When a man dies from a fractured spine, and that man is a sinker (a skilled man contracted to sink new shafts) at a Scottish colliery, your immediate thought is ‘industrial accident’ – there must be a report, an inquest; huge bonus points for the genealogist. But alas no, James Currie’s demise has thus far gone unregarded. He died on 21 December 1856, four weeks after sustaining his ultimately fatal injury at Auchinleck, Ayrshire. The search for further details goes on.

Thanks to his death notice we know James’ parents to have been David and Agnes Currie (née Gillespie) and that he was from Lochmaben near Dumfries, born in about 1828.

James married Janet Anderson in November 1849 and their daughter Agnes was born in September 1850. Son James followed in 1852 and Janet was pregnant again when her husband met his untimely death. George Anderson Currie was thus born fatherless on 27 May 1857.

James and Janet’s marriage entry