Fairweather Stories and Family Discoveries
At Family Matters & The Fairweather Collection, I offer additional insights, anecdotes, and discoveries related to the Fairweather surname and my own family tree. I share personal stories, interesting tidbits, and fascinating discoveries uncovered during my research journey. You will find a treasure trove of information for fellow genealogists and enthusiasts, providing a deeper understanding of both the Fairweather family history and my family tree.
YOU NAME IT
Fairweather has been spelled many ways over the years, especially in the days before spelling was standardized! Today, most families spell it Fairweather, some spell it Fayerweather and one family that I know of uses Fayrweather.
In my study, I have used Fairweather consistently, with the differing name in my “Also Known” fact in my Reunion database. This allows me to find people more easily. I have also done that with other names that have variant spellings. Since my Fairweather collection database has now surpassed 81, 000, it would be difficult to search, for example, 4 times for Elizabeth Nicoll, Elisabeth Nicoll, Elizabeth Nicol & Elisabeth Nicol.
Census takers have come up with some interesting transcriptions for the name Fairweather. I’ve done work on transcriptions myself, and the combination of faded ink, ink blots, poor handwriting & careless enumeration can be very difficult to decipher. Now that some transcription has been contracted out to people whose first language is not English and who are not familiar with the places where the census was taken. In my experience, volunteer transcribers will be more familiar with the geography, culture and common names in the setting of each census. Thank you, volunteers!
Along with computer digitization, the above factors have produced some creative guesses. Some of these have been hard to imagine as Fairweather!
These have been seen by me in census transcriptions, in most cases.
Fannedtris, Fierweather, Layswether, Feniwich, Tayisweather, Faiewerthey, Faviweather, Jaieweather, Farswester, Farrington, Farnsworth, Foerveatter, Fairwetten, Fainkstha, Fatmoeather, Fauswether, Freirvester, Ferwesther, Takimcilar & Tarfisher!
Sometimes the only clue that they are Fairweathers is when another household member has been listed and Fairweather is legible in that person’s name. Then you can identify the rest of the family from previously recorded information.
When looking at your own Fairweather family’s information, you can decide how to spell the last name. Remember that many earlier documents spell names as the person who wrote them thinks they are spelled so some of the above words will be found scattered through the early documents.
Fairweather/Bennett/Wallace/McKain
Amelia O Hara b. 1854 London, England d. 1900 Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Daniel McKain b. 1851 Wellington, New Zealand d. 1924 New Zealand
These are portraits of my grandmother's parents. As well, a photo taken in February 2007 in the Eskdale Cemetery near Napier, New Zealand. Douglas Mary McKain née Dunsmore was the first pioneer to be buried there.
JOHN BOURNE CORNFORD > JOHN CORNFORD BOURNE
Family Matters
Letter to the cousins- January, 2024
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cornford-148
John’s mother was Phoebe Cornford. His father is unknown.
The Cornfords have been in Sussex for centuries, many from Warbleton,which is close to Herstmonceux and Heathfield.
Phoebe’s father was William Cornford. Her mother was Mary Hayler.
William’s mother, our 5th great grandmother, had the wonderful name of Philadelphia Bellchambers! Oh, and check out Richard Message!
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Message-19
Phoebe had two sons before she married John Fox and they were named Thomas Cornford and John Bourne Cornford. She had 5 sons with John Fox. Both Thomas and John were participants in an opportunity provided by the parish. There was not enough money in the parish to support all the residents, so they encouraged young men to leave Warbleton and go to live in Canada. They probably travelled together and both ended up in Kingston. There is a marvellous collection of letters to and from Kingston and Warbleton. Uncle Bill Earl did a lot of research of the Bournes and Wallaces- in a day where there was no Internet! Barbara (Earl) Gilbert had the collection, Auntie Belle knew of it and asked to borrow it for me. I
had it here and scanned all the letters (now to find those scans!) When Auntie Belle stayed with me here in 2012, she asked to take the letters back for Barbara. There are some great letters from relatives of Mary (Wood) Bourne, many from children of Mary’s sister Ruth. I was able to put most of that tree together from those letters. One letter is marked John B. Cornford and he was living in Hastings county. He soon changed his name to John Cornford Bourne and married Mary about 1855 in the Kingston area. From then on, he was known only as John Cornford Bourne and until I figured it out, I don’t think any of our mothers/aunts knew where the Cornford came from. I was in touch with someone in England who had researched the Cornford lines, asking if they knew what connection there was between Cornford and Bourne. She told me of two Cornford sons who had migrated to Canada under a parish plan to offer to send people to Canada. Eventually, we added her research to what I knew and figured out the way it had gone. I found that both John and Thomas had settled in Kingston, Thomas keeping the surname Cornford. The Wallace girls spent a lot of time with the Bournes, especially Aunt Jennie (Phoebe Jane) and Aunt Annie (Annie Ruth) who were the dressmakers who made so many beautiful outfits for them. Their sister, Mary Isabella (Bourne) Wallace (our great grandmother) died in 1935 but Annie and Jennie both lived until 1944 so were around for several years after Grandpa Ron died in 1937. I’ve linked to my WikiTree information. The concept they have is to share information freely and to merge profiles where one person has been added twice from any other trees, as well as adding and correcting and adding sources and information to that merged profile. Here’s Phoebe and there’s more info about her sons on her profile:
Helen, Elsie, Jean, Belle and Betty Wallace & Barbara Earl