The Fairbairn Surname DNA project on FTDNA is currently having success dividing Fairbairn families from the Scottish Borders in particular into their more closely related sub groups that have been slowly evolving from BigY testing.
One of our several groupings, that with the earliest documented ancestry in all the groupings is that of the family often referred to as the Cockburnspath Fairbairns.
Their line has a sole representative, a descendant of James, son of John Fairbairn and Grizel Johnson: [[Fairbairn-827|John Fairbairn (abt.1761-)]].
And has 7 private variants which should bring some new sub branches into play, and hopefully more refined time estimates, should we find a corroborating DNA signature for the family.
My current primary aim for the project is to find a direct male line descendant of David Fairbairn, or any other of his brothers, other than James.
http://fairbairnsall.blogspot.com/2023/02/wanted-cockburnspath-fairbairn-line.html
Here's FTDNA's Discover tree for this sub branch
https://discover.familytreedna.com/groups/fairbairn/tree?subgroups=226114,226115
For those interested in such things you can find the current annotated block tree of all sub groups available from the project at
https://fairbairn.one-name.net/tng/showmedia.php?mediaID=17
Any takers?
Either helping to document likely lines with candidates in particular, or even better, with local contacts who can put us in touch?
The project has a y37 exploratory test with a suitable tester's name on it, with a potential upgrade to BigY should a candidate be found.
I look forward to seeing the descendant list grow and hearing from anyone interested.
