General Observations on the Historical Treatment of Christina McNeil
Personal, first hand accounts from Christina do not exist because she was not blessed with the opportunity of a formal education. Noticeably lacking in the written record is any deep study of her Scottish family and ancestry. Also missing are detailed, first hand descriptions of her American home life, the relationship with her pioneer husband, and the rearing of her children. Also largely missing from existing narratives are source citations to support vital information, written material, and conclusions.
A few life sketches, prepared by well meaning descendants, were widely circulated at early day family reunions. Because some were largely based on hearsay there are discrepancies in vital information and in events that are said to have influenced Christina's early life. A discrepancy in Christina's birth date and location is being perpetuated to this day at sites on the Internet. The date is listed in various records as either 1831 or 1832; the location given as Millhel, Perth; Muthill; Sterlingshire; Glasgow, Lanark; or even South Cottonwood, Salt Lake, Utah. The old typescripts of Christina's life likewise use most of these locations.
The birth location is most troubling. Her parents marriage record confirms the couple residing in Glasgow on January 14, 1825 and their family's first well documented census record was created at No 81 McAlpine Street, St George Parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland on the night of 6th of June, 1841. Christina's place of birth is recorded in this census as Lanarkshire, Scotland, as one would expect. Ten years later, in the 1851 census, she was living just one mile east of her childhood addresss while boarding at 7 Dyers Lane with the Caldwell family and her place of birth was recorded as Mithel, Perthshire. This later birthplace has been perpetuated by numerous descendants in family group sheets and life sketches although it is an obvious mistake by the census enumerator -- a well known common error in Scottish "nosecounts." Information given in the census can be inaccurate – age, place of birth, even recorded relationship to head of household can all be unreliable, either by accident or by design. Click here to go to the Scotlandspeople website.
Another noted discrepancy casts a pale over Christina's relationship with her widowed mother and the price she paid for her conversion to Mormonism. Perhaps too simplistic is the conclusion that Christina was a religious martyr, cast out from her home to be forever cut-off from the strong bonds of family. In fact, and sadly so, the "strong bonds" were very frayed. Her mother, Christian Taylor McNeil, was widowed at age 47 at the death of her Copper-smith husband, Daniel McNeil, and left without sufficient means to care for her family; Christian's six children had to leave and work outside the home far too early in life. Christina, herself, began factory work as a child; then worked as a "Yarn Winder" or Spinner in a textile factory, according to the 1851 Glasgow, St. Andrew census, where she was listed as a "Lodger" in a boarding house run by a fellow Mormon convert and spiritually strong woman, Margaret Ann McFall Caldwell. Their address in 1851 was 7 Dyers Lane, only a skip away from the beautiful Glasgow Green and St. Andrews Square. Margaret Ann provided the encouragement for Christina's conversion to Mormonism as well as the "Perpetual Emigration Fund" ticket for her migration to Deseret or Zion, as Utah Territory was then often called. As with most converts, Christina, at age 23, was driven by her strong testimony of the truths of her new found faith, enough so to give her unbounded courage as she committed to the long and arduous journey across the Atlantic and the American frontier. Through the years, her children and grandchildren frequently testified on her behalf of the grief she felt of being separated from her Scottish mother and siblings.
Records assembled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include data from family group sheets, temple submissions, record extractions and personal ward files. These data are inconsistent as to date and place of birth and offer few specific details about her parents and extended family. This is so even though at least a half-dozen descendants made serious efforts to research her life. We know that Christina became a convert of early Mormon missionaries and was baptized sometime in the late 1840s, but information available from the Church's new "FamilySearch" website, today, show only the date of a proxy baptism performed in 1957. IGI records that were previously accessible online are no longer available, even to church members with authorized access to the new FamilySearch site.
Religious prejudice is rarely one-sided. It may function as a bit of solace for it's holder, or it may even act as a rationalization to soften an embarrassing truth. As for Christian Taylor McNeil, it is difficult to make a case for religious prejudice as we have not a scintilla of evidence regarding her theological beliefs. Progeny of Christina have been told that she grieved the separation from her mother. Given the benefit of doubt the elder Christian might possibly have been cut off from her daughter for reasons compounded by the reality of finding herself hopelessly alone and economically adrift at a young age with seven mouths to feed. The scant records, including that of Caldwell's account, give us very little upon which to support the description of a hapless mother, calloused and alcoholic. Somehow, Christina's mother lived into her seventys when she died a "Pauper" at Glasgow's City Poorhouse; but, she had enough family to produce a granddaughter, "C. McNeil," who signed her death register and reported that her own address was in Anderston, only a few blocks from McAlpine Street where Christina lived as a child, and where older brother Neal was recorded in the 1851 census as also living in a boarding house close to his mother's address, while working as a "Dock Laborer."
A few life sketches, prepared by well meaning descendants, were widely circulated at early day family reunions. Because some were largely based on hearsay there are discrepancies in vital information and in events that are said to have influenced Christina's early life. A discrepancy in Christina's birth date and location is being perpetuated to this day at sites on the Internet. The date is listed in various records as either 1831 or 1832; the location given as Millhel, Perth; Muthill; Sterlingshire; Glasgow, Lanark; or even South Cottonwood, Salt Lake, Utah. The old typescripts of Christina's life likewise use most of these locations.
The birth location is most troubling. Her parents marriage record confirms the couple residing in Glasgow on January 14, 1825 and their family's first well documented census record was created at No 81 McAlpine Street, St George Parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland on the night of 6th of June, 1841. Christina's place of birth is recorded in this census as Lanarkshire, Scotland, as one would expect. Ten years later, in the 1851 census, she was living just one mile east of her childhood addresss while boarding at 7 Dyers Lane with the Caldwell family and her place of birth was recorded as Mithel, Perthshire. This later birthplace has been perpetuated by numerous descendants in family group sheets and life sketches although it is an obvious mistake by the census enumerator -- a well known common error in Scottish "nosecounts." Information given in the census can be inaccurate – age, place of birth, even recorded relationship to head of household can all be unreliable, either by accident or by design. Click here to go to the Scotlandspeople website.
Another noted discrepancy casts a pale over Christina's relationship with her widowed mother and the price she paid for her conversion to Mormonism. Perhaps too simplistic is the conclusion that Christina was a religious martyr, cast out from her home to be forever cut-off from the strong bonds of family. In fact, and sadly so, the "strong bonds" were very frayed. Her mother, Christian Taylor McNeil, was widowed at age 47 at the death of her Copper-smith husband, Daniel McNeil, and left without sufficient means to care for her family; Christian's six children had to leave and work outside the home far too early in life. Christina, herself, began factory work as a child; then worked as a "Yarn Winder" or Spinner in a textile factory, according to the 1851 Glasgow, St. Andrew census, where she was listed as a "Lodger" in a boarding house run by a fellow Mormon convert and spiritually strong woman, Margaret Ann McFall Caldwell. Their address in 1851 was 7 Dyers Lane, only a skip away from the beautiful Glasgow Green and St. Andrews Square. Margaret Ann provided the encouragement for Christina's conversion to Mormonism as well as the "Perpetual Emigration Fund" ticket for her migration to Deseret or Zion, as Utah Territory was then often called. As with most converts, Christina, at age 23, was driven by her strong testimony of the truths of her new found faith, enough so to give her unbounded courage as she committed to the long and arduous journey across the Atlantic and the American frontier. Through the years, her children and grandchildren frequently testified on her behalf of the grief she felt of being separated from her Scottish mother and siblings.
Records assembled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include data from family group sheets, temple submissions, record extractions and personal ward files. These data are inconsistent as to date and place of birth and offer few specific details about her parents and extended family. This is so even though at least a half-dozen descendants made serious efforts to research her life. We know that Christina became a convert of early Mormon missionaries and was baptized sometime in the late 1840s, but information available from the Church's new "FamilySearch" website, today, show only the date of a proxy baptism performed in 1957. IGI records that were previously accessible online are no longer available, even to church members with authorized access to the new FamilySearch site.
Religious prejudice is rarely one-sided. It may function as a bit of solace for it's holder, or it may even act as a rationalization to soften an embarrassing truth. As for Christian Taylor McNeil, it is difficult to make a case for religious prejudice as we have not a scintilla of evidence regarding her theological beliefs. Progeny of Christina have been told that she grieved the separation from her mother. Given the benefit of doubt the elder Christian might possibly have been cut off from her daughter for reasons compounded by the reality of finding herself hopelessly alone and economically adrift at a young age with seven mouths to feed. The scant records, including that of Caldwell's account, give us very little upon which to support the description of a hapless mother, calloused and alcoholic. Somehow, Christina's mother lived into her seventys when she died a "Pauper" at Glasgow's City Poorhouse; but, she had enough family to produce a granddaughter, "C. McNeil," who signed her death register and reported that her own address was in Anderston, only a few blocks from McAlpine Street where Christina lived as a child, and where older brother Neal was recorded in the 1851 census as also living in a boarding house close to his mother's address, while working as a "Dock Laborer."