>Old post on 'my' James Christie:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=670347.0Wow, and I thought my Christie's were tricky at times to track down.... don't envy your task!
>Sorry James and Mary on the 81 census with widowed Agnes - can't find them in 91. For me the biggest mystery here is the sudden appearance of a 'dead' Barbara in 1932 - where had she been? And where is poor George in 91 he'd only be 7 years old.
James died in 1889 and Mary in 1890 which is obviously why they weren't on the '91 census.
All I know about Barbara is that she spent some time, from 1909, at the Salvation Army in Dundee after her and James got divorced. However by the time of her death she was back in Arbroath, at 22 Smithy Croft so who knows who she was living with - perhaps John F Christie since James was in Dundee and GJ was in NZ.
No idea where GJ disappeared to during that time but I am pretty sure he had a very, very tough upbringing and wanted away from his family as soon he was old enough. As I said a few posts ago he flatly refused to talk about his family to his children until the day he died and what little my own father knew he never also discussed to my knowledge - even my Mum knows almost nothing about GJ's family and was married to my Dad for more than 40 years. I really wish now I'd asked Dad about it all but he died in 1999 and I didn't start my family research until 2008.
>on that PDF your grandfather is listed as a car mechanic - at time of death looks like he's a cellar man - do you know anything more about his occupations? Time to shop!
I suspect, given a worldwide depression, he did whatever he could. If people weren't buying cars then he may not have been able to get a mechanics job hence he became a cellarman.