER, not thinking any of the Bere Ferrers CREBERs were mine, and there he was, untraced beyond 1881 until now.
Definitely economy of effort.
ROWE and KING charts updated.
GenesReunited has again come up trumps too.
I'd found someone with an interest in Charles CORROCK and Sarah Rowe Hamley FUGE. He turned out to be a great grandson. His mother, still alive, remembers Sarah. Malcolm also remembers his granny (Emily Louise CORROCK) and her sister Flo (Florence Amy CROSSE nee FUGE) keeping a wine shop on the sth edge of Mutley Plain, Plymouth when they were both widowed.
21st: A few certs have arrived over the last couple of days but I've been busy with a visitor, and my pv panel installation (now operational, wonderful watching all that power flowing into the house that has no ongoing cost attached - just need to add the windmill now).
Firstly the family of Francis Douglas SINTON and Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN has now been confirmed to have at least Isabella May (born Nov 1904) and John William born Oct 1906, both with Francis Douglas' occupation given as Police Officer, and occuring at Acklington R.D. Both registered in the Alnwick Sub District of Warkworth, Northumberland.
Secondly - confirmation that James SINTON, son of gamekeeper James SINTON and Jane AINSLIE, did indeed marry Isaballe Mary EMMERSON.
These SINTONs are actually a different branch of SINTONs, with Southdean connections, Jane being the dtr of Robert AINSLIE and Margaret SINTON, "my" Southdean SINTONs. Usual refrain applies, would love to trace present day SINTON descendants of this line to join the SINTON Surname DNA project and see if the families are connected. James traces back to a Thomas SINTON and Elizabeth HASTIE.
There were several males in the next generation from James and his brothers Thomas and Robert, so I live in hope. Places associated with them are Anfield Plain, Wooler, Alnwick, Newcastle, Castle Ward.
19th: What happens when someone chats to a neighbour!!!
Updated Ernest with the latest on the HAMLEY family, and he remembered that some years ago when he started investigating his family tree he mentioned this to his neighbour, who surprised him by replying that her ancestors were also from Bere Ferrers, called FUGE and that there was a connection to the ROWEs by marriage, with children named Sarah Rowe Hamley FUGE and others with HAMLEY in their names.
Wasn't hard to dig out that connection. Mary Elizabeth, dtr of Hugh and Elizabeth (ROWE) HAMLEY, married William FUGE, bargeman of Bere Ferrers. Someone else is obviously working on the tree as there's a post-em against the marriage entry on FreeBMD with the details of the marriage cert!
ROWE descendants chart updated, yet again.
As is the Barter Descendants chart as a few more twigs were found/updated.
18th: More work done on the family of Hugh HAMBLY/HAMLEY and Elizabeth ROWE. I've included their grandson William Henry HAMLEY on my web pages as at least one other researcher has different findings as to what happened to him.
My findings appear to agree with a descendant in Toronto, so I'm comfortable with what I have, even without a crucial marriage cert. to clinch the id one way or the other (married to either Ellen Ann GILL or to Martha WOODHOUSE).
ROWE chart updated, as is the DAWE chart as I've been found by a descendant of Betsy DAWE & John GALE via their son Samuel (see postings in my guestbook for further details)
16th: DAWE Surname DNA Project Patriarchs page updated to include Isaac DAWE's family.
Any takers to join the project?
Would welcome any descendants of Devon or Cornwall DAW(E) families.
14th: Given the posting earlier this month about the ROWE family connection to "The Hound of the Baskervilles", I was somewhat amused to find that the baptism of one of the relations (in the family of Hugh HAMBLEY/HAMLEY & Elizabeth ROWE) showed a second forename of Baskervill. However this was in 1826 in Beer Ferrers, so rather prescient.
Have made great strides in identifying what happened to Elizabeth and her HAMLEY family. Mostly stayed around Beer Town, with some straying to Devonport so far.
ROWE descendants chart updated, yet again.
13th: Continued updating the line of George and Janet (PURDIE) FAIRBAIRN
Both that of their son Charles whose children ended up moving from Pennsylvania to Illinois, Washington State, California (and probably others).
And that of the New Zealand branch of their dtr Margaret who married John WILLIAMSON and 11 days later hopped on a boat to NZ (Three Bells, on the same voyage were the family of FAMILTONs who settled in Oamaru).
The other Archibald FAIRBAIRN chart updated - again.
Barb has provided details on how her friend Cathy connects back to Joseph MATTERS & Mary CUDLIP, and also provided a couple of useful web sites:
Washington State Digital Archives and a North Dakota Marriage License index
10th: Obviously a good year for FAIRBAIRNs. Having recently added George FAIRBAIRN and Janet PURDIE into the extended FAIRBAIRN family, I had found most of their children in assorted records, but not their dtr Margaret. All was explained. Here in NZ, about 3/4 hr drive away, is a descendant who has just contacted me, Margaret and her new husband emigrated to NZ shortly after their marriage in Melrose, Rox. The other Archibald FAIRBAIRN chart updated. Newly acquired surnames include: WILLIAMSON, EYRE, STENHOUSE, BRADBURY, THORNTON, in Dunedin, Auckland, and Wellington.
I've also been contacted by a MATTERS descendant in Washington State. Not yet exactly sure how she connects back to Joseph MATTERS and Mary CUDLIP, but that's her line apparently.
8th: Both databases on Rootsweb WorldConnect updated (LornaHenderson and LornaPotential).
Today's coincidence. I was browsing the Rootsweb FAIRBAIRN Message Board and idly wondering if those mentioned in Lambton, Ontario were mine or not. I then checked my guestbook (see link at top right) and found a new message from a lady who kept finding FAIRBAIRN info that she didn't know where it connected with her family, including a funeral order of service for a Jessie of Blandford, 3 of which family had died within a year. Also mentioning a FAIRBAIRN of Lambton.
The Blandford sounded familiar, and sure enough were my relations (John FAIRBAIRN married Margaret SINTON, it is actually the SINTON that is related). Within the space of Jan to Apr in 1871 two daughters died of consumption followed by the father.
Unfortunately her email was rejected, so it could take a while to make further contact.
7th: Another of those wonderful coincidences that I feel abound most particularly in this world of genealogy.
Over the last week or so I've been having an intermittent conversation with an Arnold, whom I assume is somewhere in Argentina, who has an interest in Scots in Argentina.
I was trying to figure out how to further identify the Richard RUNCIMAN who is shown on a website as being buried in Buenos Aires in 1875 aged 60. He has to belong to my family somewhere. Arnold suggested immigration records (Entradas) and a few other hints, which I forwarded to one of my RUNCIMAN relations in Argentina asking if he might help track down further information about Richard.
He replied that he would be delighted, and that he had a friend who was an historian who might be able to help.
In the meantime Arnold also gave me the email address of a lady, Maxine, who had published a directory of Brits up to about 1850. So I sent the info on. It turns out that Maxine (or her family) is the neighbour of my relation, and the historian friend he was talking about. Small world indeed.
Ongoing conversation, resumption of one from 2006, about the family of Joseph MUMFORD and Emlyn/Emmeline ROWE, and where she and brothers James and Henry (etc) ROWE of Bere Ferrers belong. I think I've convinced Angela, and reconvinced myself, that I am correct in assigned James Julian Dunkin ROWE to Matthias and Sarah (DUNKIN) ROWE. Both James and Matthias were blacksmiths, and whatever spelling of Dunkin you use for James Julian's 3rd forename, does point rather to Sarah being his mother.
They have a cousin James, who was of an age, one baptised 1787, the other 1788, so options do exist.
6th: I obviously got sidetracked when working on the ROWE family last year. Found that I'd not finished working thru the will of Matthias ROWE. Probably because I still cannot identify who on earth the LUKEMAN family are (Matthias' grandchildren via his dtr Mary who also married HORNBROOK), but I did find a suitable HAMLEY marriage for dtr Elizabeth, having originally interpreted the writing as HURRLEY!
ROWE charts updated, World Connect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential will follow shortly as there have been quite a few dates and places checked since last update, including to the American branch of the family.
Both ROWE Surname DNA project web pages (FamilyTreeDNA and World Families Network) updated, and the first Devonshire descendant recruited.
5th: Elementary my dear ROWE:
A foray back into the ROWE family reminded me that I hadn't replied to an email from quite some time ago from Ernest, a descendant of the ROWE family who owned/ran the Duchy hotel in Princetown. He had found out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written some of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" while staying at the hotel. Web searches show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had checked into a hotel in Princetown. The book was beginning to be published by 1901, and there were two hotels in Princetown, both with ROWE family connections, the Duchy from at least 1851. In 1901 Aaron ROWE was recorded at the Duchy House Hotel, which Kelly's 1914 directory for Devonshire shows as a Private Hotel, with Aaron still there.
More Australian relations down this ROWE line have shown up, thanks to Ernest pointing me to a connection in GenesReunited.
Being a tiger for punishment, I've extended my DNA interests to the ROWE family, taking on co-ordination of the Family Tree DNA Surname project for that one too. Interested parties should check out the ROWE Surname DNA Project website at the World Famlies Network to see results for some who have already been tested, doesn't look like any Devonshire ones there yet, which will hopefully change soon.
I've not yet added "our" pedigree lines or done any changes to the web site I've just inherited, that will come.
3rd: January gone already?
Flurry of activity on the family of Edward BENNETT and Betsy DAWE, prompted by a descendant (grddtr) of Mabel VIGUS finding me. What's more she has supplied me with transcripts from two birthday books, so I've been having fun trying to identify everyone. Managed to do so for most, but not all. Several BENNETT children obviously belong in the generation after the 1901 census, and as they were born prior to the birth index showing the mother's maiden name, I don't know which BENNETT son they are likely to belong too (apart from the one whose parents have hopefully given the game away by including SLOWMAN in his forenames).
Brief DAWE chart updated, as is the fuller one on the main pages.
And with a number BDMs exact dates supplied, and registration places now checked, I'll probably do another WorldConnect update soon too.
This brings the surnames from the DAWE/BENNET marriage to: ASH, LISLE, SLOWMAN or SLOMAN, VIGUS, BLATCHFORD and MOON, with the next generations down having: BAKER, WIDDICOMBE, JENKINS, BORRETT, MITCHELL, NANCARROW, GOWING. It also adds another Australian family into the mix, Edith Mary BAKER nee ASH dying in Sydney at age 94.
January 2008
28th: The RUINCIMAN Surname DNA project now shows that the respective descendants of the Michigan and Wanton Walls RUNCIMAN families are a very good match, at 37 out of 37 markers. Now I'm trying to work out whether or not it is worth upgrading the tests to get a better idea of how closely related, or just to fit William in where he probably belongs anyway. I reckon his grandfather is probably a son of John and Betsy(FAMILTON) RUNCIMAN, so along with this assumption, and that the Michigan James and William are cousins, not brothers, that's where I've placed them in the RUNCIMAN family tree. If anyone has a convincing argument of where better to place them, speak up.Still looking for a willing descendant of James & Isabella (CARTER) RUNCIMAN to join the project - which is growing. There's been some interest from a descendant of William of Crail whose descendants seemed determined to set foot in a fair few countries and Counties: Fife, Dunbar, Ireland, Canada, NZ, Australia... and hopefully Don will eventually get some evidence of a connection between his James and Janet (HOG) RUNCIMAN of Selkirk then Canada, and the James & Agnes (HERIOT) RUNCIMAN of Ayton/Dunbar whose descendants went to Selkirk, Ohio, and NZ.
24th: Both databases on WorldConnect updated, so the links on the lhs of most of my web pages to "BMD Data on all rellies" and "Likely Rellies" will take you to the latest and greatest, including all the newfound twigs down the SINTON and FAIRBAIRN families.
You'll have to use those links to get to the newer names for a couple of days though as it will take a while for the indexing on WorldConnect to catch up.
On the basis of predicting children's names, I think there also has to be a Peter ROBSON somewhere around Roxburghshire, son of Richard ROBSON and Isabella SINTON.
Finally also managed to update the web pages. The newfound Isabella SINTON and Alison FAIRBAIRN are both included, and all charts now contain the current versions of the trees.
Exciting news on the RUNCIMAN Surname DNA project as well, yes, there's a match (admittedly only 12/12 markers at this stage) between the Wanton Walls RUNCIMAN family, as represented by David in Spain, and the Michigan family of William and Mary (BROWN) RUNCIMAN, as represented by Jerry.
Still looking for a representative of the family of William's cousin (or brother) James & Isabella (CARTER) RUNCIMAN.
And the newfound FAIRBAIRN relation in Dunedin lives directly opposite the couple who lived in front of my first "home" post University in Dunedin.
23rd: There had to be an Alison.
Having been found by the descendants of the newfound (to me) dtr Isabella, to Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and having done a lot of digging around to find as many of the descendants as wanted to be found, I then went digging to find other researchers of the new names added into the tree: ROBSON, MABON, HILSON, TURNBULL, BRODIE, THOMSON, INGLIS, SCOTT, MIDDLEMIST, GRAHAM, TAYLOR, RENWICK, HUNTER, WAUGH.
On the Borders FHS site, the Surname interests came up trumps for TURNBULL and MABON. At the time I found the TURNBULL researcher and looked at the web page, I wasn't sure it was the same family, but a bit more digging, and bingo. A couple of Isabella's great grdchildren had emigrated to Canada after WWI.
For MABON I picked one researcher for no better reason other than she had a NZ address. Such decisions can be fateful.
This evening, I received a pedigree chart from Amanda, and completely forgot about checking MABONs further, as she was a FAIRBAIRN relation of mine from a daughter I didn't have, for Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes ROBESON/ROBISON/ROBERTSON, but I knew had to exist somewhere. In a family with several sons and daughters I was missing a son named after the mother's father, and a dtr named after the father's mother, but am no longer missing the latter. The former may well still be the John in New York with father Walter of Roxburgh, SCT, but DNA participants are yet to be found to aid this conjecture.
Figured out who Mary BUCKHOLM is (but not what happened to her after 1871), but the rest of the grandchildren of Richard and Isabella ROBSON are yet to be "fitted in".
20th: I'd often looked at the gaps between the known children of Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON and wondered if any more children would be found. The answer today is YES. A 5th cousin in Ayr has emailed to say he's a descendant from their dtr Isabella, who married Richard ROBSON, all previously unknown to me. So I spent a hot summer's day digging. The SINTON descendant chart has considerably more twigs on it now, and sometime soon I'll have to do a WorldConnect database update.
If anyone can claim or shed any light on, a Thomas R & Adam ARMSTRONG, or Mary and John N BUCKHOLM, all born Jedburgh around 1850-1860ish, and all supposedly grandchildren of Richard and Isabella's, I'd love to know what happened to them and whose children they are. So far they've eluded me beyond the 1871 census.
17th: I've finally managed to track down some modern day FAIRBAIRNs of one of my lines, that of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Elizabeth HOWD/HOUD/HOOD. I've been talking on the phone to a family in Edinburgh, who confirmed that they were indeed descendants of Archibald's son Walter. Now I'll have to finish off a letter to them as they aren't on email. A grddtr in Australia, nephew in Sth Africa, not heard from in many years, son and grdson in Edinburgh, so I've a few extra leads to follow up there.
The FAIRBAIRN descendant chart has been updated with the preliminary findings.
11th: A DNA day. Another preliminary set of results came in for SINTON Surname DNA project, and thankfully had a 12/12 match with the earlier set. Which tells me that the two sons of Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and their sons in turn etc, were faithful, and thankfully also confirms everyone's research. So we have a good set of comparisons for when I finally track down other lines.
Also the preliminary 12 marker results on a HENDERSON (2nd)cousin. No exact matches on any HENDERSONs, but I note that scratching around in the ySearch database seeing what I could find that the closest matches did indeed appear to be Perthshire based, but at 10/12 markers, that's all fairly airey fairey, and definitely not conclusive. A Shetland one wasn't even in the running, so theory A that he may have come from the Caithness area may well prove to be only that, theory.
6th: Already the year is flying. Spent a lot of the last few days trying to locate living descendants of my SINTON, RUNCIMAN and FAIRBAIRN lines, and those I think may well connect, for their relevant DNA projects before the discount vouchers ran out. With mixed success. Certainly didn't find all the people I was hoping to find, but along the way I had a lot of fun, and have chatted to an amazing mix of people all over the world (well UK, America and NZ anyway).
The more exciting finds in the last week haven't been my family, just people I've been able to help.
Don in America has been searching for his supposedly Selkirk born RUNCIMAN family for years. Not sure why I didn't make the likely connection to the NZ lot, but it does seem rather likely that his James (marr. Janet HOG) RUNCIMAN is the one that the RUNCIMAN family in NZ (Capt James and his uncles and cousins by the dozens, descendants of James RUNCIMAN and Agnes HERIOT) show in their family bible as born 1791, died Ohio, nothing further known. So I've been contacting assorted NZ descendants on his behalf, and even convinced Phil to join the RUINCIMAN DNA project, to see if he matches up with Don. Not that he was hard to convince as he has also wondered if there was a connection with the Wanton Walls lot (mine), and when I said we had a representative of that branch in the project...
And the last couple of days have been spent, metaphorically, on Tyree, sorting out McKINNONs, CAMERONS et al for Chris as a CAMERON 3rd cousin once removed, and 5th cousin, all rolled into one person, had found the web pages I'd done for her. They've now been updated, with more to come no doubt.
Back to my lot this week I guess.
1st: A day of rest. Sorting out the laptop (program versions, backups), figuring out what I need to do next.
And then distracted by a Guestbook entry from a DAWE relation down the line of Betsy GALE's son Edmund Charles MARTYN, and one a couple of days ago another of the HELSON/PEEK relations.
FamilytTreeDNA have extended the vouchers until the 4th of Jan (their website was down for a bit over the weekend), so if any SINTON, RUINCIMAN, FAIRBAIRNs out there would like to avail themselves of this offer and join their relevant Surname DNA project, send me an email (link in footer)
Even with only 1 member in the FAIRBAIRN project we hit an exciting match with someone else who had tested with the company. (You can read about that in the 2007:jul-dec log)