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: And Then There Were Three!

It happened!!

Last week!

A third tree has surfaced!

As you may recall, I originally believed I was in possession of a unique document, an original one-of-a-kind Family Tree for the Duncan Fraser ~ Isobel Burness union.

Then, my research illuminated the truth that there were at least two others out there - one I found mention of on an old (1999) chat log on RootsWeb - emails to the author, "P. H.", have still to this day gone unanswered. I suspect she resided in the US, where however, I am not sure - I hope as I work my way through the entire tree I will discover where she fits in.

But I digress.

The other tree I discovered documented on Ancestry. What an exciting day that was! The owner of that tree, a Fraser, resides with his tree in England. We correspond frequently and are now collaborating to bring the Tree into the 21st century.

Then it happened - that 'cousin bait' everyone talks about - I got a bite!  I was contacted through this blog by a man in Scotland who has a tree that was his mother's. The exact same tree!

He sent a photo:

Yup. Same tree.

It appears to be in excellent condition. Perhaps one reason is that it did not travel across the ocean and live rolled up behind a furnace for who knows how many years ....

Here are the other two - mine on the left, clearly more distressed, the England tree on the right.

This new 'cousin' has his origins just off the trunk on the lower right branch. He springs from the original Duncan/Isobel children. I fork off about half way up - also on the right - a sprout of a child of Duncan and Isobel. Our other 'cousin' is all the way at the top of the tree - the offspring of a second generation descendant of Duncan and Isobel. Quite the variety! 

And there are lots and lots of branches on that tree. The mind boggles imagining just how many trees could potentially be out there. 

In basements.

In attics.

In landfills (oh my, I hope not!)

In curiosity shops.

On eBay?

I'll keep plugging along, documenting the work John Fraser did in 1880 - I have what John did not, I have the help of the amazing newfangled invention, the internet! He, on the other hand, had the advantage of being 137 years closer to the origins of the family. 

One thing that bemuses us all .... what's up with the blue/green coloring on selected branches? One theory, those are the families that received a Tree. That remains to be seen, but it's a curious mystery for sure.

The work continues.

Lets hope we can catch a few more 'cousins' with this bait ......

©2017 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

Jesse Thomas Sr.: Might As Well Be John Doe (52 Ancestors #21)

Jesse Thomas Sr.

An infuriating Quaker.

Might as well be John Smith or Doe. Seems Thomas was a very common surname among the Quakers in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Very common. Hair pulling frustration common. And (of course) there are (at least) two Jesses.......

Now, I'm sure my 3rd great grandfather didn't mean to be so difficult, and buried somewhere deep in the tomes of Quaker history lie the answers. Alas, a trip to Swarthmore is not in my future any time soon.

So today, as I write this short sketch, the answers I seek remain buried.

I admit I do have ulterior motives for this post. A little fishing expedition. The more we all can get out onto the world wide web, the more chance there is for someone; anyone, anywhere; to stumble across it and perhaps supply a missing piece of the puzzle. Genealogy appears to be a solitary pursuit, you know, with the Cave and all, but it is only successful with collaboration.

Also I might add, that I have avoided this for a while.  Quaker genealogy really is a study unto itself and I must admit that it boggles my mind and makes me cranky.

So here is what I know.

• Jesse Thomas Sr. was born about 1786* in Chester Co., PA. His parents UNK to date.  FYI there are 41 heads of household in Chester County in the 1790 Federal Census with the Last name of Thomas. Forty One! Thirty two of those households report male children under 16. (Jesse would have been 4 at the time) By 1800 there are 30 heads of household, by 1810 (eureka!) there is but one Jesse listed in Chester County with 2 young adults and one child. (The 1786 Pennsylvania Census of Taxpayers lists 52 Thomas'.... but let's not go there)

• He married Rebecca (or Rebecah) Hampton in 1808* in Chester Co., PA They were members of the Fallowfield Monthly Meeting in Chester Co., PA. 

• Rebecca (Rebecah) was born May 12, 1790 in Bucks County, PA, the daughter of Jonathan Hampton and Elizabeth Phillips. This is one case where there is actually more recorded info on the woman than the man!

• The couple had at least 11 children, according Quaker records. You'd think with 11 descendants there would be numerous people looking for Jesse, wouldn't you?

• In 1820 the family requested removal from the Fallowfield Monthly Meeting in Chester Co., PA. in preparation to move to Ohio. They requested admittance to the Stillwater Monthly Meeting in Belmont Co., OH.

• In 1839 the family is listed in the Deerfield Monthly Meeting records in Morgan Co., OH.

• In 1842 Jesse is listed in the Chesterfield Monthly Meeting in Athens Co., OH, having died in February. He is recorded as being buried at Plymouth. Could that be Plymouth, Washington Co, OH?  There is a Jesse Thomas listed in the 1840 census residing in Westley Twp, Washington Co, OH - Plymouth is in Westley Twp. Plus my grandmother (the Genealogy Queen) has in her notes that the family was from Westley Twp.

*Dates are from other family trees. I usually don't use this type of information as I have not been able to source it, but I am including it this post as a stepping off point.

As I mentioned above, there are a few records for a Jesse Thomas born in 1791 to a Phillip and Hannah Thomas. He was born in Chester but the family attended the Goshen Monthly Meeting - probably not our guy.

There is a record of a Jesse Thomas "accomplishing" his marriage in 1806, but it was recorded in the Philadelphia Northern District Monthly Meeting - probably not our guy.

And that is it. That is all I know.  If only my Genealogy Cave was equipped with a time machine .......

Well, a girl can dream.


©2015 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved