May 25, 2008: Solving RIDDELLs

Mostly FAIRBAIRN tidyups of late. A lead from Alison added a RIDDELL branch to the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Mary GRIERSON (I had noted the marriage of an Agnes FAIRBAIRN to a John RIDDELL, but never explored further), and several others have had a few dates/places confirmed/added, including the family of Walter FAIRBAIRN and Agnes HENDERSON.
Another WINES branch has also been brought forward in present day Australia thanks to Gary B., whom I calculate is a 6th cousin.

Mar 7, 2008: FAIRBAIRN DNA match

What an eventful day, genealogically speaking. Yesterday the preliminary 12 marker results arrived in for the 3rd kit of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project and to my surprise, showed a 12/12 match with both of the other 2 participants, neither of whom had ever been seriously considered as relations.
Sure, I'd speculated at times that, despite what others had said, that the William who married Jane WANLESS and the David who married Jane WILLIAMSON, who had emigrated to Quebec, might be the children of my Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Alison CROSSER, purely on the basis of naming patterns of their children, and approximate ages, but proof was definitely lacking.
Then today, the rest of the results arrived showing a full 37/37 match with the descendant of Archibald and Mary (GRIERSON) FAIRBAIRN, and a 36/37 match with a descendant of my Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN.
I've spent a lot of today re-examining assorted claims and OPRs and will soon update the patriarchs page of the Surname project to reflect my findings, combining them as best I can with details reported to me, leaving exactly where they fit into the overall tree for another day, and possibly an upgraded dna test or two.
I'm still very drawn to attaching them to an Archibald as a father, but it would now have to be the one married to Mary GRIERSON instead. A 1790 date for William would fit in between two known children both baptised St Boswells but at different farms, and a 1799 date for David would definitely fit in between 1793 Margaret baptised when they were at Thornylaw, St Boswells, and 1804 George by when they had moved to Macksidemoor, Southdean.
As to the rumoured/believed connection to Sir William FAIRBAIRN's family via his schoolmaster uncle....
I believe that schoolmaster to be the William married to Margaret SCOTT. He was teaching at Bowden from 1778 to 1789 and from 1792 thru 1798 children are now being baptised in Galashiels. This latter period would fit the dates when Sir William was supposedly learning book-keeping from his Uncle in Gala.
In addition, this William looks very like the 53 yr old buried in the Galashiels Old Kirk Cemetery in 1810, which date coincides very nicely with the baptism of the William, son of John FAIRBAIRN and Helen ANDERSON, Apr 1756, Smailholm.
All in all, an eventful day indeed. It is wonderful to know that the work I have sporadically done on the descendants of William and David in Quebec has not been in vain, and that they are indeed all relations, just not sure where yet! Maybe one day soon we'll also figure out how come Walter A FAIRBAIRN is a cousin to his wife Clarissa. I now have more of a vested interest in the answer to that.
In the meantime, I've updated the FAIRBAIRN introductory page to include charts for William and David.
The other charts will also now include some new twigs for the family of John FAIRBAIRN and Bessie FLINT, and Robert FAIRBAIRN and Agnes LANDRETH/LAUNDRESS found while looking for others.

Dec 27, 2007: Fair whizzing along with FAIRBAIRNs

Continued working on the family of Archibald FAIRBAIRN and Mary GRIERSON with quite a bit of success. Interested to note that one family member married a ROBSON, a variant of which surname married into the other Archibald FAIRBAIRN's family.
Revised, yet again, the brief FAIRBAIRN chart and the "other Archibald" chart on the FAIRBAIRN pages.
Also included the Archibald who married Janet SCOTT on the web pages, given that there's a leap or two of faith taken in there that others may not agree with. At least people can see how I reached my conclusions. If anyone has any compelling arguments another way, do tell me. I see at least one tree on the web that has these families completely differently to this.

Dec 26, 2007: Archibalds rethink and voyage of discovery

Have been on a very fruitful voyage around Roxburghshire chasing Archibald FAIRBAIRN and family (with Mary GRIERSON). Bowden, St Boswells, Melrose, Southdean all must have offered him work, children baptised in each parish. I think I've found his baptism too, so the putative names for the two Archibald's forbears have changed, given I did switch the 1783 Whitsome one to Archibald and Alison instead. There wasn't room between the children I found for Archibald and Mary to fit him in at all by his 1841 census birth estimate and the 1783 baptism predates their marriage with no indication on the record that he was illegitimate.
Brief Fairbairn chart updated, as are those on the FAIRBAIRN page

Dec 18, 2007: Matching Archibalds

The final FAIRBAIRN dna results came in on our match, which added to the sum of knowledge in that although they were an exact match at 12 and 25 markers, by the 37 marker test there was 1 difference. I concluded, probably rather unscientifically, that they shared a grandfather and that their respective fathers were probably brothers named Walter and Archibald.
I'll expand on this on Archibald's write-up at a later date.

Updated the Patriarchs page of the FAIRBAIRN DNA project to include the line of the 2nd Berwickshire Archibald FAIRBAIRN.

Also included a chart for Archibald and Mary GRIERSON/GIESSEN on my FAIRBAIRNs page.