James McNab Howie

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Siberia, Far East

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catiemac
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:55 am
Location: Tasmania Australia

James McNab Howie

Post by catiemac » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:49 am

I am wanting to know if there is anyone related to James McNab Howie who attended the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1887. He was ordained to the Missionary Eldership in 1888 in the Fountainbridge U.F Church, and in the same month he sailed on the P & O Steamship 'Paramatha' from London to China. He took up residence in Chang-pu in 1889. James is recorded as having been buried in the Mission Cemetery at Chang-pu in 1904. He married Catherine Ross MacGregor in 1889. They had two sons, John Alexander and Laurence James Howie. I am interested to be in touch with anyone related to this side of my family.
Robyn

Liz Turner
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Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:28 pm
Location: Renfrewshire, Scotland

Post by Liz Turner » Sat Aug 02, 2008 6:47 pm

Hi Robyn

While I am not related, as far as I know, I have a family member who travelled to China in similar circumstances. James Galt, from Fife, attended the University of Edinburgh training as a doctor in 1868-69. (Information from the Archives at UOE), and he married Jessie Gibson (in the Wesleyian Church - no others in the family were linked to this church) and travelled to Hang Chow in China as a medical missionary with his wife. They had a family while they were in China.

Purely by chance I did a search on Google and James Galt’s name came up among the archives of the Church Missionary Society currently held by the University of Birmingham. We had assumed in the family that he had gone to China independently. The Archivist at the UOB was able to provide me with copies of letters written by James Galt to the CMS and also the annual reports he sent back from China regarding progress of converting the Chinese, while attempting to cure them of addiction to opium.

He and his family were in China and returned to Scotland in 1880. I don’t know if you know which church or society your ancestor was associated with, but it seems likely to me that if you could find that out, you might well be able to find some more information.

Best of luck with your search.

Liz
Fife: Nicolson, Cornfoot, Walker, Gibson, Balsillie, Galt, Elder
NE Scot: Nicolson, Lindsay, Haliburton, Ross
Edin & Central: Nicolson, Blaikie, Stevenson, Ross, Hotchkiss, Suttie, Christie, Clelland, Gray, Purvis, Lang, Dickson
Ross & Cromarty: Ross

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