14th: More Canadians

Betsy has made contact with a branch of our FAIRBAIRNs (descendants of David F. and Jane HERD) in British Columbia. This prompted me to review what records I hadn't yet checked for this line.
Missing was the now available 1916 census for Saskatchewan, so I've finally found the names of the 3 in the family I knew I was missing.
The FAIRBAIRN chart from Archibald and Alison (CROSSER) FAIRBAIRN has therefore now been updated.

FamilyTree DNA have advertised an upgrade promotion. Those eligible should receive an email with more details and a link to order at a discounted price (I've yet to see such an email, but the flier I received as an admin says that is what will happen). The promotion runs for a week and should be a good chance to upgrade where we would very much like to see what happens in some specific markers.

Check out the FAIRBAIRN DNA Blog for more results for the New York connection, which is looking good!

12th: Catskills calling

In the last couple of days Ed has brought to my attention that one of his New York FAIRBAIRNs had not died young and without a family, as previously thought.
He'd found a reference in the 1933 Catskill Mountain News archives referring to Delacey FAIRBAIRN having visited "home", aka Margaretville, from Floral Park, L.I. New York.
Research added a wife (Ernestine SHERBER) and two children, Marie and James, and showed that by now his surname had morphed into FAIRBEN.
Earlier references in the same newspapaer archives showed this spelling as early as 1884.

It was therefore finally time to get all the last couple of months updates to the database published, so the Rootsweb WorldConnect databases LornaHenderson and LornaPotential have been fully reloaded with whatever research has added in that time.
The main tree change was probably bringing the New York FAIRBAIRNs in from LornaPotential into LornaHenderson as they are definitely related, as per findings from the FAIRBAIRN DNA project, but there have been a heap of others.

PS It does rather look like that although we've found a branch of the FAIRBAIRN tribe, we have also tragically lost one of the younger ones. It has not yet been proven that Keith G. FAIRBEN of Floral Park, one of the ambulance people who lost their lives on 9-11, is definitely a descendant of Walter Delacey's, but place and dates make it likely.

5th: Johnnie comes marching home

Well "Johnnie" actually left Scotland prior to the American Civil War, and in fact had been in NY State for nigh on 20 years before becoming embroiled in it even.
The Fairbairn Surname DNA Project Diary has the details on the latest findings that explain this comment more fully, but basically, I think we're well on the way to welcoming the John son of a Walter FAIRBAIRN of Roxburghshire, who was in Delaware Co, NY by at least 1841, probably earlier, into the family of Walter and Agnes (ROBERTSON/ROBISON) FAIRBAIRN.

Nearly three weeks since a post must be a record for me. Been busy doing lots of things, but the main one was testing for a new release of Second Site 3, the program I use to generate my web pages, particularly for the newly introduced component of it to cope with dna results and charts. The preliminary result of the changes can now be seen in the DNA Projects Portal Lineages section where most of the surnames recorded there now have a dna section on that site instead of referring you off to other sites.

Whatever else I've been up to will eventually surface in the web and online database updates that will follow in due course.

15th: New York Fairbairns

Poor Great Grannie. Her web page has been further delayed as I continued tidying up the NY FAIRBAIRN branch that Ed and I think (hope) will turn out to belong to my Walter and Agnes (ROBISON/ROBERTSON) FAIRBAIRN.
Still haven't updated any of my online databases (everytime I get close, another set of relations or new information pops out of the woodwork and sidetracks me).
However, I have updated the NY FAIRBAIRN descendant chart to show where I've got too (they'd better end up related after all the work it took trying to find them in rather inventively indexed census records!). Not everyone has been "found", so this chart is by no means complete.

12th: Real mixture today

Seem to have covered a fair breadth of the forest today: McADIEs from Caithness *2, one lot the potential London descendants, the other the Australian connection, including a link (I think) to a separate FAIRBAIRN family, that of George FAIRBAIRN and Virignia ARMYTAGE, yet to be explored; a newfound twig of my FAIRBAIRNs in Pennsylvania; more of the NY FAIRBAIRNs;

I can feel some updates coming on, but there's a few loose ends to tie up before it is worth republishing both WorldConnect databases: LornaPotential and LornaHenderson

In addition a pedigree was received, and posted, for the ROWE dna project, yet another family originating in Devon, and although only some of his results are in, there does appear to be a (very) distant match to my Devon ROWE family.

Great grannie's web page didn't get a look in.

11th: This is so much more fun than work

Back to the New York FAIRBAIRNs of Delaware and Ulster Counties. While trying, still unsuccessfully, to find Lucia FAIRBBAIRN, dtr of John Francis, aka Frank, FAIRBAIRN and Delilah in 1910 and 1920 I stumbled across an instance of a chap recorded twice in the 1920.
Hillis FAIRBAIRN shows up once with Frank and Lucia (AVERY) FAIRBAIRN as their unmarried son working on a railway section (census taken 22-24 Jan). With the next entry being the widowed father of his wife Olive.
And also, on 25 Jan 1920 at home with his wife Olive and son David J FAIRBAIRN, enumerated as FAIRBEN with occupation as laborer Nth D? Section.
Lucia was subsequently found when it was pointed out to me that I'd misread her birth date in the census. Once I'd corrected that, things fell into place rather better, even if she was enumerated as Lutia A and indexed as Luter in one of them!
Updates to the published info will follow in due course.

8th: Bit preoccupied of late

As the lack of posts signify, I've been a bit preoccupied this week, annual accounts to get to the auditor, and other things interfering with the fun stuff in life.

Took some time out from that however to do a quick update to the descendant chart for John & Elizabeth (MILLER) FAIRBAIRN of New York, as Rosalie couldn't see where she fitted into the overall scheme of things. More updates to come as I realised I hadn't finished checking off several of them in the census records etc. We'll soon know if all this is work on relations rather than just potential relations as a dna kit is winging it's way to the lab. Not that I'll want to believe it if we don't get an immediate match as I've more or less convinced myself that this John is a son of my Walter and Agnes (ROBISON/ROBERTSON) FAIRBAIRN of Morebattle, given he fits a gap in the known children, and we're looking for a son John to make the naming pattern fit.

16th: New York RICHARDSONs?

Ralph's dna results arrived at last, and show a 34/37 match with a descendant of and Adam RICHARDSON, born 1835 New York of Scottish parents (ie rather distant, but definitely worth investigating).
Hardly a conclusive match, and certainly no immediate candidates spring to mind, but given Adam had a middle name of BROWN, just possibly he's a descendant of this family in my LornaPotential database: Adam and Margaret (BROWN) RICHARDSON, married 1788 Hawick, ROX.
I had researched them for possible connections to "our" RICHARDSONs because both families were from the Borders, and had ended up in Edinburgh, one in Lauriston Gardens, the other in Lauriston Terrace (I've not found out how close these streets are).
If there are any male RICHARDSON descendants of Adam and Margaret out there willing to test this theory out further, we'd love to hear from you.

Also decided to help out by joining the indexing project at FamilySearch.
Least I can do for all the help they've given the genealogical community over the years with their filming of original records.
I'd been holding off in that I thought I might not be able to commit enough time to make it worthwhile, but a "batch" is a very manageable size, easily done in a few minutes (or at least it was for the two initial batches of Cheshire records I've contributed so far).

Sep 21, 2008: FAIRBAIRN sidetracks

Not sure what all the major changes of late have been. Busy chasing FAIRBAIRNs around the records and getting sidetracked, ie business as usual.
One I got sidetracked onto was Robert Brinckerhoff FAIRBAIRN, married Juliet ARNOLD. I couldn't place him and noone seems to be researching the family so I had a dig. Warden of St Stephens Episcopal College at Annandale, NY for many years. Born in NY in 1818, father a William from Scotland who emigrated 1796 and was a publisher in NY. Anyone claiming this family?

Another orphaned family I spent some time on, and couldn't immediately spot any researchers for, was that of Robert FAIRBAIRN of Duns, Berwick who emigrated to Bowmanville, Ontario.
There are memoirs on the web written by his son James Brougham FAIRBAIRN, Postmaster at Darlington Mills (now Bowmanville) and brother of an MP Thomas McCulloch FAIRBAIRN. Possibly also connected with the inventor of mini-golf another Thomas McCulloch FAIRBAIRN.
I've added an outline pedigree to the DNA Patriarch's page.

What I was sidetracked from was finally getting round to updating my info (thanks for the prompt Ed) on the family of John and Elisabeth (MILLER) FAIRBAIRN of New York, John being the one with a father Walter of Roxburghshire who may or may not be my one. Would be great to find a participant for the dna project to test this theory out. I've included a chart for John and Elisabeth on my FAIRBAIRN pages, and will update the pedigree outline on the DNA project patriarchs page in due course.