John Fairbairn

With an eldest known son Robert, it had been suggested that John marr. to Jane WADDELL, may be the 1799 John son of Robert & Elizabeth (Crosbie) Fairbairn, although this identification puts John slightly on the young side to have married in 1817, and is rather later than the 1795-ish date we now (Apr 2014) have.
Against this identification was the death/burial of a John FAIRBAIRN of East Third in 1832, two entries after assumed father Robert's.

Another suggestion has been the John baptised Smailholm to Robert and Agnes (WRIGHT) Fairbairn.
However, that John was baptised in 1782, which is a bit far the other way from the age given in the 1841 census (assuming a correct identification, and accurate age of course!)

Although we have not (yet?) found yDNA evidence to (dis)prove the id, we do have some, admittedly circumtantial, autosomal DNA matches to aid the identification, sufficiently for Robert and Elizabeth's family to be revised and John marr. to Jane WADDELL included.

Wonder who the John buried in 1832 was?

The DNA connections:
John and Jane had a dtr Christian Nisbet Fairbairn who marries James Fairbairn (not yet found to be related).
A descendant has a predicted 3rd cousin match with a descendant of Isabella (marr. to George Walker), dtr of Robert and Elizabeth (Crosbie) Fairbairn's son James.
But the DNA matches would be 5th cousins, and share too much DNA for that to be likely.

========== (below to be reviewed for relevance)
Coldstream features in the families below.

The John married to Jane WADDELL had sons Robert (1818, Eckford), John (1824, Linton) and Andrew (1828, Smailholm) about whom nothing further was postively known.
Andrew is now fully believed to have married Eliza CLARKE (Plumstead 1853), which id has been further confirmed after finding a better 1851 census for him showing his birth place as Smailholm, rather than the Woolwich barracks Andrew who was recorded as born Church Hill, Berwickshire.

In addition a potential candidate has now (Nov 2011) been found for son John, also in the military. He is assumed to have married Helen ROSS (Coldstream 1842).
Circumstantial evidence for the prosecution includes the 1841 census which has likely candidates for both Andrew and John in Eccles, Andrew at Stable Birgham and John, as FREEBAIRN, with future wife Ellen/Helen at Cloverhall.

By 1851 Andrew is with brother George in the Royal Artillery Barracks in Leeds, but John yet to be found.
There is also a likely "cousin" marriage between descendants of John & Helen's sons John and James.

With daughter Christian Nisbet FAIRBAIRN also marrying a FAIRBAIRN (James, son of Ralph FAIRBAIRN & Helen CROW), perhaps there is a connection to that family?

As always, we would love to solve such puzzles if at all possible by calling on DNA evidence.
The best option is to find a willing direct male line FAIRBAIRN to to join the Fairbairn Surname DNA Project and undertake at least a Y-DNA37 test (but preferably Y-DNA67 for consistency with other project members).
The other option, less direct, but all helping piece together families more accurately, would be for autosomal dna testing of any descendants, this being the FamilyFinder test which can also be ordered via the project.^8,9,2,10