Hi iggie23,
It's a very, very sad story
That's why I was surprised he was still giving Julia as his wife/contact in the 1946 border crossing.
For what it's worth - and I'm not trying to lessen or diminish what was clearly an unhappy and fearful home for the wife and children… but:
I don't think the name is 1921 is meant to be NEIS - I think it
is NEIL. The enumerator's actual "s" in other words is quite different and she does have a habit of making a bit of a flourish on the end letter of words in some cases - eg: look how Scotland is written… As for the absence of the CURRIE - you would need to see the actual Household Card to see if the omission of CURRIE in the Enumerator's book was deliberate on the part of James or a mistake by the enumerator when she transferred the data from Card to Book.
I wouldn't read much into James declaring his immigration year as 1904, rather than 1903. And maybe he didn't actually fill in the Census form! Maybe Julia did, may one of the older daughters did - they could easily have been mistaken on a point or two.
He did say he immigrated in 1901 on at least 2 other occasions on travel cards, again this kind of 'error' or mistake wasn't uncommon for even the most honest of folk to make.
The 1921 Census says he was born Scotland and that his father was born Ireland, mother born Scotland. It doesn't say both parents b Ireland - that's an error on the transcript index.
I think his 1921 address at George St, Toronto wasn't terribly far from the Balliol St, Toronto address they lived at before and after 1921? If he was hiding in 1921, it was "hiding in plain sight" - at least from a Census point of view. His wife, his children, ages, his occupation - these are not false. Did they move back to the same Balliol address later on , or to a different house? Perhaps they were forced to move because they were evicted for causing nuisance or didn't pay the rent or some such. Or he'd done a bunk and forced Julia to make arrangements to live elsewhere. With the married daughter lodging in the household in 1921 - there could be a myriad of reasons - was she there to 'look out' for mother? Was the daughter only there on Census night, not really a lodger? Was James really living there but they (Julia) wrote down the official head of the household as her absent husband? Had he recently arrived back from the US?
June 1, 1921, was the official date for the 1921 census. When he crossed over to US in 1926 - the card said he had lived from May to July 1921 in Los Angeles. Note, this card puts Hazel in the picture too :
13 Apr 1926, Port of Buffalo, Canada to US crossingJames-Neil CURRIE 47, Stonecutter, b Glasgow, Scotland
Bate of Birth 12 May 1879
Last Permanent Address: Toronto, Canada
Destination: Buffalo, NY
Previously in US: May 1921-July 1921, Los Angeles Cal.
Going to reside permanently in US
Relative or Friend in Canada*: Julia, 128 Balliol St Toronto
*Was first written "Wife, Hazel" but this was crossed out and "Julia" written instead
It said he had arrived in Canada in 1901
I would be inclined to doubt he was really married to Hazel (unless it was bigamous), unless you know for sure he and Julia were divorced at some point? He certainly appears to have been involved with Hazel @ mid 1926 at least.
Cheers
AMBLY