atDNA comes up trumps

Another set of FamilyFinder results in from the family of Robert FAIRBAIRN in Richmond Ontario  by about 1829 (married Kate SCOTT who is reputed to have died at sea en route to Canada abt 1828).
And yes, more matches between the families of Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN, and with the prior test participant, and also to the more distant 7th cousins, descendants of Robert & Agnes (LANDRETH) FAIRBAIRN.
We look to have proven the theory of where Robert belongs - a previously unknown son of Archibald and Alison.

The DNA Lineage pages have all been refreshed, and in particular the Fairbairn FamilyFinder page as been updated to include an updated chromosome map of segments of dna shared by descendants of John and Bessie (FLINT) FAIRBAIRN who married in Melrose, Roxburghshire around 1726.

Click to enlarge

There's an intriguing side effect to our increased number of FamilyFinder tests.
We now have matches between descendants of Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN and descendants of Robert and Elizabeth (CROSBIE) FAIRBAIRN.
yDNA indicates that although these families are indeed connected, their common ancestor was well  back into the 1600s, which makes it seem unlikely that the link is their respective FAIRBAIRNs.
More work needed.

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

Minnies galore

Looking up a few FAIRBAIRNs on the newly available British Columbia BDM images led to the update of several trees, what with one thing leading to another, and another....

The main ones of note include a few more twigs on the trees of:

• John & Bessie (fflint) FAIRBAIRN - particularly the branch of Robert FAIRBAIRN and Kate SCOTT, noting en route that at least one online tree has Minnie ANDERSON as marrying both William Merdic son of William & Katherine (MORGAN) FAIRBAIRN and John son of Elliot & Mary (HOBKIRK) FAIRBAIRN. The latter is a Minnie DROVER.

• As a result, a new lineage was added, that of Robert & Margaret (ELLIOT) FAIRBAIRN, grandparents of the above Elliot.

• John & Elizabeth (YULE) FAIRBAIRN - particularly the line Thomas & Catherine (ANGUS) FAIRBAIRN's son Thomas

In addition, John & Margaret (CROMBY) FAIRBAIRN of Swalwell, Durham have now been included in the lineages section, previously only on the Patriarchs page, which has also had several more branches of assorted trees updated

19th: Some people make it hard for us

Nearly gave up on finding James and Christian (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN in the 1841 census.
Eventually found in Kelso on FreeCen by searching for the children, but ancestry was a different matter.
Didn't help that they were recorded as GAVIBAIN and GOURBAIN (in the same household), with James enumerated as 30, when he was actually 42, and Christian as 27, instead of the 30 her actual age of 34 should have shown her as, and Alison/Alice was Eleson 4 instead of 7; Elizabeth 8 instead of 11, John 6 instead of 8.
This is the family of John & Alice or Alison (AINSLIE) FAIRBAIRN, one of the two John FAIRBAIRNs of an age in Swinton (BEW)

So today's inventive indexing entries are the above GAVIBAIN and GOURBAIN, with an unrelated FAIOBAM.

Am I getting too much exercise jumping to conclusions?

The next set of results (37 markers) are in for (Eckford:F-27), a descendent of the Robert who married Elizabeth YOUNG, which places this line closest to that for James and Helen (GOODFELLOW) Fairbairn (sharing marker 570 = 18 with a small group of Lineage 1 "clump 2").
Assuming that the James married to Helen GOODFELLOW, is indeed the James, son of George and Janet (MURRAY) born Kelso 1788, he has a brother Robert. However that Robert is fully accounted for in census and death records, so cannot be this Robert.
Some trees believe the George who married Janet MURRAY is the son of the John who married Helen ANDERSON, which would make him brother to the schoolmaster William (married Margaret SCOTT).
Which is where I'm getting my exercise jumping to several possible conclusions.
William had a second string to his bow, as a surveyor.
This Robert of Eckford (married Elizabeth YOUNG) appears in records as an engineer/surveyor for the Duke of Hamilton.
William is not known to have had a son Robert however, and to the best of my current knowledge, nor do any of his brothers, but maybe this has just changed?
Both the supplementary pages, and the result summary pages have been updated, although for the former, the DNA Signature Chart for Lineage 1 "clump 2" has not been updated - waiting for the last panel of results for that.

The Family Tree DNA Time Predictor shows that (Eckford:F-27) and Doug (GOODFELLOW) F-6 have an 82.6% probability of a common ancestor by 8 generations, and by 12 generations it is 95% (using the setting of no known match within 3 generations).

Variety is the spice of life

Variety being the spice of life, and given that all our dna results should be supplemented by paper trails, I've updated the Summary WFN Patriarchs page with another version of the family of John and Helen (Anderson); John and Jessie (Johnston) ; Patrick and Margaret (Purves) etc that you may find interesting (and would love to re-find the original I spotted on the web some time ago to be able to check the sources).

The researcher list has grown by two:

• John has agreed to be shown as the researcher/line-leader for the family of William and Margaret (Scott) FAIRBAIRN, the schoolmaster of Bowden and Galashiels (but only because I promised him he wouldn't be flooded with enquiries, only useful information on where to find descendants willing to join the project to represent his line )
• Bea is researching the St Andrews Fairbairns from Fife

Also included is a stub for a new pedigree being worked on for inclusion:

• Cockburnspath Fairbairns

Isn't DNA wonderful!

One of the latest set of results just in have finally added considerable weight to something I've been trying to find proof of for years. Ever since Ed, a descendant of John FAIRBAIRN of Delaware Co, NY, contacted me way back in Jan 1999, we have been trying to prove that his John, son of a "Walter of Roxburghshire" was a previously unknown son of my 3greats, Walter and Agnes (ROBERTSON/ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.
With the increasing acceptance and availability of dna testing it looked like we might finally be able to (dis) prove our theory - if only we could find suitable candidates.
The FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA Project was set up in Oct 2007 primarily out of this curiousity with the first candidate Martin (F-1), a descendant of Archibald (marr. to Janet SCOTT), assumed to be the brother of the above Walter, other candidates still proving elusive. It was only a few short weeks ago, a year and a half later, that a willing participant, Michael (F-16), was finally found to test the original hypothesis.
Although it is only a 12/12 match to date, it does look extremely likely that John is Walter's son, and this also adds weight to the supposition that Archibald is indeed Walter's brother (theory #2 that was waiting for proof).
In the meantime, all sorts of other FAIRBAIRNs originating from the Scottish Borders have been shown to be related, and a lot of fun had tracking down suitable dna participants.

Rev Patrick and new results

The header items are unrelated, but together reflect today's updates.

A few more of Doug (F-14)'s results have arrived, with further confirmation he is in his rightful place in the FAIRBAIRN tree, and show that although both Martin (F-1) and Doug descend from Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN, the variations have crept in.

Doug's lineage from their son Archibald has a faster mutating marker 576 value of 18, all others in Lineage 1 have 17, so this is assumed to identify this Archibald's line.
Martin's lineage from their son John has marker 641 = 10, all others in Lineage 1 have 11, so again, this is assumed to identify John's line.

And as for the Rev. Patrick FAIRBAIRN: a passing comment was made in a conversation with a descendant of James and Mary Bell (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN, about a long time family friend of theirs, not known to be related, living in my area. Discussions ensued, hopefully with further updates to come. In the meantime, the Patriarchs page has been updated with a few more twigs on the line of John & Jessie (JOHNSTONE) FAIRBAIRN , and a very brief outline chart included on the Wanted! pages.

Another Lineage 1 match

Do so love it when a theory is proved correct!
The preliminary 12 marker matches have come in for Doug (F-14) a proven descendant of an Archibald (born Scotland) and Jane (born England) FAIRBAIRN via their son Robert, miller of Vegreville, Alberta.
The death cert of Walter, believed to be a brother of Robert, show his mother as nee BLAKLEY, which trail leads back to the Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Jane BLAKEY who married in Northumberland in 1841. This marriage cert. shows Archibald as the son of a gardener, another Archibald. The age of Archibald Jnr matches the baptism of the Archibald born to Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN, forbear of Martin (F-1), and is the only Archibald son of Archibald that I know of in this timeframe.
Results page has been updated, and the supplementary pages will follow as time permits. Could take a while as this means quite a bit of reshuffling to assign Archibald into his correct slot and tidy up several duplications.

The activity on updating all the implications from this welcome match have rather halted further inclusion of the family of Ralph Archibald RICHARDSON into the Wanted! pages, and pedigree onto the Patriarchs page, although a stub does now exist on the latter.

Next kit back at lab

Another of the issued kits has made it to the lab, so patience while we await the results for Doug (F-14), descendant of Archibald & Jane (BLAKEY) FAIRBAIRN, which Archibald's father Archibald, may or may not be the son of Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN.

More participants in the project are welcome, especially if you belong to any of the families on the Wanted! page - but we're not fussy, we'll accept ANY FAIRBAIRN/FAIRBURN/FAIRCHILD wanting to see where he fits in the overall scheme of things.

18th: New results, new match info lineage 1

37 marker results are now in for F-6 a descendant of James and Helen (GOODFELLOW) FAIRBAIRN, James probably being the son of George & Janet (MURRAY) FAIRBAIRN.

This has shown that the initial match (11/12) with the existing participants in Lineage 1 is still there, but is now a Genetic Distance of 2 with the representative of the family of Archibald & Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN and GD 3 with both of the others.

I presume the difference in these Genetic Distance numbers is because Doug is 34/37 with Earl and Roy, and to my untrained eye, looks the same to Martin, BUT one of the mismatches with Martin is on CDY a, a faster mutating marker, so possibly if both have mutated compared to the others, that's one less mark against in the Genetic Distance stakes?

Some web updates to the WorldFamilies.net pages:
- Patriarchs page has had some small edits to the pedigree of William & Margaret (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN pedigree to add a wife and occupation to son John as I'm now in touch with a descendant, and between us we may find an eligible participant).
- results page updated to reflect the 37 markers referred to above
- discussion pages updated slightly to acknowledge the two new matches on Lineage 1

14th: Upgrades ordered for 1st 3 kits

Upgrades from 37 to 67 markers in progress for all 3 participants to try and sort out where William fits into the chain and how closely all 3 will match at the higher number of markers.

7th:3 kits out of 3 matching at 37 markers

Full 37 marker results in for the 3rd kit, a descendant of William & Jean (WANLESS) FAIRBAIRN, with a full 37/37 match with one participant, the descendant of Charles and Mary (BATE) FAIRBAIRN, and 36/37 match with the other, the descendant of Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN. As the researcher of this line believed they traced back to Andrew FAIRBAIRN (married Margaret HENDERSON), the line of Sir William FAIRBAIRN (married Dorothy MARR), we are therefore very interested in hearing from anyone down these lines of who would like to join the project to help verify this or further determine the exact relationships. Patriarch charts will be updated shortly to reflect this exciting breakthrough.

17th: First full 37 marker results in

First full set of results received. The 12/12 match (between descendants of Archibald and Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN, and Charles and Mary (BATE) FAIRBAIRN was also 25/25 but 36/37. See Results page for more details. Which is all very exciting, given this was completely unexpected, but certainly indicates previously unknown, and unfortunately unprovable via records, connections between Roxburghshire and Berwickshire FAIRBAIRN families.

13th: First results, first match

First set of preliminary results received, AND we have a 12/12 match with someone else in the FamilyTreeDNA database, unknown to me, and although the email hasn't bounced, it also hasn't been replied too. I'm guessing that his ancestors are Charles FAIRBAIRN and Mary BATE via their son Thomas Purdie FAIRBAIRN, and I would love to confirm this, and find out more as I know of now connection to this family - as yet.

14th: First kit at lab

First kit (descendant of Archibald & Janet (SCOTT) FAIRBAIRN) received by lab, final results expected Jan 2008