In early 2025 I finally found a single descendant of William Buchan born 1801. And late last year the first of a few descendants of Andrew bc1808 were discovered. It had taken over two and a half years.
The reason is quite simple - they have so few descendants, especially compared to the fecund numbers of George and Robert. As I am about to go to Scotland, this post describes just how many people are on the family tree and where they live!
William Buchan 1801-1965
We are not really sure how many children William had - five or six depending on whether Mary Ann Dickson is his child, or that of his wife's first husband. They did fudge the marriage date to include her birth when she was baptised about 1853. [It is moot concern though since Mary Ann did not marry]. Three of five children survived to adulthood and all married.
George [1851-1905] married a woman with a toddler in tow and was nine months pregnant - no matches have been found to either of these two children. No further child is recorded being born to them once married. Later they brought an illegitimate girl into the family who had no father listed on her birth certificate. Was George the father? I have found no matches to her descendants either. Although there are no biological descendants, George gave them the Buchan name to all, and raised them as his family.
Mary Ann [1852-1921] had one daughter, who herself had one daughter, and all were called Mary Ann. The third one had two sons and both had more children. From this pool I have found a match after she agreed to be tested for me this year. This family all live in England.
James [1861-1930] had three children. None are known to have married or had children.
So William's line hung on the thin thread of Mary Anns; it also means that there are no descendants of William living in Scotland today.
Andrew Buchan 1808-1975
Andrew and his wife had three daughters before she died when relatively young.
Christian [1837-?] had four children, and only the first married and had children. This was Marion Kyle who had five children, with three marrying and having children. Almost all of them migrated to Canada. One of these is a DNA match now living in USA.
Jane [1841-?] had two children, one is 'lost'. Her daughter had eight children! So far only one is known to have had his own children, although many of these eight are also 'lost'. In each generation only one child has had children - leading to one DNA match to date.
Marion [1845-1909] stayed in Scotland, and is the only sister whose demise has been found. She married late in life, and had just one son who died aged eleven.
There may well be descendants of Andrew in Scotland today but I am yet to find them!
Alexander 1816-1887
Here is a mystery. I have found no DNA matches so far. Alexander had seven children, four of whom married and had own families.
Once again the youngest child had three children who did not marry. For the eldest, George, every generation had just one producing onwards. The second child Mary had ten grandchildren, but only two had families of their own. His son Andrew, who went to Canada, had twelve grandchildren! But only four had families of their own. Nevertheless, I will hope to find matches in the future, perhaps with more target testing.
How different are the size of the families of George, Isabella and Robert!
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| Descendants each generation, April 2025 |
The total number of descendants of each sibling, I believe, to date in April 2025 are:William - 31
George - 882
Isabella - 289
Andrew - 65
Robert - 568
Alexander - 76
That is 1,911 individuals in total, and I am certain of excellent coverage for the Scottish born ones, and a little less coverage of the Australian ones. Scouring American and Canadian obituaries will undoubtedly find more. I remain reliant on public trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage, WikiTree and FamilySearch to indicate the number of children born, despite no way to identify them.
The same data is shown in the chart below. The second generation are the sibling's own children; the third generation their grandchildren, the fourth their great-grandchildren; the fifth generation their x2 great-grandchildren; the sixth generation their x3 great grandchildren; the seventh generation their x4 great grandchildren. The 4-6th generations occur at times when family size was unaffected by contraception and there was still a perceived value in larger families to provide for elderly parents. Small family size is more often due to the early death of either parent rather than by choice.
The 7th generation and later occur post hormonal-contraception availability; and the increasing economic choices to limit family size. But these numbers are mostly falling by the difficulties following families into the era covered by privacy legislations that for birth is generally 100 years. Data is reliably available across the world till 1924, and only later in newspapers, and occasionally, in official records [such as in Scotland!]
Early large sized families in the 2nd and 3rd generations for George and Robert were the launching pads for the very high numbers reached by the 5th generation.
I will continue to build families forward to the present time in the hopes of recognising matches in our match lists who will provide the evidence of where George Buchan and Jean Johnston came from!
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