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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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

Wanted!

Family Tree DNA have announced a short (ends midnight Sunday 15h July, Houston time) summer sale.
A good time to be in for those lines as not yet represented in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project.

How about a descendant of Thomas & Elspeth/Eppie (WOOD) FAIRBAIRN, or George and Margaret (LOUGH) FAIRBAIRN?
What about the Northumberland family of Robert & Mary (ATKINSON) FAIRBAIRN of Stamfordham ?
Or any of those shown, or indexed, on the Wanted! pages?

As you can see from our growing number of results to date (over 50 kits now), a large number of the Scottish Borders families are indeed related, with enough results now to show which families are more closely related to whom.
So where does YOUR line "fit"? Are the English ones related? (Yes for at least some lines, as the Clapham gardeners proved to be so.)

For this project, you need to be a direct male line FAIRBAIRN, and although Y-DNA67 is the preferred test, a Y-DNA37 will give some indication of your "place" in the jigsaw. Upgrades are always possible at a later date.

Click here to select your test and join the project, or use the contact details at the bottom of most of the pages linked above for further information, including whether or not a subsidy may be available for a particularly Wanted! family. 

Anonymity can be assured if necessary. All those named in the project have agreed to be so shown.

The Robinson connection?

Two more, potentially related, lineages have been added to the One Name Study lineages section:

• John (or Robinson) & Rachel (CAIRNCROSS) FAIRBAIRN
• Robert (or Robinson) & Mary (WILSON) FAIRBAIRN

By dates, it is unlikely they are father (John) and son (Robert), but both seem to like Robinson as a first name.
What is the connection between them and where in Scotland did they both come from?
Rachel was in Jedburgh in 1841 and daughter Margaret moved to Newcastle.
Son Robinson moved to Australia.

Robert & Mary lived in Newcastle but Robert was born in Scotland.
Son James appears to have moved to Pembrokeshire.

Any direct male line FAIRBAIRN descendants around willing to take the plunge and join the DNA project to test where the lines may "fit" and whether or not they are related to each other?

Thomas update

The family of Thomas and Jean/Jane (CULLEN) FARBEN/FAIRBAIRN/FREEBAIRN of Bothwell has been updated, and two of the Roberts in this tree included for disambiguation purposes given some confusion exists in some online trees as to who married whom.

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).

Stamfordham, Northumberland (NBL)

A stub from the Summary Patriarchs page for the family of Robert & Mary (ATKINSON) FAIRBAIRN of Stamfordham that has existed for quite some time without further information has been updated and linked to their tree now included in the One Name Study pages.
This tree includes two branches linked on circumstantial evidence:

• Son Robert (married to Ann DODD), linked by birth date and place and a missing first son, elder brother of Stephen to be found
• Grandson John of Erie, Pennsylvania, (married to Elizabeth HUBBARD) assumed son of Stephen & Jane (JACKSON) FAIRBAIRN

Should anyone have a trail of evidence, please use the webmistress contact link in the footers of these linked pages so the information can be updated.

Investigations for other Stamfordham FAIRBAIRNs led to a couple more inventive indexing candidates: William and John sons of a John, near contemporary to the above Robert, were indexed as FARIBEWER and FAIRBWIER respectively, even though their clearly enumerated relationship to John (born abt 1778 at Stamfordham and indexed as FAIRBAIRN, living at Horsley Barns) was son in both instances.

Notables updated

A review of the Summary Patriarchs Page for broken links brought up the family of William & Mary MOTT) FAIRBAIRN of Philadelphia and New York, and their son Revd Dr Robert  Brinckerhoff FAIRBAIRN.
The latter has now been included in the Notables list.
If anyone can shed any light on the rather "interesting" family history claims in Robert's son Henry's biography, it would be good to update William's page - or gain a direct male line candidate of the line for the DNA project. Suspect however that this family is one that has "daughtered out".

Robert & Janet (HOGARTH) FAIRBAIRN

Another lineage, that of Robert & Janet (HOGARTH) FAIRBAIRN was missed in the transfer of family information from the dna to the One Name Study pages.
They are therefore listed in the recent changes index because of this shift, rather than any new information becoming available.

Tweaks

Summary DNA result page has been republished to catch up with the more detailed DNA results which confirmed a dna signature for the line of John A FAIRBAIRN  & Sarah DAUGHTERTY (see David F-46's DNA page)

The Patriarchs page likewise has had a few links changed to reflect the shift of lineage data from the DNA pages to the One Name Study (ONS) pages, and a few Edinburgh twigs included for the line of John & Alison (MOFFAT) FAIRBAIRN, which twigs are also included in their ONS  lineage 1b4b descendant chart, that of Robert & Elizabeth (CROSBIE) FAIRBAIRN. John & Alison's son John was found working as a mason in Edinburgh (born Smailholm).

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.

Keep an eye on ...

... both of the recent changes indexes (analysis section, and lineages section) in case this diary isn't updated with what changed as the tidy up/rationalisation between the DNA pages, and the One Names Study analysis and lineages sections continues apace, and must surely nearly be finished!

The family of Robert & Jane (URQUHART) FAIRBAIRN of Glasgow then Pawtucket are newly included (18th), as is the family of Thomas & Elspeth (WOOD) FAIRBAIRN, but that listed on the 17th,  Robert (married Elizabeth CROSBIE) is only in the changes index because of a few typos being corrected.
For the 16th, (F-35) and his matching family, that of Francis & Agnes (DICKIESON) FAIRBAIRN shown on the 13th are brought over from the DNA project.

Bookmarks in the Analsyis Section:
If you have any real FAIRBAIRN people, as opposed to place page "people" eg FAIRBAIRN(SCT), bookmarked from the Analysis section of the One Name Study pages you will need to find them in the Lineages Section and re-bookmark them as they are transferred to where their lineages can be more easily attached and updated. (so the analysis section recent changes index is currently shrinking).

The Descendant charts section is being changed regularly at the moment as an appropriate structure is experimented with, along with how much to show on the first page to more readily identify lineages likely to be of interest.

Remember that there are DNA testing discounts going until the end of December, and it would be great to get a few more lines represented.
How about someone from the family of Thomas & Elspeth (WOOD) FAIRBAIRN? Or the Cockburnspath FAIRBAIRNs?

Military FAIRBAIRNs

The move of Descendant and Wanted! charts, together with the Researcher lists, from the DNA study pages to the One Name Study continues, and as before, whilst it does so, many links may well be broken, but hopefully fewer as time progresses.
This shift also means some of the missing trees for dna participants are now included.
Keep an eye on the Recent Changes index.
Most recent entries are because of the above shift apart from John. Having stumbled across him in Somerset he got placed into what is believed to be his Borders family, that of John son of John & Julian (BOAK) FAIRBAIRN, so their descendant chart has been updated.

What the recent change index doesn't yet show are the charts for two families with extended military service currently being researched for inclusion, and hopefully finding a direct male line FAIRBAIRN at the end of them to join the DNA project to (dis)prove suggested connections (to either Robert and Elizabeth (CROSBIE) FAIRBAIRN, and/or Ralph and Helen (CROW) FAIRBAIRN.
It's discount time at FamilyTree DNA, so a great time to join and see which family you match - order a test here and join  the project to help us unravel the FAIRBAIRNs.
John & Jane (WADDELL) FAIRBAIRN of Smailholm then Coldstream, and the John who may, or may not, be their son, married to Helen ROSS at Coldstream.

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.

29th:67/67 match

Another set of DNA results arrived today, showing we have an exact 67/67 match between Geoffrey (F-39) and the descendant of the mysterious Eckford Robert (who married Elizabeth YOUNG and disappears somewhere in England after 1855).
Anyone got any handy ideas on how to link their respective trees together?
Suspect we're looking for an Andrew and Elizabeth for the parents of the Robert who married Elizabeth CROSBIE (Geoffrey's line).
The next closest match, with the same pattern of marker 570="18" and cdyb = "37", belongs to John F(35), a descendant of a Kelso/Maxton/Stitchel family.

Summary results and supplementary pages have been updated, but not the dna signature chart - still need to figure out how to connect a couple of people into that.

Matching set of pedigrees

With the two new exact 12/12 matches to the Lineage 1 Modal, an update was overdue.

The Patriarchs page has had outline pedigrees included for the two newly represented, and matching, lines of John & Elizabeth (YULE), and Robert & Elizabeth (CROSBIE)
These include the usual links to the personal pages of the respective participants on the supplementary pages, and links to/from their results on the summary pages.
Note that for Robert and Elizaeth (CROSBIE) there are a couple of theories about two of their sons, and potential descendants, so should there be any direct male line FAIRBAIRN descendants of Thomas and Helen (DOUGLAS), or John and Jane (WADDELL) out there willing to join and see if they get an excellent match to Geoffrey (F-39), they would be most welcome.

In addition to new results, the pages have also begun a conversion to a new form of descendancy chart which can be dynamically expanded/collapsed to help you understand where the person of interest "fits", for an example, see the chart for Lineage 1 "Clump 1", John and Bessie (FLINT)