Frasers Of Fife: More Trees! Four, Five and Six

It happened again!! Another tree! (and another, then another)

This time it was kismet. Remember "P.H." the suspected owner of a Family Tree who was so active on RootsWeb back in the last century?

Well, "P.H." found me! She does have a tree and she is NOT in the States as I suspected, but at the epicenter, if you will, in Fife, Scotland! The heart of the family, the birthplace of all the descendants of Duncan Fraser and Isobel Burness. She had been trying to find living descendants of the people on the tree. It was a long, slow process; she was doing it at a time when the internet was in it's infancy. She managed to find someone in Canada and they had kept up a dialog for a time. Canada, you say? Well, howdy neighbor!

P.H. gave me her name, I started looking. Gotta love Google! I found her easily on Facebook (the clue was in her middle name, but I will withhold that for privacy's sake) A quick message and we were on our way. Turns out she was not in possession of the Tree, her cousin who lives in France is the proud owner of Number Five. He was awarded the prize when the family sold the Great Aunt's home in Arbroath, Scotland. Descendants from the Gilbert Fraser/Mary Cargill union. I was able to get a photo of P.H's tree, but not of Tree number Five.

Here is Tree Four: 

Probably the best of the bunch! It looks new!

So, now we have FIVE! Five trees that have survived for more than 140 years. One in the US, two in Scotland, one in England and now one in France. This is getting exciting!

A year or so went by. I was busy working on other things genealogy related (and not) when I got a message - in my SPAM - that I didn't see right away - from Blogger Contact Form.

 "Frasers of Fife. I too have a copy of the Tree which supposedly cost 500 

GBP to compile in 1880. My grandfather and his brother were descendants of 

Duncan Fraser and Mary Buckley."

Whoop! Whoop! Now we have SIX! 

I replied immediately, apologizing for my tardiness in responding, explaining the note had landed in my Spam originally. You'll never guess where number Six is... Australia! Seems the current owner of number Six inherited it from his father. They are descendants of the James Fraser and Mary Buckley union. James immigrated to Australia in 1858 as a young man of 22 and met and married Mary Buckley, whose family had emigrated from England, in 1879. 

Here's the tree: 

Same one! A little rough, but it has traveled, like mine, across the ocean from it's original home.

So, to date, the Tree count is:

• First Tree - Chicago, USA  - Alexander Fraser/Elizabeth Chalmers branch
• Second Tree - England - Gilbert Fraser/Mary Cargill branch
• Third Tree - Scotland - Margaret Fraser/George Mackie branch
• Fourth Tree - Scotland - Hugh Fraser/Isabella Gibb branch
• Fifth Tree - France - Jessie Fraser/David Wightman Cargill branch
• Sixth Tree - Australia - James Fraser/Mary Buckley branch

Each branch shows up on the blue/green colored portion of the tree, with heavy representation (currently) on the right hand side. Let's hope there are more trees out there waiting to be discovered!

Origin location of known trees

Until next time .......

read the other posts here:

Documenting the Family Tree - Documenting the Family Tree - Continued - And Then There Were Three!

©2022 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Frasers of Fife: Documenting the Family Tree - Continued

Back in April I began the tale of the mysterious Family Tree that appeared from behind my father's furnace. Rolled snugly in a mailing tube and tucked behind the furnace in the basement of his home. He thought it was the IRONS family tree, turned out to be the FRASER family tree. You can read part one here.

Anyway, I started to create a public family tree on Ancestry dot com - cousin bait - with the information inscribed upon the mysterious tree. As a rule I keep the Ancestry Member Tree Hints turned off, but I do like to manually check them from time to time. This was one of those times.

Glad I did!!!

Found a fully built Public Tree called the Frasers of Fife with all the exact same people as my tree!

Exact same!

Exact!

Of course I contacted the tree owner immediately. (His initials are A.F. - same as mine!) And learned rather quickly that he too had in his possession a framed, hand inked John Fraser 1880 family tree.

What?!?

He is located in the UK and was equally as thrilled to learn of another tree .... in the States no less! He promised to send photos the following weekend.

And he did.

My tree  on the left   ~   A.F.'s tree on the right

Same tree!!!

His has withstood the test of time better than mine (probably wasn't tucked behind a furnace) and we are able to share bits from one another's tree where the shellac has cracked. As expected, my Irons branch (the most important branch to me) is badly worn, his is pristine! I am now able to fill in a few missing parts.

A.F. suspects that there are other trees out there. I know of one other, but have not been able to contact the owner. I came across a post from 1999 by a "P. H." to RootsWeb. She had in her possession a Tree and was trying to make contact with other family members. As the post was soooooo old, the email address is no longer valid. She does have a profile on Ancestry, but I have been unsuccessful in making contact.

I will continue to add to my own public tree on Ancestry, and have also begun to document every person on the tree through short blog posts. Cousin Bait!

Here's to hoping I am successful at flushing out other Tree owners!


By the way, A.F. and I are 5th cousins, by his calculations ..... 

©2016 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Field Notes: My Love Affair With City Directories

Do you use city directories? You should, and here's why.

There is a wealth of information contained in a city directory. There are listings for schools and churches, there are maps, there are business listings, there are lists of newspapers, city officials, societies, new buildings, and of course people!

Chicago City Directory Contents Page 1847

 Trying to figure out which church your ancestor might have attended? Consulting the city directory for that time period will give you a list of churches, their location and denomination.

Can't find someone in the census? Check the city directory!

Think your ancestor might have lived in an area where a tragedy struck? (New York Fire, Chicago Fire, San Francisco Earthquake ...). Consulting the city directory will give you an exact address.

I have used the city directories to determine when my ancestors arrived at a location, and when they departed; much more precisely than a census record could.

Wondered what happened between 1880 and 1900? City directories to the rescue!

They are useful for pinpointing a death as well. Look for the last year your ancestor was listed in a directory and that will give you a clue for possible year of death.

Generally city directories were published for the prior year. For example, the 1860 directory for the City of Chicago was published May 1, 1860 and included names of business and inhabitants who were in the city from May 1, 1859 to May 1, 1860.

Sometimes city directories will not only give you names and addresses, but countries of origin and years of residence!

As with all non-indexed records, you will need patience to flip through - but it is so much fun!

There are some sites that offer a search bar, but I highly recommend a manual search. If you try the search bar and come up empty, don't think there is nothing there! Dig in and page through - you'll be surprised.

Oh, and let's talk about spelling. Just like census and other records, you might find your ancestor's name spelled a variety of ways.

Here is a good article about city directories.

My go-to site for city directories is Fold3 but there are many others. Ancestry has a good collection too. (Which can be accessed through HeritageQuest for free if you belong to a library that participates) For a list of paid and free sites look at FamilySearch. And don't forget Google!

There is a wealth of information contained in these tomes that will add color and depth to your research. All just awaiting your discovery.


(*disclaimer: I have not received any compensation for endorsement of any sites in this post. I am merely passing on my opinions and experience)