Archibald? Fairbairn1,2,3

(say 1735 - )
FatherJohn Fairbairn (m. Bessie fflint)2 (bef. 1705 - bet. 1741 - 1805)
MotherBessie Flint (bet. 1700 - 1710 - aft. 1741)
Relationship5th great-grandfather of Lorna Henderson

BMDB data

     Archibald? Fairbairn was born say 1735 ?ROX or ?BEW, SCT, estimated to fit into a gap in the children of John & Bessie (FLINT) FAIRBAIRN.2
     John Fairbairn (m. Bessie fflint) is likely to be the family patriarch for the families of Archibald? Fairbairn, Robert Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, Archibald Fairbairn, William Fairbairn (m. WANLESS), John 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 and Mary Grierson/Giessen's, son George, baptised Bowden, Roxburghshire. These two families are contemporaries in time and fairly close by place.
The name Archibald? is assigned 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.

My calcs are that a grandfather to the two known to exist Archibalds would cover 8 generations in total, between the matching y_DNA candidates. This agrees with the 90% probability calculations from FamilyTree DNA's y_DNA calculations (95% that it was no more than 10).
This seemed good enough reason to join the families up in this way, it may however be a generation, or two, further back - until we also factor in the growing number of autosomal dna matches bewteen the two lines. (although subsequent BigY testing shows all tested candidate lines "meet" at a branch of the yDNA tree of mankind with an estimated formation of around 1725 - very conveniently about when John and Bessie married.)

You can read about this research journey on my personal Fairbairns page.4,2,5,6

External links

     Click here to see Archibald?'s page on WikiTree, a (free) collaborative on-line tree.7
     Archibald? Fairbairn belongs to a DNA tested line. There may be more information available on DNASurnames under the DNA project for his/her surname/line.

Family
Child
ChartsJohn & Bessie (FFLINT) FAIRBAIRN
My pedigree chart
Paternal ancestors of Lorna

Adam DAVIDSON's ancestors

Last Edited3 Jan 2015

Citations

  1. Assumes that the Archibald bap. that I have ascribed to Archibald and Alison is their first born, and they followed the Scottish naming pattern.
  2. FamilyTree DNA, "FamilyTree DNA", FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA Project, 36/37 marker match between descendants of two contemporary (time and place) Archibald FAIRBAIRNs, Dec 2007.
  3. BEW: Whitsome 1-place study: Lesley R online at http://homepages.ipact.nl/~robertson/, Bap. 1783 Archibald s/o Archibald (hynd, resident Whitsome Vaults), extract rcvd Dec 2007.
  4. Lorna Henderson, "FAIRBAIRN Analysis", Dec 2007, updated Jan 2015.
  5. FamilyTree DNA, "FamilyTree DNA", FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA Project, 37/37 marker match between descendants of Archibald FAIRBAIRN & Mary GRIERSON, and of William FAIRBAIRN & Jean WANLESS, Mar 2008.
  6. FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA Project online at https://www.familytreedna.com/public/fairbairn, 67 marker results for the three matching participants, rcvd Apr 2008.
  7. WikiTree online at http://WikiTree.com/, Oct 2011.

E. & O. E. Some/most parish records are rather hard to read and names, places hard to interpret, particularly if you are unfamiliar with an area.