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

•  James and Margaret (SHAW) FAIRBAIRN.

All because of a search for a John & Helen, and one thing led to another ....

New Canadian twigs

The trees of

• James & Margaret (SHAW) FAIRBAIRN of Currie, Midlothian 
• Thomas & Ann (SMITH) FAIRBAIRN of Cameron, Fife 

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.

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.

DNA Discout time

A great time to explore relationships between FAIRBAIRN (and surname variant) families.
FamilytreeDNA have announced their annual sale:

We would  love to hear from any direct male line FAIRBAIRN wishing to explore his family history and do his bit for our understanding of the connections between the various lines.

We would particularly love to hear from him if he belongs to any of the families listed in the  One Name Study Wanted! page, or any FAIRBAIRNs, or similar, not listed anywhere as yet.
(Further information available on the  DNA project Patriarchs page and on the One Name Study)

As interesting things happen in the markers 38 to 67, we prefer Y-DNA67 tests, but for initial exploration of matches, Y-DNA37 is a good starting point.

A subsidy may be available for some lines, e.g.  these as yet unrepresented lines: Thomas & Elspeth/Eppie (WOOD) FAIRBAIRN,  George & Jane (LAW) FAIRBAIRN, James & Mabel (THOMSON) FAIRBAIRN.

Contact details to explore this option, or for any further information,  available in the footer of most project pages.

Order any of the new kits and join the FAIRBAIRN project by clicking here
If aleady a participant, log in and order any of the upgrades shown below.

New Kits Current Project Price SALE PRICE (US$) Y-DNA 37 $169 $119 Y-DNA 67 $268 $199 mtDNAPlus $159 $139 mtFullSequence (FMS) $299 $199 SuperDNA (Y-DNA 67 and mtFullSequence) $548 $398 Family Finder $289 $199 Family Finder + mtDNAPlus $438 $318 Family Finder + mtFullSequence $559 $398 Family Finder + Y-DNA 37 $438 $318 Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-67) $837 $597 Upgrades Current Price SALE PRICE Y-Refine 12-25 Marker $59 $35 Y-Refine 12-37 Marker $109 $69 Y-Refine 12-67 Marker $199 $148 Y-Refine 25-37 Marker $59 $35 Y-Refine 25-67 Marker $159 $114 Y-Refine 37-67 Marker $109 $79 Y-Refine 37-111 Marker $220 $188 Y-Refine 67-111 Marker $129 $109 mtHVR1toMega $269 $179 mtHVR2toMega $239 $179 mtFullSequence Add-on $289 $199

To order this special offer, log in to your personal page and click on the Order An Upgrade button in the upper right corner. A link to the login page is provided below. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012 11:59:00 PM CST TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICES. Log In to Order an Upgrade. Click Here to Order a New Kit from the FAIRBAIRN project

As always, we appreciate your continued support. Family Tree DNA www.familytreedna.com "History Unearthed Daily"

Descendant chart updates

A couple of descendant charts have been updated to include new twigs/research, primarily those of

• James & Agnes (LINDSAY) FAIRBAIRN of the Scottish Borders and
• Shoemaker William FAIRBAIRNS (and variant surnames) of Knottingley, West Riding of Yorkshire

The latter has been greatly helped by recent updates to FindAGrave by "Charlie", who kindly supplied this link of the FAIRBAIRN(S) headstones that had been uploaded.
Anyone know what happened to Ephraim (born abt 1835 to George FAIRBAIRNS & Hannah LIGHTFOOT, last sighting 1881 census).

Gordon, Berwickshire

Lineage of James & Betty (ALISON) FAIRBAIRN of Gordon (BEW) has been included in the One Name Study lineages.

Cornish lithographer(s)

Investigations as to where George Reginald Pellew FAIRBAIRN belonged led to an updated descendency chart for the family of James the engraver as George is his grandson - by a previously unknown to exist daughter-in-law, Lucy PELLEW.
This identification does assume that there is only one James FAIRBAIRN, lithographer, around Truro in the right time period, who died between 1881 and 1891.
There are only a grand total of 9 F*R*B*N* births registered in Cornwall between 1837 and 1915, 4 as FAIRBAIRN in Truro of dates to fit James and Harriet (BEDDARD), then James and Lucy, two of whom appear in baptisms indexed on FamilySearch.
The investigation also led to the inclusion of a Cornish page in the One Name Study analysis pages .

Houghton le Spring

Most of the One Name Study recent changes index around today relate to the FAIRBAIRNS of Houghton le Spring.
It had been suggested that the 1879 London death of a Robert FAIRBAIRNS might be the long searched for death of Robert FAIRBAIRN, Civil Engineer, married to Elizabeth YOUNG.
This does not appear to be the case, so we are still looking for the fate of the latter beyond 1854 (along with that of sons John and James beyond about 1861).

Francis, Andrew and James

The One Name Study pages have been uploaded to include research from 2009 (this GenForum post refers) re Andrew FAIRBAIRN in Ontario, married to Eliza Ann HAGERMAN.

The activity was prompted by the realisation that another researcher (John) needed to be transferred from the older DNA Surnames researcher list to the now current list on the One Name Study pages, which now also include John's ancestors Francis & Isabella (HENDERWICK) FAIRBAIRN, a family often shown as Andrew's parents but without any supporting evidence.

Would be good to get a direct male line FAIRBAIRN from Andrew's line to represent it in the FAIRBAIRN DNA project, and one from the line of the Ednam blacksmiths line that very circumstantial evidence may link to the Fogo smith believed to be Andrew's father - James, married to Margaret HOG. And/or any evidence placing Andrew with his correct family.

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.

Edinburgh or Dunbar?

The main changes, despite what the Recently changed index shows, are the transfer of James & Elizabeth (PURVES) FAIRBAIRN of Hallyburton from the Analysis section to the Lineage section of the site.
Two particular additions are the inclusion of the mysterious Robert FAIRBAIRN, engineer supposedly born Eckford, and the slater George FAIRBAIRN (married to Christian CLAPPERTON), of either Edinburgh or Dunbar.
Sanna's "update" is merely to link her to her family tree, and most of the other recent changes are cosmetic.

"Crest" family a match

Preliminary dna results (markers 1 - 12) are in for Alastair (F-45), the representative whose ancestor was brother to the James FAIRBAIRN author/engraver of "Fairbairn's Crests of Great Britain and Ireland" fame.
12-12 match with the main, growing, set of matching FAIRBAIRNs, mostly traceable back to the Scottish Borders.

Both the Summary Results and FAIRBAIRN DNA Supplementary pages have been updated to reflect the above.

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.

James and Ann (WALKER) FAIRBAIRN

A brief outline of the family of James & Ann (WALKER) FAIRBAIRN has been added to the Patriarchs page.
We would love to prove they are the parents of Robert, married to Catherine STEWART.
James was born Eccles, Berwickshire, and by 1841 was a ploughman in Galashiels, Selkirkshire, but by 1851 had become a grocer and draper, his 1866 death cert. giving his father (forename unknown) as a tailor and clothier, and mother as an Isabella (surname unknown).
Robert may, or may not, have died in Australia.

While researching this I happened upon an interesting conundrum on the aging effect of sea air, the Alexander mentioned being a grandson of the above.

18th: The Engraver's brother

Patriarch page has had a few twigs added to the family of James the engraver.
Found his (previously unknown to me) brother George, married to a Martha BOBBIN, with family spreading around London, Fife, Australia.

24th: Haddington update

Beatrice FAIRBAIRN, sister of James of Haddington, was finally found (with a bit of help from FreeCen) in the 1841 on Ancestry, disguised as Bratrice JAICHAINN - so yet another entry for the inventive indexing (And Alexander son of the Smailholm James and Margaret (TAIT) was being hidden on ancestry as Alex FANBURN).
The update to the family is that James, by naming pattern, probably belongs to Robert FAIRBAIRN & Marion COCHRAN, who married in Edinburgh in 1777, Robert a Clothier of Pleasance.

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.

Family Crests

An outline for the family of James FAIRBAIRN of "Fairbairn's Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland" (1860), fame, has been added to the Patriarchs page, linked to further information in the One Name Study pages.
Some of the related surnames in the family are PATON, MUIR, VEITCH, OCKLEFORD, PARIS, BEDDARD, SHAW, WALKER, at least two of which husands (VEITCH and WALKER) are from the Scottish Borders, which may, or may not, indicate George's origins prior to when he marries Robina (aka Jemima, of Alloa) in Edinburgh in 1802.

More entries for the most inventive indexing competition:
Faubus, Fairbwm, Taerbaire, Fawbaine

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.

21st: James, shipowner

Outline pedigree added to Patriarchs page for James FAIRBAIRN, ship owner of South Shields, (marr. Ann NEWBIGIN), together with a matching slightly fuller pedigree on the One Name Study pages.

From a DNA perspective it doesn't look hopeful that a candidate may be found to check where, or if, this line matches any of the existing lines to get it back beyond the 1790s, but not all lines have been traced to present day.

The journey to this family began with a mis-indexed marriage entry in Quebec found a couple of years ago for a William FAIRBAIRN apparently marrying an Elizabeth LEEDS, with William not immediately obviously connected to any of the other early FAIRBAIRNs in the province.
Recently I came across further information on the family in an ancestry tree, and the Woodcock researcher involved, Julian Tyson-Woodcock, kindly shared his research into Elizabeth and her family.
Elizabeth was actually Elizabeth Leeds WOODCOCK, and William turned out to be a mariner from South Shields who returned to London, dying there in 1850.