Chapter 1

Introduction

The Christie/Armour Saga – Our Common Blood

Two of the major problems encountered in writing this tale were the constant repetition of Christian names and because of the magnitude of our extended family, the relationship of one member of the family to another.

Just taking our parent’s names, Robert and Jean will be enough to illustrate the name repetition without even tackling the Anns, Janets, Williams, or Christinas.

From the perspective of relationships, as I am telling the tale frequently the pronoun “my” or “our” (when including my siblings) will be used. But as I am dedicating the narrative to the next generation you will find references to “your” used. To confuse you further, how am I, Patricia Jean Margaret (Christie) Forbes related to those with us who are able to read this tale? I am a daughter, a niece a cousin’s granddaughter, a cousin’s daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a great aunt, a second cousin, a grandmother, a wife, an in-law to many and then there are all those adopted relationships! It will be a fine mental exercise for you, the reader, to determine your exact relationship to all the other characters. Perhaps an easier task: are you able to name all the aunts, uncles, and cousins in the dedication photos?

Even in our generation names were a problem, so we had a Granny’s Aunt Jenny and Uncle Peter’s Aunt Jenny, and Brother Bill and Bill Colbourne, and Brother Tom and Uncle Tom, and Sister Helen and Helen Margaret. Calling the family members by brother or sister created some confusion at a hockey tournament I was running in Coquitlam one year. My able assistants were Sister Ass on First Aid and Sister Helen on refreshments. Sister Moira and I frequently sent people to check with Sister Ann or Sister Helen. We had a good laugh when we learned many of the participants thought the tournament was being run by a nunnery! Really, they weren’t far off base because I’m sure you’ll agree that Sisters Ann, Helen, Moira, and I are pure and chaste enough to belong in a nunnery!

The information in this tome has been accumulated in various ways. Sister Helen, with her interest in cataloguing the family tree, spent considerable time in the Mormon Library in Burnaby pouring over old church records and filled in a few blanks. Then she brow-beat all living relatives to supply names, dates, and photos to fill our her charts and records.

In March of 1987, Helen twisted my arm, forcing me to go to Scotland with her while she spent time in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and New Register House in Edinburgh filling in a few more blanks. Here the repetition of family names proved to be helpful. A granny’s maiden name was often conferred as the middle name on her grandchild. For example we have Ann Taylor (Christie) Henschel and Janet Armour (Christie) Wood in our generation. If you were a Christie who lived in Cambuslang and were a butcher, you were bound to be a family member. Often Helen found both Christie and Armour relatives on the same filmstrip record.

We were also fortunate to visit Grandfather Armour’s cousins Greta and Gordon Stewart in Gargunnock and Father’s cousin Jessie (Christie) Howie in Glasgow.]

In a file folder of Father’s, unearthed in the Latimer Street clean-out were documents pertaining to his African sojourn, plus wedding telegrams, and correspondence from Uncle Tom regarding the Robert and Jean Christie emigration to Canada. And finally you would be amazed to find out how many old family records, birth and marriage certificates from both sides of the gamily were still in existence.

At this point I would like to acknowledge the help of members of the extended family who have provided more of the background information:

• To Greta and Gordon Stewart for all the Stewart to Armour detail
• To Emma (Hay) Crank, mother’s cousin in New Zealand for the Marshall and Hay details
• To Christina Taylor Christie (Aunt Ina) for the Christie dirt
• To Janet Stewart (Armour) Fraser (Aunt Jenny) who spilled the beans on the Armours
• To Sister Irene (Christie) Layfield who amassed the family tree and photos
• To the family members who assisted with the photos, including Gwen (Cook) Whyte
• And finally to all the grannies, aunts, and uncles long past who told me tales of their early years.

And now it is time for you to turn the page and untangle the web of names and relationships and learn of their interesting backgrounds.