Henderson, Andrews, Rowe, Wight, Sinton, Fairbairn, Bain, Manson, McAdie and many many moreThe tale of an 11 year Fairbairn mystery that dna testing has "solved" - well the immediate questions possibly, but there's always one more ...
I didn't realise I was undertaking this particular journey all that time!Many years ago (around 1996), I posited that the William, who married Jean Wanless, and David, who married Jane Williamson, just might be brothers belong to my Archibald (who married Alison Crosser). This was based purely on Scottish naming patterns, as each family had a first son Archibald, and William also had a second daughter Aylsie, which had been sometimes recorded as Alice, which is often interchangable in records with Alison, ergo, William's and David's parents might be Archibald and Alison.
I was undeterred by the family lore (Reby Dodds' 1970 book on the Fairbairn/Johnston families) which had William's parents as William Fairbairn and an Elsie (Aylsie) Elliot of Minto, as she also had this father William as a schoolteacher, and uncle of Sir William Fairbairn. However accurate the many ancedotes and documentation of the later generations of this family may be, it is doubtful that this claim is correct, unless there were two schoolteacher Williams in Selkirk at the same time. (The schoolteacher appears to be a William married to a Margaret Scott.)
Proof of any of this was lacking, and unlikely, at the time, to be found, so all this speculation was shelved, with flurries of activity as assorted descendants got in touch, one such being 2003 when Ross popped up and David was finally connected as a brother to William (in my database, others no doubt already had that)
Then in 2007 along came dna testing to add a bit of science into the mix. The Fairbairn Surname DNA project started with Martin, believed to be a descendant of Archibald and Alison (the final link is unprovable as the chap believed to be their son Archibald inconveniently died prior to civil registration), and the sole participant in the project.
Lo and behold, when his preliminary (12 marker) results came back there was an exact match with another person who had tested with Family Tree DNA, an Earl M Fairburn, who didn't answer his email. I was left on tenterhooks for a while trying to figure out who he was. Eventually his daughter replied and confirmed my research of where her father fitted into the Fairbairn scheme of things. He turned out to be a descendant of another Archibald, a contempory of my one, who I had forgotten about in the intervening years. This one had married a Mary Grierson and the two Archibalds were having families in the same timeframe, mine around Swinton and Morebattle, Earl's around Bowden, St Boswells, and Southdean. Earlier resarch Martin had commissioned had decided that the Grierson link was his, but I had assigned his line to the Crosser couple, again, based purely on naming patterns as there was neatly a first son Archibald and a second daughter Alison. Earl was added into the Fairbairn dna project and the remaining results awaited.
At the 37 marker level there was only a 36/37 match, which made me feel that my decision to link Martin's family to my Archibald (Crosser) was correct.
While all this was going on there was a discount on testing in the lead up to Christmas and I recruited Roy, a descendant of William and Jean (Wanless) thinking it would be interesting to see any results, but not really expecting a close match given the published family stories about connections to Sir William's family etc.
Lo and behold, initial results showed Roy was an exact 37/37 match with Earl, and 36/37 with Martin. At which, I revived my theory that the brothers William and David were sons of an Archibald, regardless of what the family lore said, not mine, but the Grierson one instead, after all William and Jean did have a daughter Mary, albeit not the second daughter.
All participants agreed to go for an upgrade to the 67 marker test. The results are just in (Apr 2008). They show Roy and Earl as exact matches still, 67/67, but Martin slipped to 64/67 (he is 2 generations younger than them, more chance for gene mutations to creep in).
My initial reaction to all this was to say 'yipee, yes, they belong to Archibald", but when I went to connect them up in my database I was forced to realise this cannot be. If William was indeed born around 1790, then he wouldn't in the children of Archibald and Mary. He would have to be between Isabel, born March 1789 at Whinfield, Par. of St Boswell and Robert born Jun 1791 Thornylaw, Par. of St Boswell, or be born much later, as Archibald and Mary have children at regular 2 yearly intervals up to 1793, then a gap to 1804 and 1806, when they may have moved outwith Roxburghshire.
So, Reby came into her own again. Family fore has to have come from somewhere, especially given that those who had worked on the research for the book were known to be Reby and her mother, Elizabeth Frances Johnston nee Fairbairn, daughter of George and Eleanor (Mullen) Fairbairn *. Elizabeth was born 1867 and died 1949. Although her grandfather William (marr. Jean Wanless) had died in 1872, Elizabeth would have had ample opportunity to learn from those who knew him, as of the 8 children, at least 5 survived into the 1900s.
Archibald is hereby banished as the father of William and David, and William Fairbairn and Elsie (Aylsie) Elliot of Minto, declared the winners - for now!
As to any relationship with Sir William's tribe, that's still open to interpretation, and I would dearly love to find a participant for the dna project from his family, Andrew Fairbairn and Margaret Henderson to join in and prove this one way or the other. So much "research" out there on so many FAIRBAIRN families claims this relationship it would be good to set a few records straight.
Now for my next theory ...
Reby not only reports that William and David's father was a cousin of Sir William's, but also gives them a brother Thomas, M.D., married to an Helen Kinniburg.
This is incorrect, as the Thomas, M.D., married to Helen, belongs to the family of Thomas Fairbairn and Margaret Clarkson, and his brother William was born in 1814, and married Agnes Dodds.
However, given there was probably a grain of truth in this somewhere, I noted in passing a while ago (FAIRBAIRN GenForum posting Aug 2001) that there was a Thomas Fairbairn reputed to have emigrated to Canada to work on the Rideau Canal, as was "our" William, and that just possibly, this Thomas is the brother remembered by the family?
More descendants of Thomas Fairbairn and Elspeth Redpath are very welcome to join the dna project to test out this theory, especially as the first son was named Robert, and they had a daughter Agnes (my current assumption is that William Snr is the brother of the Archibald who married Mary Grierson, their parents being Robert and Agnes (Landreth) Fairbairn who married St Boswells in 1757).
Thomas is also a family name, in that this earlier Robert (son of John Fairbairn & Bessie Flint) has a brother Thomas (born 1741 Smailholm, nothing else known).
* from a 1983 visit Roy had had with Reby