Trying to find David Livingstone connection

[keithtfe]

I don’t know if you have solved your Livingstone problem yet, but if not I may be able to help.
Your great great  grandmother, Elizabeth, was married to Thomas Forrester Thompson and had ten children. One of these was Tom who married Katherine Brooke Shires and had five children under the surname of Brooke-Thompson.  The youngest son, Brian, married Petrina Fry, my eighth cousin, 1x removed, so we obviously have a family connection. Although born and bred in England, I have been living in the Canary Islands since 1967, but retain a home in UK, which I was visiting several times annually up to a few years ago, to do genealogical research. I saw your messages on internet last week and decided to do a little research. I have traced as many as possible of the descendants of Robert & Janet Christie down to the mid twentieth century and think that some of those still living may have an answer to your query  Three of these are ladies who were born in the 1960s and are direct descendants of Jessie Christie, daughter of Robert & Janet and sister of Elizabeth. Their family is known to hold a lot of family history information, but I am unaware if they have anything on the Livingstone connection.  They, like you, live in Australia and it should be relatively easy for you to contact them.
I would be very interested in making contact with you, to tie up a few loose ends I have on the Thompson side of the family.

Kind regards

Keith

[nova63]

Hi Keith,
Thank you very much for your reply. I must admit that I have done very little research since I posted the query, partly due to frustration at the lack of progress. Any information of assistance you could provide would be very much appreciated. I do have contacts among other descendants of Elizabeth, but not for her sister Jessie.
Cheers

[jessiboo_17]

There were two Robert Christie families.  The Robert Christie that married Janet McKenzie in Glasgow and had a son Neil is not the same as the other family.  This Robert Christie is the one mentioned in the Cotton Spinner Trials in 1838 and he was a public house owner.  There are books on the entire trial.  This Robert Christie's wife was mentioned in the trial information and her mother lived with them.  Robert Christie was married to Agnes Paton before Janet McKenzie.  Robert and Agnes are my 4x great grandparents. 

What I find interesting is that the Robert Christie that went to Australia did so after the date of the trial.  He basically squealed to get reward money regarding a murder that was planned in his pubs.  He was with the man when he was murdered.  After the trial Robert Christie disappeared along with his wife and younger son.  The older children I haven't been able to trace, but his oldest son John ended up in podunk Cape Breton literally in the middle of no where. 

I have more information in regards to about 40 new articles from around the UK about the trial.  Has anyone in this other family that went to Australia DNA tested?  We have a whack of them from Dr. John Christie here in Nova Scotia matching with other descendants of Robert Christie's parents John Christie and Margaret Warnock.  Please feel free to message me and I'll share everything I have.  It would be interesting to see if the two families are indeed one and the same!

[nova63]

Hi,
That all sounds very interesting and might help to explain the various missing information and inconsistencies, including no birth records found for any of the three children that came with them from Scotland. The daughter born in Australia did not have her birth registered for 7 years, and seems constantly confused about when and in which country she was born.

The only information I have about Robert Christie's family in Scotland is from his will where he leaves some money to his sister in Glasgow. She is named as Allison Forsyth. This leads me to an Allison (or Ellison) Christie whose mother is Margaret Mavor. Margaret Mavor, however, appears to be too young to be Robert's mother. This also assumes that his sister was also a Christie.  When I get time I will find the actual text from the will because this also includes his sister's address.

[jessiboo_17]

Hello nova63,

I did do a bit of research and the Robert that went to Australia appears to have been from the Edinburgh area.  If you want to message me I could send you the documents I have.  I really wish they were the same family as it would explain what happened to my Robert.  I managed to find a few other children.  One ended up in an institution, but could still do day labor.  Another moved clear across the country.  Has anyone from your branch done DNA testing?  That would see if we have the same family or even a branch!

[nova63]

Hi,
My apologies for taking so long to reply. I have had very little time for family history research so haven't has a chance to get back to you.
I am not aware of anyone in my family doing a DNA test, but I can send out a query and see if anyone has done so. I would certainly be interested in any document you could provide which might help.
I have recently discovered one other puzzling piece of information. Robert and Janet's daughter Sarah who was born in Australia, married a man called  Niel McKenzie McPhie. He died in 1917 and there were claims made in his death reported in the local newspaper that he was a nephew of David Livingstone.