Currie

Dumfries trip

Since the start of the year I had planned to go up to Dumfries for a poke around the Currie tree and when I mentioned this to Heather during a discussion on the family, she intimated that she was also thinking of such a trip. Anyway, to cut a very boring part of the story short, we met up in Lochmaben late in April.

Prior to meeting up, I had stopped off in Penrith in case George was mentioned in the museum (he wasn’t, but I had a nice time there anyway), and after a weekend with friends, arrived in Dumfries on the Monday; later than planned thanks to a broken down train. The next day I spent about four hours scouring records in the Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society office where we found the above snippet and potentially a death record for David Currie. Given the previous state of those brick walls, these chinks of light were welcome indeed. They also had many volumes of monumental inscriptions to browse through so I was able to note down some possible grave locations for the family. I now have an album full of photos of gravestones of various Curries and other associated names.

Meanwhile, Heather had been touring the county tracking down farmhouses and other related locations. We met up, as I said, in Lochmaben on the Wednesday after a minor bus problem and went on a tour of the area – a couple of graveyards, the fascinating Cruck Cottage museum in Torthorwald and, after a stop at an ice cream café, Rockhallhead farm where George and Margaret were married. The farmer was wonderfully welcoming and helpful, the owner of the old farmhouse much less so but we got a picture anyway.

The next day I popped back to the DGFHS to check something and went on to the very good museum with its camera obscura (nice) before taking one last look around St Michael’s churchyard where I eventually found the grave I/we had been looking for, tucked away in an extension behind the Burns mausoleum that I had completely failed to notice on my previous visit.

And there you have it. That evening we met up for a nice dinner at the tapas restaurant before making our farewells and I catching my train home the following morning. A relatively successful and thoroughly enjoyable trip.

Who is this man?

In amongst some photos a new contact sent me of the Currie family was this; a man holding his hat looking down at what appears to be a flower-decked grave. He doesn’t look like John Tolmie Currie who is in several of the other photos, and he could just be a random mourner, but (and I have no solid reason to believe it) what if this is Philip Joseph Robinson? Wouldn’t that be exciting?Is this PJR-_

Earliest ancestors

Just a quick look at the earliest ancestor found on each of the four branches (my grandparents) of the family.

For the ROBINSON side, the earliest Robinson is still Philip, born c. 1746 but overall we have Wessel Schulte, born in Niedersarchen, Germany in 1566.

On the CURRIE side we reach the furthest back of all to one Richard Mossop born in Gosforth, Cumbria in 1490. The earliest Currie is David born 1825 in Dumfries.

We haven’t fared so well on the ELLICOTT side, although there is still a lot of data to sort through. So far it’s Robert Ellacott born in 1625 who is at least the earliest of the four names found.

Finally, the LEITH side is the least documented with Francis Foster born in 1785 the narrow ‘winner’, although there is tell of a mysterious “Mr Leitch” who would have been born a bit earlier. Otherwise the earliest Leith is John, born about 1800 in Slaght.

So in terms of generations:

Philip Robinson – is my 5 times great grandfather
Wessel Schulte – 11 times great

Richard Mossop – 13 times great
David Currie – 4 times

Robert Ellacott – 9 times

Francis Foster – only 3 times
John Leith – 4 times

Tommy Currie

Tommie and Steve

That’s him on the left with one time partner Steve “Nobby” Smith. Tommy was a music hall artiste in the 1930s and 40s and ended up marrying fellow performer, singer Roma Ellis although she was known as Roma Currie long before they officially tied the knot. Although we know a fair amount about his private life, we have very little information about his career; just a couple of reviews mentioning him and Roma in the Smeddle Brothers’ “Blue Pencil Revue” of 1941. On which tour, incidentally, they had a lucky escape when playing the Alexandra Theatre in Hull, the show had not long finished when it got flattened by a German air raid.

There is a story that he toured German cabaret clubs in the 1930s but it might just be a story – there has been a sorry dearth of information so far. So this post is also something of an appeal; if you know anything, or know where we might find out more, please get in touch!

Interesting aside

It’s now almost certain that my dad’s grandfather and my mum’s grandfather were both involved in the Relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War. It’s also true that mum’s same grandfather and dad’s other grandfather were both involved in South Africa’s WW1 campaign in what is now Namibia.

We know they never met in a family setting, perhaps they did in wartime.

Another line, another tangle

While I wait for more details about AEG Ellicott so I can complete that set of stories (see earlier post), I thought I’d take a preliminary look at the Currie family – Elsie Edna Currie was my paternal grandmother – and surprise, surprise, there was another little mess-up within the data; conflicting Scottish census links. Not too disastrous this time, it just means I don’t know as much about my 4 times great grandfather as I thought.

It just shows how useful this process can be in sorting out your facts and sources!