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

Tweaks finished? Two new lineages added

The One Name  Study Lineage pages have been fully reloaded.
They should  now include all the person information (as opposed to place) that was once on the Analysis section, and all of the Researcher, Lineage, and Wanted! information that was in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project supplementary pages.

The recent changes index is therefore a little fuller than normal, with many of the entries merely being there because of the above shift having been completed.
There are some textual alterations as the rationale behind some of the linkages has been reviewed and an attempt made to make some of the conclusions a bit clearer - no doubt more to come.

New to the pages are the trees of :

• Andrew and Helen (BLAKEBUL) FAIRBAIRN of Leitholm/Coldstream, and that for 
• John and Elspeth (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN of Girnick.

For the latter we now have a dna representative (F-49), and fingers crossed, should in due course find out how close the relationship between those represented on that row of Earlston headstones might be.
Wish we could find one for the South African family of John son of James and Agnes (BRACK) FAIRBAIRN.

Busy few weeks

Andrew (F-47)'s results have started arriving, resulting in several updates to the FAIRBAIRN related pages.  We have a match with the "orphaned" Michael Rowland (F-23) FAIRBAIRN at last (in Haplogroup R1b1).
So somewhere, somehow, David (marr. to Peggy MERCER) FAIRBAIRN is related to John and Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN.
Don't be surprised if there are broken links, or charts have disappeared. The results arrive in the middle of the, slow, rationalisation of the DNA and One Name Study pages so that lineage, wanted and researcher information is on the One Name Study pages, leaving DNA results and signature charts for the DNA pages.
If you have any particular people bookmarked, they are likely to change numbers sorry, to match those in the master database, which will make it easier to link from one site to the other.

The recent changes index on the DNA pages has been inflated somewhat by the realisation that somewhere along the way haplogroup numbering has changed, all those assigned to R1b1b2 now appearing as R1b1a2 instead on the Family Tree DNA results.   Not all have been changed as yet.

Two other kits (F-46) and (F-48) are at the lab awaiting results, but not scheduled to produce any until December - placeholders exist on the Summary DNA results page.

another sub lineage?

Preliminary DNA results are in for Alexander (F-41) at the 37 marker level which show we now have another member of the FAIRBAIRN group sharing marker 460=11.
Although there are still results to come, one of the more important panels in the 38-67 marker range is already available, giving some indication where his best matches lie.

Alexander's ancestors, John & Elizabeth (YULE), were having children in Abbey St Bathans 1777 through 1800, with John reported to be the son of John and Lucy (EADSTER), although reports vary as to where/when John Snr was born, often being confused with the John who married Helen ANDERSON.

Alexander's closest matches, sharing 460=11, Joe (F-10) and Ron (F-19), trace back to a Robert & Elizabeth (TAYLOR) who married in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1811, with Robert's father looking highly likely to be the Robert FAIRBAIRN who died in London in 1849, aged 97 years and 11 months, which rules out the Robert son of John and Elizabeth (YULE).

Possibly John Snr and Robert Snr are siblings?

The result grid on the supplementary pages has been updated.

15th: Matriarch descendants?

We might have to broaden our dna search to the female of the species.
With the growing number of matching, near modal, descendants from the Earlston/Ledgerwood families, it SHOULD help sort them out if we can track down direct mother/daughter female line descendants of some of the key matriarchs, and persuade them to join the project.

We would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone, male or female, who can trace their direct maternal ancestors to any of the following in particular:
- Elspeth ANDERSON (marr. John FAIRBAIRN of Grizelfield, Smailholm)
- Helen ANDERSON (marr. John FAIRBAIRN of Nenthorn)
- Agnes GIBSON (marr. one of the John FAIRBAIRNs of Earlston)
- Magdalen BO (marr. John FAIRBAIRN of Fanns, Earlston)
Should we be so lucky as to find representatives for any/each of these, the theory is that we may just be able to sort out the assorted John's as well.
So there's your challenge for the month.

23rd: Smailholm vs Haddington

The post on the Kelso Dispensary re-activated contact with a researcher of all Agnes FAIRBAIRNs of around that time, and Fiona has provided some snippets from family correspondence which are being worked through and should shed some light on the relationships between the Mellerstain Mill and Girnick Smailholm FAIRBAIRNs.
This has led to an update to the patriarchs page to clarify that the James and Margaret (TAIT) of Girnick (Smailholm) are a separate family to that of James and Margaret (TAIT) of Haddington, despite what several trees out on the net seem to think.
Those interested in the details and my conclusions should examine the marriage or Rachel FAIRBAIRN to George Wilson PEATTIE in Edinburgh St Cuthberts in 1849 which shows her as the 3rd surviving daughter of the late James FAIRBAIRN of Haddington, candlemaker and tobacconist, which is rather a drastic occupation and location change from a farmer in Smailholm, and would no doubt come as a bit of a surprise to two of Elspeth, Margaret, Helen or Isabel, all of whom survived beyond 1849, and would be Rachel's elder sisters if she belonged to the Smailholm family.
That and the fact that it is unlikely the family would have two Margaret's when the first is found to have survived and married.
I believe Margaret of Haddington, to be the deceased sister of Rachel as Catherine and Marion are both to be found in the 1851 census.
Does anyone know who the Haddington James is? Not yet researched. In addition to these 4 daughters, there was also an 1829 Robert.

Smailholm FAIRBAIRNs

Another outline pedigree has been added to the Patriarchs page, that of John and Elspeth (ANDERSON) of Girnick, Smailholm.
With son James being commemorated at Earlston on a headstone near that of John and Agnes (GIBSON), and shown as not born Roxburghshire in 1841, there has to be some connection between these families.

With the discount promotion running out on the 31st of the month (see here for details), now would be an great time for a descendant of this line to pop out of the woodwork, particularly given our recent excellent matches within lineage 1f. (One line, at least, emigrated to Australia, and were in Queensland).

Stub added to the One Name Study pages, and a link included in the Wanted! pages.

Key lineage

Check out the updated Patriarchs page for the beginnings of the updates to all the pages as a result of both the latest set of matching results, and several months research.
The main change on the above page is to the FAIRBAIRN/BO lineage, which now incorporates the matches between John(F-17) and Stewart(F-38) showing how they look likely to join up at John and Magdalen (BO) FAIRBAIRN of Lidgatehead, Earlston.
Heaven help me if we do ever get a representative for the line of John and Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN, and he is also an exact match, as John and Magdalen's John is now spoken for (several trees show this John as brother to James, father of the John who married Jessie JOHNSTON).

PS For a bit of light hearted fun, most pages now include a "like on facebook" link in the footer. so if you are on Facebook, click the link to get an entry on your home page/profile or wherever it ends up.

Stornoway to Victoria

Notes added to the pedigree of Peter, son of John & Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN.
Peter and Jane (PAXTON)'s son William and family emigrated to Victoria in 1853.

Any surviving direct male line FAIRBAIRN descendants still out there willing to help piece together the FAIRBAIRN jigsaw?
Check out the information about testing, and join the project, preferably using a Y-DNA67 test, as that is proving the most useful for this project.

1660s split?

The supplementary pages have now been updated to include the latest set of full results, from the line of John & Christian(WOOD) FAIRBAIRN.
This includes a relatively major revamp of the dna signature chart for Lineage 1 "clump 2" incorporating this new knowledge - hopefully sensibly.
Any contributions to this interpretation are most welcome!

Looking at the marker results we now have available, I'm guessing that there was a split in the "clump 2" lines about the 1660s, where those including the above John, also James and Helen (GOODFELLOW), and F-11's James, can be deemed to have genetically split (slightly).
Take a look at the by now very wide signature chart and see if it makes sense to you.
(It also now includes the Eckford line of F-27).

The project is still very interested in finding representatives of other known lives to aid in piecing this huge jigsaw together - direct male line descendants of John and Helen (ANDERSON), and of the Ednam Blacksmith family with all the Edwards would be most welcome - and what about the Selkirk families?
Check out the Wanted! pages for some lines we are particularly interested in, but any not listed on the pages anywhere are also "wanted", just not yet documented.
Then of course there are the Yorkshire ones, are they related?

Subsidies for testing may be possible for the first of a line to test.
Those ineligible to join in the fun by reason of sex, or descended from a female line may help by contributing towards the subsidies - simply follow the "Contribute to the Surname Project General Fund" link on the lhs of our Family Tree DNA project pages.

Addenda - even more results in.

So much for that theory (see jumping to conclusions posted earlier today).
No sooner were all the results to hand thought about, and conclusions updated, than the most interesting panel of the remaining markers was also available.
Of those in the small subsection of clump 2 Eckford:F-27 now looks more closely related to those in the trees we know less about, although (F-8) also has been mooted to be connected to the John and Helen (ANDERSON) tree. Inherited family documents show Thomas (b. 1784 marr. Elspeth REDPATH) as son of Robert (b. 1749, married Margaret PATTERSON), and the 1749 Robert as son of Robert (1716 - 1800), with this last Robert being the brother of John b 1714 and Patrick, all sons of the 6th generation John b. 1688.
Same references to "crest" and grave markers in Ednam, which makes it look most like this version of the John's on the Patriarchs page (but presumably with further details on Thomas' line included).
The provenance of the information does include data from Thomas' daughter, so it does contain some proven links to the past, with references also to more modern researchers.

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).

26th: BO pedigree

Project Summary pages updated to include the family of John FAIRBAIRN & Magdalen BO, which family has been referenced in one of the alternate views of the pedigree of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON.

Only a week to go until the discount promotion runs out, be in.
Click here to join the project

18th: Another Schoolmaster

Updated the Patriarch's page for the John and Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN pedigree to include a few more details for son Peter, factor to Lord Seaforth, and previously a schoolmaster in Coldingham.
Also gave Peter a page on the supplementary dna pages in the hope of finding a descendant willing to join the project and represent this line.
Also expanded the Cockburnspath stub ever so slightly on the Patriarchs page.
Still waiting for results from the kits in progress, so nothing new to report there as yet.
Remember the good discount on the Y-DNA37 +mtDNA test is still available until the end of this month for those thinking about joining.

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

Alternate John F/Helen Anderson pedigree

Included an alternate view of the John Fairbairn/Helen Anderson pedigree on the Patriarchs page.
Author and date of this version is unknown. (I have only ever received a copy of the first two pages).
A scan of the title page of this version is included on the DNA Projects Portal page for John Fairbairn in case someone can come up with the answer to who produced it and when.
Perhaps we should run a competition as to how many people have a copy and the furthest back they can date its appearance in their family?

Would also still love to hear from anyone with a copy of the earlier transcriptions of the Ednam stones which must have existed at some stage. Thought the Hawick Archaelogical Society Transactions might be a starter, but Ednam doesn't appear in their online index.

New recruit ; Wanted! page updated ++

Pity it was after the discount period ended, but never mind, the project now has a representative for the family of John A FAIRBAIRN Snr of Stillwater, the lynch pin family for the 3 cousinships claimed: to Angus, a descendant of David & Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN, and to Albert, the Sunderland emigrant to Hoquiam, a descendant of Robert and Elizabeth (TAYLOR) FAIRBAIRN, represented in the project by Joe (F-10).

Thank you William (F-12), look forward to seeing how this match pans out, as you should be a match to Roy (F-3) if all our detective work is accurate.
It would still be great to have a proven descendant from David and Jane (WILLIAMSON) FAIRBAIRN to represent their lineage though as the identification of John A as David and Jane's son does rather go against two of his official certificates.

Check out the updated pages linked above for more information on some of the assumptions involved in the identifications.

Finished working on a version of the Patriarchs report for John and Helen (ANDERSON) FAIRBAIRN.
Also included this as a descendancy chart on the supplementary dnasurnames.info site where some additional notes may be found.
A link to this is now included on the FAIRBAIRN Wanted! page.
The chart is NOT a full descendancy report for John and Helen as it is only trying to identify those lines where the project may find a representative for the line.
So many FAIRBAIRN families claim "oh we're related to Sir William", without verifying this claim that it would be wonderful to have a proven dna signature for the John and Helen lineage, ie at least two distant cousins from the line.
Any takers? Anyone in touch with any of the family?

8th: SNP results in for 2 more kits

SNP results have been received for two more kits, so the Results page has been updated to show their tested haplotypes (both I1, unsurprisingly given the dna match with others in Lineage 1).

Also updated the Patriarchs page to correct a missing indent on the pedigree of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON that mistakenly showed the 2nd Baronet as Sir William's brother instead of his son.

8th: Patriarchs page updated

Patriarchs page revamped to split William (m. Jean WANLESS) out into his own pedigree separate from the John FAIRBAIRN/Helen ANDERSON one, for now. Perhaps a participant from that line may enable us to shift him back in again and unite all the trees?