So what you are really interested in is what happened to Christian Chalmers, born 1789 in Currie, parents Robert Chalmers and Janet Bartholomew?
I am willing to be that she is not the Christian Chalmers who married William Finnie. There are five pieces of evidence suggesting this.
1. Currie is in Midlothian, and Christian Chalmers or Finnie consistently says she was born in West Lothian, and in 1851 she also says Dalmeny.
2. Assuming she lived that long, Christian Chalmers born in 1789 was 52 on the date of the 1841 census and should have been recorded as 50, not 35.
3. Similarly, on the day of the 1851 census she would have been 62, not 50.
4. Christian Chalmers or Finnie's father was a farm servant. Janet Bartholomew's husband was a tollkeeper.
I see Robert Chalmers, aged 75, in Howatson Toll House, Mid Calder, in 1841. If his age is accurate, he would have been born between 8 June 1761 and 7 June 1766 Therefore on the date of baptism of the first recorded child of Robert Chalmers and Janet Bartholomew on 27 July 1784 he was aged between 18 and 23. So he could indeed be 'your' Robert Chalmers. In which case
5. Christian Chalmers or Finnie's father died before 1839; the husband of Janet Bartholomew lived until at least 1841.
