Sep 29, 2008: Bit of this, lot of that

Main changes of late:
Meavy DAWE families had a bit of a looksee for a reason which now escapes me. I can now see why I couldn't find a lot of them in the UK census records - a lot of them emigrated to America!
My main interest is how they may or may not inter-connect with the Buckland Monachorum DAWE families and assorted WILLCOCKS.
Some of those connected to people already showing up on my LornaHenderson db on Rootsweb will be added there next update to try and illustrate some inter-connections.

Forgot to mention a SCAIFE update a wee while ago.
Geoff contacted me via Curious Fox with info on the GRAHAM/SCAIFE connections from his SCAIFE perspective. This enabled me to merge two previously separate people in my db, one the son of Jane GRAHAM (whose husband I now know was called John), and the other the William who married Frances GRAHAM, Jane's niece.

Continued working on the family of John and Elisabeth(MILLER) FAIRBAIRN, where this John's father Walter may, or may not, be my Walter FAIRBAIRN. Would really love to find a representative of this line for the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project, particularly before the great discounts run out at the end of Sept (or one each from different branches in case there isn't a match first off)!
The other FAIRBAIRN sidetrack mentioned on the 21st (Bowmanville Robert F.)has been slotted into his rightful place as one of the John FAIRBAIRN/Elizabeth YULE line. I'll update the FAIRBAIRN DNA project Patriarch's page accordingly sometime soon.

May 7, 2008: "Easet"-ing it on the GRAHAMs

Today was a GRAHAM day as a bunch of certificates turned up. Some hits, one miss that turned out a near miss.
Can't seem to find the marriage of David and Jane, both GRAHAM. I therefore ordered the marr. cert of a Jane GRAHAM around the right time and place, but she turns out to have married a Joseph SINTON instead, son of James SINTON, gamekeeper (currently eluding me, although he's probably the one married to Ann IRVING).
Also in the batch was the marriage of John GRAHAM to Elizabeth GRAHAM, so I have pleasure in welcoming their family in from my LornaPotential database as John was indeed the son of George GRAHAM, farmer, and therefore assumed to be the one married to Easet CARRUTHERS (this id being aided by John & Elizabeth's first dtr being Mary Easet GRAHAM).
Elizabeth was the dtr of an Edward and there's probably another connection there as that looks like the family of Edward GRAHAM and Elizabeth BAXTER, with children William, Elizabeth, Andrew, Mary, this latter lady shows up as the inn keeper at the Graham's Arms in West Linton with niece Elizabeth as barmaid (dtr of John & Elizabeth above).
Back to identifying photos and attaching them to the right RICHARDSONs....

Apr 17, 2008: Rabbiting on

Lovely story from the newfound GRAHAM cousins.
Gary's great uncle Willy told him a story about his dad Walter. At Christmas the Netherby GRAHAMs would send by train two rabbits for each family. One Christmas the men were all lined up on the platform, Walter was last in line. They all received their rabbits except Walter who was told he had had more than his fair share over the year from poaching.
Also intriguing that it may well be complete happenstance that this connection has been made in that there are two versions of how come the modern Grimston acquired his name. One was that there was a long ago relation who was a stagecoach driver in the 1700s, the more recent, from the same great uncle Willy above, is that when he was born a name wasn't forthcoming, and Jane saw Grimston on a headstone in the Arthuret churchyard, liked it and used it.
I don't know if it was the headstone of Grimston GRAHAM, or that of Stephen GRIMSTON (but would like to know if either are still visible), so all in all, it may well be complete chance that the unusual name has actually put relations in contact with each other!

Apr 14, 2008: Stephen found

Updated GRAHAM chart to reflect all the newfound cousins. I'm even more convinced that this David is the son of Mary as I've now eliminated another David of about the same age from my enquiries.
Tonight's find was David's son Stephen. Family anecdote had him as going to work one day and disappearing, with rumours of long running feud with his boss, and talk of going to America. Couldn't find him there. The answer was much simpler, he'd merely moved across the Border and settled in Minto as signalman at Hassendean, dying in Hawick in 1924.
Still need lots of dates and places on the more recent descendants of David and Jane, but I've caught up with what Gary had, and checked off what I can.

Apr 12, 2008: GRAHAMs and TAYLORs

Finally beginning to catch breath. How come when you go away on a holiday, no matter how briefly, you have to work twice as hard beforehand and 3 times as hard afterwards to make up for the absence?

Mostly been working on checking off the family of David GRAHAM and Jane GRAHAM, David looking highly likely to be the one shown in the 1851 census as grandson of Stephen GRAHAM in English St, Longtown.

Have also been contacted by a grandson of one of my Caithness TAYLOR twigs, Agnes Taylor LYONS. Updates to follow.

Apr 8, 2008: Grimston GRAHAM; ROWE/DAWE letters

All things come to those who wait. A descendant of the Grimston GRAHAM I had noted from the BBC War Stories site has popped out of the woodwork. We've a few minor date discrepancies to sort out, but with a name like Grimston in the family I had high hopes that I'd finally found a living GRAHAM descendant for my Stephen of Longtown. At the moment the evidence is circumstantial, but it looks a highly likely match. Gary can get back from Grimston to a David and Jane, both GRAHAM. This David is shown as born Longtown 1841. The only David within 5 years of that age born Longtown that shows up on census data is the David son of Mary, and therefore the grdson of my Stephen. Gary's father seems to think that the more modern Grimston was named for a distant relation who used to be a stagecoach driver in the 1700s.

It will take a while, read a very long while, but over the next few months I hope to have sorted thru and published on the web, the treasure trove of letters and photos to/from the DAWE and ROWE families in England and Taranaki. I've been up to Auckland to visit Marion specifically to take photos of her treasured box of letters, and was absolutely amazed. I hadn't been prepared for the number of the letters, and the number of old photos was also a wonderful surprise.
Great to finally meet her after all these years too.
At a very quick glance, most of my photos have come out fine, but one or two aren't brilliantly focused and will take some deciphering. But at least there is now another copy of them all.

Jan 23, 2008; There had to be an Alison

Having been found by the descendants of the newfound (to me) dtr Isabella, to Peter SINTON and Janet DONALDSON, and having done a lot of digging around to find as many of the descendants as wanted to be found, I then went digging to find other researchers of the new names added into the tree: ROBSON, MABON, HILSON, TURNBULL, BRODIE, THOMSON, INGLIS, SCOTT, MIDDLEMIST, GRAHAM, TAYLOR, RENWICK, HUNTER, WAUGH.
On the Borders FHS site, the Surname interests came up trumps for TURNBULL and MABON. At the time I found the TURNBULL researcher and looked at the web page, I wasn't sure it was the same family, but a bit more digging, and bingo. A couple of Isabella's great grdchildren had emigrated to Canada after WWI.
For MABON I picked one researcher for no better reason other than she had a NZ address. Such decisions can be fateful.
This evening, I received a pedigree chart from Amanda, and completely forgot about checking MABONs further, as she was a FAIRBAIRN relation of mine from a daughter I didn't have, for Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes ROBESON/ROBISON/ROBERTSON, but I knew had to exist somewhere. In a family with several sons and daughters I was missing a son named after the mother's father, and a dtr named after the father's mother, but am no longer missing the latter. The former may well still be the John in New York with father Walter of Roxburgh, SCT, but DNA participants are yet to be found to aid this conjecture.
Figured out who Mary BUCKHOLM is (but not what happened to her after 1871), but the rest of the grandchildren of Richard and Isabella ROBSON are yet to be "fitted in".

Nov 27, 2007: Doubly related?

And wonder of wonders, this newfound NZ WIGHT descendant is a relative of the last TINNING at Fauld, recently sold (see report on web), AND has a Jane GRAHAM further back up his ancestry, so just possibly we are connected twice over, once via Borders WIGHTs and once via Arthuret GRAHAMs. He also added that another relative currently owns Hornick Hill.

Nov 11, 2007: Lots of updates

Despite what my Recent Changes page says for today, the only real change is the addition of William GRAHAM, who has just been added to the web.
In addition the GRAHAM chart also has some updates, down from Dulcibella.
Both WorldConnect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential have been updated as there were quite a few snippets here and there to include, ie some HENDERSON/McGREGOR updates on the New Jersey branch courtesy of Linda, and the Scottish lot courtesy of Robert, some WALDIE/WIGHT snippets via census data, and a binge on McEWANs etc etc etc).

Nov 10, 2007: GRAHAMs Galore again ++

A couple of days intensive effort chasing Cumberland GRAHAMs and CARRUTHERS descendants around the records, helped by Kirklinton headstone transcriptions ex Bridget and CARRUTHERS info from Gwynneth. My end conclusion was that the Kirklinton William who died Firbank 1808 is highly likely to be the son of Edward and Dulcibella and the father of the George who married Easet CARRUTHERS (whose brother Richard was at Hornick Hill incidentally), so I've connected him up. Others may well have reached this conclusion quicker, but I've only just worked thru the headstones and done the sums etc.
Got a bit of a problem with some of George's descendants though. Two researchers who have been in contact with me both claim George and Easet's illegitimate son William as theirs. One as William GRAHAM married to Jane FERGUSON, the other as William CARRUTHERS married to Jane ARMSTRONG. More work is needed to sort that lot out.

Along the way of all this activity Bridget mentioned that one of her lot married one of the Moorhouse GRAHAM lot, a Romulus IRVING. The very next marriage I looked up was for Mary Eleanor GRAHAM, who turned out to be the one married to Romulus Graham IRVING. I guess with a father named George ROME you might just call a son Romulus (especially if he was illegitimate and he wasn't living with you).
Also a few snippets from NRH courtesy of Robert. 3 more of the children of Robert TAYLOR and Isabella Armstrong McGREGOR have been identified, only 7 to go.
Also some dates/places on the FAIRBAIRN/JARDINE line in Hawick.

Oct 16, 2007: Kirklinton GRAHAMS & more METHERELL

Back to chasing TURNBULLs and GRAHAMs around England. Anne Marie (mentioned on the 8th Oct) has been back in touch.

I just knew my research on the family of John TURNBULL and Isabella/Easet GRAHAM wasn't wasted when I was investigating who their son Robert TURNBULL was a couple of years ago. At the time it looked like there was going to be a connection with my Walter and Robert TURNBULL, and there may well be but it is unlikely to be proven unless more records miraculously appear from somewhere.
I had John's wife Isabella (whom I thought was also called Easet as John appears on census data with firstly Isabella and then Easet and they are of an age with the same birthplace) as the dtr of William and Jane GRAHAM, with a possible id of Jane as Jane FERGUSON.
Anne Marie also believes so, but corrected me about Easet, pointing out that Isabella died relatively young and John went on to have yet more children with her sister Easet. Saves on in-laws I suppose.
Anyway, Anne Marie believes Isabella to be the dtr of William GRAHAM and Jane FERGUSON, and has William as son of the George GRAHAM who married Easet CARRUTHERS, then George as son of William married to Eleanor, this William believed to be the son of Edward and Dulcibella GRAHAM. Quite exciting that by combining info we appear to finally have made some connections between the GRAHAM families and I've found several researchers of those lines. Great synergy. Also tidies up my database somewhat as I hadn't identified many of them as being one and the person, so had many of them twice over, once with parents, t'other with their own family.

Another guestbook posting by Heather sounds like she may have some info that might finally sort out the Jane METHERELL mystery, ie how many were there and who did they both/all belong to?

Oct 8, 2007: More HEIGHTs scaled

Quick response to a Rootsweb posting I made on the Digby, Nova Scotia message board. We now have details about Alden HEIGHT and Christine McGREGOR's 1910 Massachusetts marriage, but aren't really any further ahead with info on the supposed 1932 marriage to Minnie Dale FRANKLIN nee WILSON that cannot have happened then (Minnie was the informant for her then husband's death in 1936, James FRANKLIN). Odd that Alden appears to be married to a Bessie F in 1943, Minnie in 1942 and still to Christine in 1941 (New Hampshire directories via Ancestory).

Curiousity got the better of me however, so I took a punt that the HEIGHTs still living at a 40 yr old address in Hartford Noreen had were the ones at the end of this chain. Spoke to a grddaughter of Alden's who confirmed he'd married firstly Christina then Minnie, but in the brief conversation, nothing was known about any Bessie F. Hope to hear from her via email to "discuss" further.

And back to the GRAHAMs of Fauld. Annemarie a descendant of a William GRAHAM has been in touch. She thinks he's the son of the Dulcibella who married Edward (both GRAHAM) but lacked anything conclusive to link them, just the circumstantial evidence of h/stone proximity. Yet to check it out, but looks like another rellie as Dulcibella left her son William 1/- in her will.