On Mar 20, 2005, at 11:35 AM, lbainbridge wrote:
Hi, Dan, I know I've been in touch with you before, but
can't locate
that
correspondence now. I didn't think our branches connected, but....
I think so, but we have totally separate roots, so it didn't go
anywhere. Cairns is a pretty common name when you come down to it.
They were all over Scotland and Ireland.
My Jimmy (James) Cairns was the son of James Thomas Cairns and Mary
Young
Cairns of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was born in Perthshire (according
to my
info), Scotland in 1851. We was the oldest brother of my great
grandfather,
Frank Martin Cairns. He went west, was deputy marshall of Wichita,
Kansas,
and married Nellie Masterson. He died in 1934, and I have visited his
grave
in Wichita.
Interesting parallel, and I should note that I don't mean to dismiss
what I think you are thinking without good cause. My grandmother,
bless her soul, back in 1936 made notes on the recollections of her
father before he died, and he identified his grandmother as Mary
Baptie, along with a bunch of other relatives he remembered from his
days in Roxburghshire. I have managed to recover all of it from the
parochial records that the LDS put out in 1996 going back to the
marriage to Mary Baptie in 1807 and back before that using the civil
death records. So, I am very sure to whom I am connected in Scotland.
It's those early days in the US that are a bit fuzzy.
But that's an interesting story that you tell. I assume when you note
Nellie Masterson, she was some relation to Bat Masterson the very
notable sheriff. It would be nice to tie into that as it would make a
really great story to share with the rellies at family gatherings.
But, if he's yours, then he's not mine unless you want to revise your
roots to the Borders. So, unless you want to give him up, which I
don't think you want to do, that's that.
Good hunting,
Don