Hi Sylvia
If the following is our John James, I cant trace him any further. The following is the parish register entry:
When Baptised: 1847, Jan 17th, No.9 (entirely correct where John on all other records is born late 1846, German)
Child's Christian Name: John [illigt son of]
Parent's Name - Father: ....................[i.e. no father listed] - Mother: Margt Greggor
Abode: Peel
So that's it, John had no known father. He was only two years of age when Margaret married Thomas Callister so he took his step-father's surname. Not that John was out of sorts, the following is his mother's parish register entry:
Margt illigt daur of Benjamin Greggor & Margaret Cowley 22nd Jun 1820 (IGI C038151 Margaret Cowley)
And his older sister's:
When Baptised: 1842, Jan 21st
Child's Christian Name: Mary Anne [illigt daur of]
Parent's Name - Father: James Bowman - Mother: Margt Greggor
Abode: Peel
Hmmm.
But before judgement falls to harshly, Benjamin Greggor's details are as follows:
C038151 c. Benjamin Gregor (typo. Greggor) 14 Jan 1798 German - John Gregor & Judith Bart
d. GREGGOR, Benjamin, 42, German, 18 Oct 1840
M038151 m. Benjamin McGregger (typo. Greggor) & Ann Morrison German 11 Apr 1820
Children:
C038151 c. Maria Gregger (typo. Greggor) 19 May 1822 German - Benjamin Gregger (typo. Greggor) & Ann Morrison
C038151 c. Ann Gregger (typo. Greggor) 5 Dec 1824 German - Benjamin Gregger (typo. Greggor) & Ann Morrison
C038151 c. Sarah Grigger (typo. Greggor) 17 Feb 1828 German - Benjamin Grigger (typo. Greggor) & Ann Morrison
C038151 c. Benjamin Greggor 9 May 1830 German - Benjamin Grigger (typo. Greggor) & Ann Morrison
C038151 c. George Greggor 14 Oct 1832 German - Benjamin Grigger (typo.Greggor) & Ann Morrison
C038151 c. Sarah Bath Greggor 9 Aug 1839 German - Benjamin Greggor & Ann Morrison
Which means Margaret Cowley was pregnant with his daughter Margaret (John's mother) when he married Ann Morrison.
Margaret Cowley's details are as follows:
C038151 c. Margaret Cowley 12 Dec 1789 German - John Cowley & Hester Fargher
d. SKELLY, Margaret 72 German 16 Nov 1861
M038151 m. Joshua Skelly & Margaret Cowley 30 Mar 1833 German
d. SKELLY, Joshua 36 German 5 Jan 1839
1851 Census entry for Margaret Skelly is: Shore Road, Peel, 56 (?), Wool Spinner, IOM German (HO107/2523)
1841 Census entry for Margaret Greggor is: The Green, Peel, 20 (HO107/1463/8 - 29)
1841 Census entry for Ann Greggor (Morrison) is: Strand (?) Street, Peel, 40, Labr (?) (HO107/1463/8 - 25)
I think Thomas & Margaret did marry in Braddan - I can find no marriage record in German:
M038021 m. Thomas Collister (typo. Callister) & Margaret McGregor (typo. Greggor) 4 Nov 1848 Braddan
And their legit children are as follows:
C038151 c. Esther Callister 30 Jun 1850 German - Thomas Callister & Margaret Triggor (typo. Greggor)
C038151 c. Thomas Walter Callister 19 Jun 1853 German - Thomas Callister & Margaret Greggor
C038151 c. Emily Callister 25 Apr 1856 German - Thomas Callister & Margaret Greggor
C038151 c. Edward Richard Callister 12 Jun 1860 German - Thomas Callister & Margaret Greggor
Where Beecher is probably a nickname, I've seen nicknames recorded on other early census returns.
Which leaves Thomas and Margaret - what happened to them?
All I have is the following:
d. CALLISTER, Thomas, 52, German, 12 Jun 1860
d. CALLISTER, Margaret, 47, German, 12 Oct 1863
But I'm not 100% about these death dates, Margaret's in particular is wrong, she was 43 in 1863, not 47.
Of course, Wm & Amelia/Emily could still be John's folks - I admit I haven't been able to eliminate them altogether - but I think the above is much more likely.
Regards
Mark
P.S. You can see 1911 Census return on my Rootsweb site. Google Dycher Yewdall.