Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Summary DNA results

The Summary DNA results page on the WorldFamilyNetwork was included in the recent updates to the related FAIRBAIRN pages (One Name Study and DNA pages).

The summary result page now includes the matching FARRIS representatives, who appear to create a bridge between Lineage 1a and all their matches sharing marker 391 = 10 but marker 520 = 20, and Lineage 1e who have 391 = 9 and 520 = 21.

It also has more of the results received to date for the descendant of Robert the Thames waterman, now shifted up in the grid next to the Cockburnspath FAIRBAIRN family spot on the modal for all the Haplogroup I1 matches.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Fairbairn or Fairburn?

The Fairbairn One Name Study Lineage pages have been updated to reflect any updates over the last month or so (check the Latest Changes index for the people changed but that wont necessarily reflect any changes to descendant charts.)

One reason for this activity was to include a working assumption for the ancestors/relations of Robert FAIRBAIRN, the Thames waterman,  whose descendant's dna results are still tracking along the Lineage one modal over all of the main matching Fairbairn groups.
It should be pointed out that the Fairbairn One Name Study is registered with the Guild of One Name Studies separately from that for Fairburn.
The DNA project however covers all surname variants, including Fairburn.

Why is this being mentioned here?

Yes, many of the Scottish Fairbairns moved south and became Fairburn, so many of the trees shown have Fairburn and other variants as their surnames, but technically, the ONS pages are for FAIRBAIRN.
An exception has been made for the above Robert's suggested parents, John & Ann (ARROWSMITH) FAIRBURN of Durham, then Deptford.
Primarily because  of the possible link to Robert above, but also because of the Durham, and ship building link.
The Summary DNA Patriarchs page has also had a very brief tree included for John & Ann's family who included an early New Zealand missionary, William Thomas FAIRBURN;

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Match notifications

Looks like the results are starting to roll in from the Family Tree DNA upgrade sale a while ago.
One of our newer members upgraded from Y-DNA12 to Y-DNA67 and is now 25/25 with the Lineage 1 modal, ie all of Lineage I Haplogroup I1, and 24/25 with lineage 1e.
The next panel of results should enable us to get more of an idea on where to place his family of Thames watermen while we await his full results.

One of the FARRIS matches has now joined the FAIRBAIRN project and he looks to be more closely aligned to Lineage 1e as he shares slower marker 520 = 21with them.

Overall DNA grid on the supplementary pages has been updated to reflect the above.

Only 12 more days left for the summer sale if you know of any direct male line FAIRBAIRNs interested in exploring  their family connections.
Pricing details on the DNA Surnames project diary.
 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

FARRIS ?

A number of you will have received DNA Match email notifications today.
Looks like a FARRIS family from Virginia are starting to show up as excellent match with two representatives so far.

The two closest matches seem to be 65/67, but oddly enough they are to  the lineage 1e member whose markers differ most, and to the modal over all the Lineage 1 matches.

Only one of the kits has any family information attached, earliest ancestor a William FARRIS, 1760-1833 Virginia.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Fairbairn Family Trees?

Want to help document the FAIRBAIRN (or similar surnamed) families?

Do you have a family tree online anywhere?

Would you consider doing so?

Yes, the summary DNA project pages, and the One Name Study lineage pages do have many of the pedigrees for the surnames, but these are but a fraction of the FAIRBAIRNs in existence.

Perhaps you could consider starting your own and letting us know the link to it?

Don't know where to start?
Try WikiTree.
It is completely free, pledges to remain so, has great privacy and trusted list controls so that only those you want to see your data can, and only those you trust to update it can.

Even better, it is a collaborative one world tree so that any one person should only exist there once, and if a duplicate is found, may be merged so that those interested can then collaborating on documenting their shared ancestor(s).

Even better still, it has recently implemented some rather useful DNA features whereby those who care to share that they have had their DNA tested for genealogy can mark this against their profile (aka person page) using the list of tests available. 
Overnight all the people impacted by this, as documented here, get a link added to their profile suggesting they may be able to validate their family tree or find more family information, by contacting the test taker.
Works best, of course, if you conscientiously check for, and merge, any duplicated people found, and work on them together with the other interested researcher.

Of particular interest is the power of connected trees to enable those of us interested in FamilyFinder (an autosomal dna test) to try and determine where such a link may be.

This has nothing to do with actual DNA results, which continue to be published in the DNA project pages, as will trees on the One Name Study, this is simply a great extension to the project.

Why not experiment by entering yourself and your direct paternal and maternal lines and see what you find?
 Want to help out by contributing your tree but don't know how? Contact the project admin using the details in the footer of any of the project pages

Still journeying to the present

Those following the FAIRBAIRN DNA journey down from ancestral Adam (last post) to now, as opposed to back from the present, may be interested to know that the next step along the way has been completed.

Our selected representative for these tests, John (F-17) has had his SNP result returned as Z141+ which still has a few further options available in the march toward the present from the 3-4000 Years Before Present (YBP) this appears to be.

See the branching for this tree on both the ISOGG Haplogroup I1 tree, or for this portion of the tree, the more up to date files for the I1 Haplogroup project on Kenneth Nordtvedt's web pages - select "Tree for I1 Z60+".

We are embarking on this aspect of DNA testing to see if we can gain any further insights as to when the assorted matching branches we know we have actually diverged from a common ancestor.
But have a long way to go yet, both in selective testing, and in science finding more branches on the tree.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Break through that brick wall now!

Thinking about seeing which branch of the FAIRBAIRNs you most closely match?
Trying to break down a FAIRBAIRN brick wall?
Now's the time to grab the opportunity to add science to your search.

Family Tree DNA have advertised a summer sale,
full details on the DNA Surnames project diary, but do make sure that you order via the FAIRBAIRN project so that we all benefit from your search - and can help you with our combined knowledge of the known families.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The SMITH Connection

A snippet there, a snippet here. So are trees pieced together.
the importance of examining originals, not just indexes was reinforced this week when Rosemary provided the snippet from the marriage of George Henry FAIRBAIRN and Jane SMITH - they were 2nd cousins, Jane's mother being an Ellen FAIRBAIRN.
Ellen turns out to be the daughter of Andrew FAIRBAIRN and Margaret HENDERSON.
This is yet another piece of corroboration that George Henry's father John was indeed the son of William FAIRBAIRN, schoolmaster of Bowden then Galashiels.
The One Name Study pages have been updated to include the key participants in the FAIRBAIRN and SMITH relationships teazed out from the above.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Journey to the present ctd

Journey to the Present update - the next test has been completed, we're now at Z60+, I1a2a1 - which, oddly enough is the same path a group of the RUNCIMAN DNA project have also taken.
So the two families shared a common ancestor some 3,500 years ago - ever so approximately.
Jul 2013 update: But there they diverged. The FAIRBAIRNs have tested Z141+ and the RUNCIMANs Z140-, where Z141 and Z140 are "equivalent".

The time estimates from the I1 project currently put this branch at about 3-4500 years ago - ie creeping into recorded history! Take a look at the Timeline of Prehistoric Scotland to put this into context. But bear in mind all such dna time estimates are subject to variation.

Many thanks to those who have donated to the FAIRBAIRN DNA Project general fund. Your generous donations allow this testing to continue.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Short DNA sale

Family Tree DNA have advised that they are having a "DNA day" sale which originally finished 11:59pm 22 April 2013 CDT.
It has been extended to the 25th April, with the following explanation:
----
This year we began our commemoration of National DNA Day on April 19th. This coincides with the celebration by the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History's partnership to celebrate the 1953 discovery of the double helix and the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project, which was April 19th.

However, DNA Day is celebrated worldwide on April 25th. Therefore, we've extended our sale! The usual conditions apply - orders must be made and paid for by 11:59 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 25th. 
----
Great time to be in.
Here's the original notification, with the prices:

Excellent Family Finder & mtDNA full sequence pricing, and news of Y-DNA upgrades being available on Father's Day
So if you've been thinking about doing your bit for our overall knowledge of FAIRBAIRNs, go to Family Tree DNA, select the FAIRBAIRN project and order your appropriate test.
If in doubt about what is best, select a link in the footer of any of the FAIRBAIRN pages linked at top right and ask.
If already tested, log in to your personal page at Family Tree DNA and select an upgrade. The tests relevant to you will pop up.

From their advice to administrators:

"While the special pricing features all the major tests, we’re placing particular emphasis on the Full Mitochondrial Sequence and Family Finder. We’ll offer Y-DNA upgrades during a Father’s Day sale and will give you those details at that time.
By carefully choosing the sale options and limiting the length of the sale, we will be better able to focus our resources on processing the tests efficiently and avoiding delays in delivering results.
We are proud to announce we have successfully moved our mtDNA Full Sequencing line from Sanger DNA sequencing to what is called Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). This gives us much greater capacity to process tests, to reduce costs without sacrificing quality, and to ensure shorter turnaround times.
We must run the entire sequence every time we process an mtDNA full sequence test, even for upgrades. However, in recognition of your prior investment- and National DNA Day – we’re offering our lowest price ever for the FMS and upgrades.
Rather than the 8-10 weeks first generation sequencing required, we expect results to be completed within 5-6 weeks. This does depend on the number of orders received though. If their DNA is already at our lab, those who order first may expect even shorter turnaround times.

For a limited time we will be selling the FMS for $189 and whether you’ve tested HVR1 or HVR1+2, you’ll be able to upgrade to the Full Sequence for just $129!
In addition, we are also lowering the Family Finder to $169 for this sale!
Here is the list of all tests under the promotion:
Full MtDNA Sequence…. $189
Upgrades to FMS….$129
Y-DNA37 (new and add-on)…. $119
Y-DNA67 (new and add-on)…. $199
Y-DNA37 + Full MtDNA Sequence…. $308
Y-DNA12 + FF…. $218
Y-DNA37 + FF…. $288
Y-DNA67 + FF…. $368
Family Finder.... $169
Family Finder + Full MtDNA Sequence…. $358
SuperDNA….$388 (Y-67 + FMS)
Comprehensive DNA…. $557 (Y-67 + FMS + FF

The sale will begin tonight, April 18th, at 6PM CDT and will conclude at 11:59PM CDT on Monday April 22nd. All orders must be placed and paid for by the end of the sale to receive the promotional price.
There will be no need for a coupon - all prices will be automatically adjusted on the website."

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Journey to the present

Further to the earlier post on less deep ancestry the first SNP testing results are in for our selected representative from the matching FAIRBAIRNs (& ELLIOTTs) in Lineage 1. We have advanced from I1 down to terminal SNP Z59+, aka I1a2a.
Next test is on order.

Needed an Irish pin on the map

An Irish section has been included in the One Name Study lineages.
Two families are listed there, both of County Cavan
  • Walter and Jane (CORBETT) FAIRBAIRN, whose son Walter (together with wife Jane BROWN, and family) are found in Ayr by the mid 1830s, 
and that of
  • Walter and Eleanor whose son George emigrated to Kiama, New South Wales in 1856.

The latest update brings a few additions to several charts, the main ones being
  • Samuel being added to the Penicuik FAIRBAIRNs as son of Archibald & Margaret (GIBBS) FAIRBAIRN, along with his brother George
and a few twigs into the family of
All because of a search for a John & Helen, and one thing led to another ....

Friday, April 5, 2013

George, nail manufacturer of Stirling, placed

One Name Study pages have been updated to merge the family of George FAIRBAIRN and Janet ROBERTSON/Mary HARDIE of Camelon Park, Stirling, with George the son of William & Margaret (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN, William being the schoolmaster of Bowden then Galashiels (and uncle of Sir William).
Thank you Rosemary for your post on GenForum which led to the information sharing which has most definitely convinced me that we've found these are one and the same George

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Gardening connection

Richard has unearthed a reference in the will of John the bookseller in Edinburgh, one of his/the Penicuik FAIRBAIRNs, to John "the Gardener in Chelsea" to whose children he left £500.
Tentative id of John is that he might just be John Snr's step- nephew.

With a tail wind and a bit more luck and perseverance just maybe the Clapham nurserymen will also "fit" in here somewhere? 
Of the three families only the Clapham line are currently represented in the DNA project so if anyone can claim descent from the Penicuik line, or the Chelsea gardener (whose children are currently unidentified), we would love to hear from you.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Fairbairn Community on Google+

I've no idea if more people share via Google+ than share via Facebook, but there is now a FAIRBAIRN "Community" to join on Google+ for anyone interested in the FAIRBAIRN, and variants, surname.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

DNA Lineage Update

A bit more of the lineage renumbering/regrouping has happened over on the DNA Supplementary pages. More to come.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Entry level Y-DNA discount

Family Tree DNA have announced a heavy promotional discount for their Y-DNA12 test.

This is an excellent price for this entry level test to begin exploring your connections to other FAIRBAIRNs.

Be in and begin an exciting journey.

The link is only relevant for direct male line FAIRBAIRNs as it joins the kit to the FAIRBAIRN project, others reading this who aren't FAIRBAIRNs, are recommended to navigate back to the front page and follow the links to the promo.

This appears to be extended to the 7th March - still time.

Less deep ancestry?

Further to the posts on Deeper Ancestry below, a candidate has been "volunteered" as our guinea pig to represent the FAIRBAIRNs in Haplogroup I1 and test his way down the I1 tree towards present day.
We began with the recommended Z59 SNP and now await the results.
Unfortunately the I1 haplogroup is less well served than some others by this sort of testing.
Most of the more recent discoveries of tree branches seem to be in other haplogroups, some groupings of which nearly make it down into genealogical timeframes.
Let's see how far we can get towards present day.

You may be interested in this post on why SNP testing is increasingly of interest to genetic genealogists.

Lineage renumbering - plus

As mentioned on Spot on the Modal, the lineages are undergoing a renumbering.

The reload of the One Name Study Lineages section today includes several of these but is probably incomplete, and highly likely to be still inconsistent with the Patriarchs page and the DNA Surnames  supplementary pages which both still need to catch up, particularly the DNA Signature charts.
Despite this reshuffle, several missing links have been corrected.

Included in the update mentioned above:
  • the tree of Thomas and Ann (LAWSON) FAIRBAIRN of Fife had at least one new twig on one of the lines in New Zealand
  • Alexander, the forefather of a line of FAIRBAIRNs in South Carolina since a least 1748, has been included, no descendant chart as yet
  • see recent changes index for other changes, although some are there purely for background data changes, not published here.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Deeper Ancestry ctd

Further to the earlier Deeper Ancestry post I have been advised that given the characteristics of our STR results that the best SNP test to begin exploring our I1 tree branches would be Z59.

The best way to proceed seems therefore for a representative kit to be chosen to be our guinea pig for exploring the FAIRBAIRN deeper ancestry, which I as admin will do, and will discuss with the participant concerned how we go about this.

The price for individual SNP testing went up within hours of the earlier post and is now $39 per test.

There is no real point in more than one kit upgrading for this, so if at all interested, please donate to the general fund instead as that will allow us to progress down the I1 haplogroup tree systematically and cost effectively with all members benefiting from the findings.

To finance these explorations, donations may be made to our general fund, and would be appreciated.
Follow this general fund donation link, select F from the first box, then FAIRBAIRN from the second.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

New Canadian twigs

The trees of
have both had a few Canadian twigs added to their lineage charts, primarily as the twigs concerned emigrated to Quebec on the same ship (Scotian) in 1911 and curiousity meant any connection was investigated (none spotted as yet).

Mary and her family (Mary, John Richardson, Hilda Lauriss) were heading for Edmonton, Alberta
Adam & Catherine (WILKINSON) FAIRBAIRN were heading for Toronto.

There was also a 22 yr old joiner Robert on board, of an age to be Adam's brother, but going to Edmonton, which Robert in that family is slightly older.

Neither tree has any representatives in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project, so any direct male line FAIRBAIRN from either, or any other unrepresented line for that matter, would be most welcome to help tease out who relates to whom.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Spot on the modal

The final results are in for Bill (F-53) our representative for the Cockburnspath FAIRBAIRNs, which lineage is now awarded the prize for being closest to the modal over all of our Haplogroup I1  FAIRBAIRNs (who all match to some extent) - you can't get closer than spot on!
Up to know everyone had at least one marker different, several only on faster mutating markers.

This has prompted a review, and therefore a renumbering, of the I1 haplogroup lineages, which renumbering is incomplete insofar as the One Name Study pages haven't yet been updated to reflect this.

DNA Surnames  has been reloaded with the above update, but does not as yet include a review of the signature charts, and does include a re-ordering of the overall marker grid to reflect the groupings based on slower mutating markers.

This update includes a few more of the older results being reviewed against their current genetic distance results, given that Family Tree DNA revised their matching methods, and the opportunity has been taken to trim the genetic distance matches back to just the more relevant/closer ones.

A few more broken links have been repaired - not doubt more to come.



Saturday, January 26, 2013

Deeper ancestry?

Health warning:
This post contains DNA terms - check the ISOGG Wiki glossary  for further explanation of the teminology, and my amateur interpretations of results - I welcome further explanations, suggestions from those more knowledgeable.
 
As those following the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project already know, the majority of the FAIRBAIRNs tested to date match, and belong to haplogroup I1
This grouping indicates our deeper ancestry, ie pre-surnames, 1000s of years ago, instead of the  genealogical timeframes covered by our charts, and the results shown on the DNA results page.
(The haplogroup link above takes you to WikiPedia, which explains I1 diverged from I about 15,000 years ago).

A 2013 (and rapidly evolving) haplogroup tree for I exists on the ISOGG pages.
All we know currently about our matching I1 participants is that we are all still in the generic top level bar one of I1, terminal SNP of M253.
Two of our particpants have determined that we are "L22-, M21-, M227-, M253+, M72-, P109-, P259-", which I interpret as ruling out subclades of I1a1 and I1a2.

One participant has also joined the I1 yDNA Haplogroup project to see what else we may learn.
Results from thousands of tests may be seen here.
I had hopes that we may, eventually, find how far back the common ancestor was for the FAIRBAIRNs and our matching ELLIOTs.
As yet however, there isn't much in the way of timescales associated with the deeper haplogroup tree, so that is probably a rather vain hope, particularly as we only have STR results in the main, and only the above indication of where we don't fit on the tree.

The participant who has joined the I1-yDNA project has been placed in the (very large) sub category of  "I1 generic (I1-AS (generic)) consider ordering Z58, Z63 & DF29"
which SNPs would determine whether the subclades were I1a3, I1a4 or generic I1a respectively.
Only a very small step towards a potential goal of when the ancestry diverged for the FAIRBAIRN/ELLIOTs.
Should one each of say the ELLIOT and FAIRBAIRNs nearer the modal by STR results be willing to upgrade for the advanced tests for the above three individual SNPs, please do contact me (see footer of most project pages). There is no point in more than one or two participants upgrading as results at this level should be very similar, if not identical - each individual SNP test appears to cost $US29.

I had considered suggesting a Geno 2.0 test for this aspect, transferring results to Family Tree DNA, but there appear to be problems with Z58 (and Z62) in the Geno 2.0 chip, and the transfer of results has not yet been fully ironed out. So more cost effective and reliable to simply test for additional SNPs as and when desired/indicated should anyone be curious about our deeper ancestry.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Two matches

The previously referred to DNA match between the tree of William FAIRBAIRN, schoolmaster of Galashiels, represented in the DNA project by Michael (F-23), and that of John FAIRBARNES of Winlaton/Swalwell, Durham, represented by CJ (F-54) has been confirmed as an excellent match, 66 markers out of 67, so any shared ancestor should be well within genealogical timeframes.
Now to find the paper trail.
Jury still well out as to whether or not that means CJ's origins are Scottish, or those of John & Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN, William's parents, were actually English! 

The other match that is shaping up rather well is that of our representative for the Cockburnspath family of John & Helen (GRIEVE) FAIRBAIRN, who is an exact match, 47/47 so far, to the line of James & Helen (CAMPBELL) FAIRBAIRN, represented in the DNA project by David (F-9).

Confirming DNA signatures from another representative down a different line of descent to those already mentioned above would be fantastic. Please use the contact links at the bottom of most of the pages linked above to discuss this further if interested in doing your bit for the overall knowledge of how the FAIRBAIRNs connect.