Many thanks Jen - I found the article and sad though it is, it has cleared up a whole pile of questions.
Sounds to me like Barbara couldn't stand Russia and probably hit the bottle... no wonder as I guess she would be on her own all day with no friends or family around in an immensely foreign country. I am assuming she would have taken the 4 year old GJ with her when she followed her husband to Russia in 1888 which would explain why he disappeared from the records.
It also explains why the 2 sons were listed as living with the Finlaysons in the 1891 census.
Interesting that it lists 5 children with only 2 alive in 1907 - that means John Finlayson Christie must have died before 1907.... so far I've had no luck finding his death at all but I'll keep trying. I'm assuming the other children were infant deaths as there seems to be no signs of other children in the records.
I am definitely going to have to try and find the divorce proceedings - hunted high and low on the NAS site already but will have to try again.... call me nosy but I want to know what the other unaceptable behaviour was!
I also found a later article on FindMyPast re a "Barbara Finlayson Cathro or Ramsey" so I wonder if she remarried at least once or twice after the divorce... something else to research!
Just when you think you've hit brick walls along comes some juicy new stuff... many thanks for all your input, it's been really helpful. :-)
