17th: Archie and Donald

Some time ago I'd noted a Donald FAIRBAIRN entering the States in 1917 with wife Mabel, giving as his "address whence came", that of his brother Archie in Vancouver.

My genealogical ears prick up when I spot unknown Archibald FAIRBAIRNs, but at the time I couldn't place him, or Donald/Mabel.

Happened upon them in my database again today and decided to see what additional information might now be available.

Turned out to be a red herring as far as an Archibald immediately able to be connected to my known FAIRBAIRN families was concerned, but did allow me to connect up three other waifs and strays I'd noted in passing, as being one and the same Archibald.
"Brother Archibald" turned out to be Archibald McDonald Duff FAIRBAIRN, and Donald was St George Donald Frere FAIRBAIRN, both born Sth Africa, sons of William Archibald Shaw FAIRBAIRN, born c 1850 East London, Cape Colony (Sth Africa) and Anna Georgina SMITH born Jamaica.
Although not my immediate family, I'm curious to know whether or not their forbears were from the Scottish Borders, and whether or not there are descendants who may be interested in the FAIRBAIRN dna project, given how inter-related such families are proving to be.

30th: McDONALD sorted

Bobby asked if I thought the niece, Margaret McDONALD, shown living with William TAYLOR and Janet GRAY in 1841 and 1851 at Sibster, Halkirk might be the dtr of William McDONALD and Margaret GUNN.
That was indeed where I had also thought she might belong, but had never investigated further to see if there was any link to our Isabella McDONALD, first wife of said William TAYLOR.
So much more information is now more readily available, so I set off to solve the mystery.
We were both wrong, as were the census records. Niece indeed! She was William's grandchild, illegitimate dtr of Christina (housemaid) with a George McDONALD, (merchant). No wonder I'd not found her in subsequent census returns before this, she died aged 29 in 1859. Another mystery solved, and a bit of the database straightened out. That particular family have real trouble naming their relationships correctly!

Found a Sth African site that had some useful information on it (http://www.ancestry24.co.za). Didn't find anything on my FAIRBAIRNs, but did find a bit more out about the family of the newspaper FAIRBAIRN there. Some of the family are on OneGreatFamily
and show John as being born Ledgerwood, BEW 1794, which raised my interest a tad. Any male FAIRBAIRN descendants out there interested in joining the FAIRBAIRN dna project?