Archibald Fairbairn

     Archibald Fairbairn was estimated to have been born say 1760 prob. in ?Par. of Swinton & Simprin, BEW, SCT.¹
     Archibald Fairbairn and Alison Crosser, daughter of Male ?James Croser, are estimated to have married say 1782 prob. in ?ROX or ?BEW, SCT, (this date being assumed from the age of eldest child believed to belong to this family).³
     Archibald Fairbairn died bet 1800 - 1841 prob. in Cavers?, Par. of Eckford, ROX, SCT; (unsurprisingly, he was shown as deceased (an agricultural labourer) when his son Walter died, and isn't immediately obvious in the 1841 census).^1,4
     
     Check out the neverending story for the tale of a many years research journey with, I think, a wonderful conclusion (not that I knew I was undertaking this particular journey all that time.).^5,6,7,8
He and James Fairbairn at Yetholm & Morebattle, ROX, SCT, in 1778 were possibly related, as they are contemporaries by age and place, Archibald and Alison Crosser recorded as having children baptised in Morebattle, and James marrying a Mgt Croser in Yetholm, but the entry recording he was of Morebattle and sometime of this parish (Yetholm).⁹
     Cir. 1784 Archibald and Alison Fairbairn were living at Swinton, BEW, SCT, assuming that son Walter accurately knew where he was born.
     Fr 1794 - 1797 Archibald and Alison Fairbairn were living at Grahamslaw, Par. of Eckford, ROX, SCT, (where they were when two more children were baptised).^10,11 Archibald doesn't appear on the 1797/8 Farm Horse Tax Rolls for Eckford (David McDOUGAL of Cavertonmiln does with 20 actual horses, 14 of which were liable).¹² By Feb 1800 Archibald and Alison Fairbairn were living at Cavers, Par. of Eckford, ROX, SCT, when youngest known son David was baptized (the entry doesn't read Caverton, or Caverton Mill, but I thought Cavers was in its own parish, not Eckford).⁴
     Archibald Fairbairn and Walter Fairbairn at Swinton, BEW, SCT, cir. 1785 were possibly related as both Archibald and Walter had sons named Walter born Swinton, within 3 years of each other. Perhaps they are brothers?³
     John Fairbairn is likely to be the family patriarch for the families of Archibald? Fairbairn, Robert Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, William Fairbairn, John or David Fairbairn and William Fairbairn.
The Archibald with the ? after his name has to have existed, as the Fairbairn Surname DNA project provided a DNA match between a descendant of Archibald Fairbairn and Alison Crosser, likely first son Archibald born Whitsome, Berwickshire, and a descendant of Archibald Fairbairn and Mary Grierson/Giessen's, son George, baptised Bowden, Roxburghshire. These two families are contemporaries in time and fairly close by place.
I assigned the name Archibald? as father of the Archibald who married Alison Crosser from my assumption that the 1783 baptism of an Archibald to an Archibald, hynd of Whitsome Vaults, is their likely eldest child.
Prompted by this unexpected success I researched the other Archibald and have now convinced myself that his father was Robert, and grandfather John (marr. Bessie fflint), this all being from both naming patterns of the children, and the baptisms being in the right area and timeframe as there are no convenient wills left around for us to find. The extended family also end up in all the right places (Smailholm and Kelso). There's even an Archibald as a witness to one of the baptisms, and a Thomas Anderson.

Statistics on the Family Tree DNA site show that at a 36 out of 37 marker match ( exact matches at the 12 and 25 tests) there is a 90% probability that the common ancestor was no more than 8 generations ago, and 95% that it was no more than 10.
My calcs are that a grandfather to the two known to exist Archibalds would cover 8 generations in total, so this seemed good enough reason to join the families up in this way, it may however be a generation, or two, further back.

An additional line joined this extended Fairbairn family with an unexpected match between these Archibalds and a descendant of William Fairbairn and Jean Wanless, who had emigrated to Quebec. This 67/67 match between a descendant of the Archibald who married Mary Grierson, and a descendant of William Fairbairn and Jean Wanless. and the 64/67 match between the Crosser line and these two lines has led me to join up the families as per the linked charts.
You can read about this research journey on my Fairbairns page.^3,2,13,14
     The Fairbairn surname dna project has come up trumps - again.
I began to suspect that the family of FAIRBAIRNs I was tracing around in Ontario and Alberta just might belong to the family of an Archibald who married Jane Blakey in Tynemouth in 1841. Much later, I realised that I'd never actually checked this marriage cert. When this was remedied I was very interested to see that this Archibald's father was another Archibald.
Given that the one married to Jane was given as born about 1813 in Scotland in most available records, and the only Archibald son of Archibald I had in my database of Fairbairns was the one baptised in St Boswells in 1813 to Archibald F. and Janet Scott, it was looking even more likely that I'd found out what had happened to this latter Archibald, albeit that the father was shown with an occupation (gardener) that I hadn't associated with him. (Up till now I had assumed he had died prior to the 1841 census).
Thanks to a McKee researcher connected to the Ontario branch of these Fairbairns (who only knew their ancestry back to the Robert who married Martha Almira Huston), a descendant was convinced to represent his line in the Fairbairn dna project.
The preliminary results (Apr 2009) showed a 12/12 match, and by May they showed a 64/67 match, with the known descendant of Archibald and Janet (Scott) Fairbairn. QED, especially as two of those markers are unique in the project to this line, and marker cdya of 36 is shared with Martin the known descendant of Archibald and Janet (Scott) F, and none of the others in the project.
I am still, however, looking for a proven representative of Archibald and Alison (Crosser) Fairbairn as the Archibald married to Janet Scott link to them is not fully proven.^15,16