2015 - sale - FFinder "find"

If you want a great kickstart to the year, I have some remaining coupon codes for further $$ off the current sale prices for anyone interested.
The coupons range from $5 or $10 off any test (which could be used to transfer ancestry tests to FTDNA and unlock all your matches) through $5 or $10 off FamilyFinder , Y-DNA 37/67/111, mtDNAFull Sequence to  $100 off BigY.
Sale and coupons expire midnight 31st December Houston time.



It would be a great time for anyone with FAIRBAIRN ancestry to consider FamilyFinder tests, a very useful tool in our genealogy toolkit.
The more tests we have, the more data, and the easier it gets to divide your matches into specific lines and pinpoint the common ancestors.

FamilyFinder has turned up trumps for me and looks to have given us hope to finally prove a theory about the family of Archibald & Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN, namely that the Robert FAIRBAIRN living in Canada by about 1827/8 and living in Richmond, Ontario 1850s is indeed their son.
We never have managed to find/convince a direct male line FAIRBAIRN to test Y-DNA to prove this, but live in hope.
But we do now have a triangulated match on chromosome 5 between myself (Lorna), GD (F-29) a descendant of David son of Archibald and Alison, and a descendant of Robert's granddaughter Mary Catherine KELLAR nee FAIRBAIRN via his son William.

Looking good to start the new year.

As 2014 draws to a close, I wish you all a great 2015, with many thanks to all of our FAIRBAIRN project participants who have helped with some fascinating discoveries since the project began.

The original question that led to the creation of the project was helped immensely with our very first kit and match - the ancestry of Archibald FAIRBAIRN (married Alison CROSSER).

My second question, also specific to my family, was to prove John FAIRBAIRN in New York by 1840, father known to be a Walter, was the son of my Walter.
That took some time to prove, but was eventually proven both by Y-DNA matches and shortly thereafter with a missing piece of the papertrail.

The more generic question was the inter-relatedness of the Scottish Borders FAIRBAIRNs in particular, but FAIRBAIRNs in general.
That has led to some surprises, thanks to all of those contributing their Y-DNA.
Several paper trails turned out to need revision, but in the main, the bulk of those tested, do indeed relate to each other, belonging to haplogroup I1, with the earliest tree, and modal value for that haplogroup being the Cockburnspath FAIRBAIRN ancestral lines.

Perhaps in 2015 we could add a few more lines from further afield into the project - Yorkshire FAIRBURN in particular.

Check out the sale prices

Becoming curious about your origins?
Check out the FamilyTreeDNA Discounts going until 31st December.

Before jumping in and ordering a Y-DNA test, do however check to see whether or not your FAIRBAIRN line is already represented by a direct line male as there is little point in close relatives (say 1st to 3rd) both testing y_DNA.
Distant cousins, yes as that adds confirmation to the derived dna "signature" for the patriarch of the line.

However, ALL people are encouraged to test FamilyFinder to add to their and our knowledge of their overall genetic makeup.

I have several coupon codes available for further discounts off the sale prices should anyone be interested.

Direct male line FAIRBAIRNs from the families listed on our Wanted! page are particularly welcome.

New Y-DNA37 matches

The notifications over the last couple of days from FamilyTreeDNA for Y_DNA37 matches to many of our project members are from two new tested people who have tested Y-DNA37.

Neither are currently in the FAIRBAIRN project, neither are surnamed FAIRBAIRN or a variant thereof, both are shown as Genetic Distances of 3 or 4, at least to the kits checked.

One however may be adding to our group of matching ELLIOTs, where his ancestor is stated as being from Letterkenny Ireland (1836). An upgrade to Y-DNA67 would be in order to see how this match holds out over more markers.

Still Z141

We have not yet managed to find which sub-branch of the I Haplogroup tree that the Lineage 1 FAIRBAIRNs belong to.
Our SNP test for F2642 came back negative.
Comparing the ISOGG haplogroup I tree and that on FamilyTreeDNA for our SNP testing guineapig, John (F-17), we appear to not have that many options left.
Patience called for to reach much more forward to present day down this branch.

Continuing to explore the Y-SNP tree of mankind

With the current DNA Day/Arbor day sale at FamilyTree DNA we are taking the opportunity to try and find the next step down towards the present on the I1 haplogroup tree.

You may recall that our selected representative, John F-17, had advanced the matching group of FAIRBAIRNs down the I1 tree to Z141+ (was then I1a2a1a but appears now to be I1d...) but was negative for Z2535, one of the next branches on the tree.
We've selected F2642 as the next to test for.

The sale is also 20% off on Y-DNA37 tests, so any direct male line FAIRBAIRN would be most welcome to join the project to see which family they most closely relate too, or provide a new slant on a new group.
Any Yorkshire FAIRBURNs out there?

Check out the Wanted! page for lineages we particularly would like to hear from.

Remember that although Y-DNA testing is the most effective way to confirm that line A matches line B, those of us that aren't direct male line FAIRBAIRNs can still contribute to this giant genetic jigsaw by using autosomal testing - FamilyFinder with FamilyTreeDNA or the Ancestry DNA test (and later transferring results to FamilyTree DNA to get the best of both worlds). 

Coldstream FAIRBAIRNs

The One Name Study lineage pages have been refreshed.
Many of the so-called "changes" shown in the latest change indexes are probably cosmetic rather than earth shattering discoveries and many trees will have new twigs.

One update that may lead somewhere is that for John (marr. Jane WADDELL)  FAIRBAIRN of Coldstream.
David shared a cemetery transcription, which tied together with a Coldstream burial record in the OPR (albeit with a conflicting year) may mean that we have a more accurate birth year for John.
 
We are still looking for an interested direct male line FAIRBAIRN descendent to represent this line in the DNA project with at least a Y-DNA37, but preferably Y-DNA67, to see what that will tell us.
FamilyFinder autosomal dna testing from descendants of the potentially related lines may well show up as a match to the one FamilyFinder result we have already.