Christina was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the fourth of six children. Her parents, Donald McNeil and Christian Taylor, were married the 14th of January 1825 in Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland by the Gaelic minister, Kenneth McKenzie, and made their residence nearby -- only a block from the River Clyde. In a neighborhood of textile, cotton and carpet mills, Christina was sent out to work when only seven years old. Her father, who plied his trade as a journeyman copper-smith died when Christina was fifteen. Two years later on the second of October, 1849, at age 17, she responded to the message brought by Mormon missionaries and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder John Gray. The only member of her immediate family to look with kindness upon the newly established church, she soon left her childhood home and threw her lot with the widow Margaret Ann McFall Caldwell and her family of Mormon converts (1851 census). In May, 1856, at age 23, Christina and the Caldwell family joined a large group of Saints, numbering over 1500 souls to sail for America on the tall ships Thornton and Horizon.

Crossing the Atlantic and then overland by train, the Fourth Handcart Company under the leadership of Captain James G. Willie, and the Fifth Handcart Company under Edward Martin reached Iowa City on June 26, and July 8, 1856, respectively. At this point Christina committed to helping Margaret Caldwell and her four young children push and pull their newly made handcart over the 1,350 miles that lay between their Iowa location and their long sought destination in the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah territory. They were assigned to travel with a group of about 100 individuals under the direction of Elder Millen Atwood, councilor to Captain Willie.

With great trepidation over the lateness of the season, and with the days growing shorter, the Willie Company left Iowa City on July 15. Before reaching their destination in the Great Basin of Utah, many in the party died of hunger, exhaustion, and hypothermia while others experienced frostbite and other tribulations. A few abandoned their trek. A large party from Salt Lake City, called by Brigham Young, came to the rescue. With faith and endurance in her chosen course, and endowed with both physical and moral courage, Christina was numbered among the successful survivors who finally reached the Great Salt lake Valley on November 9. Having experienced her 24th birthday on September 22, 1856 as "a long and hard day....along the Platte River in Nebraska......with the road being very heavy and sandy," she was committed and ready to spend the rest of her life in "Zion" beneath the "protecting shadows" of the Wasatch Mountains. At journey's end, Christina found refuge in the pioneer home of Edna and Warren Ford Reynolds where she contributed a helpful and grateful hand. Seven months after arriving Warren took Christina as his second wife, sealing their union in The Endowment House on 28 June 1857. Their marriage of forty-four years produced seven children:

Christina Elizabeth, 11 April 1858
Asa Daniel, 14 November 1859
Margaret Ann, 1 May, 1863
Charles Robert, 4 June, 1865
William Warren, 28 January, 1870
Sarah Louise, 29 September 1872
Gladys Caroline, 14 September 1874

Christina and Edna Maria Merrell, as the two plural wives of Warren Ford Reynolds, left an almost idyllic remembrance of their close and loving relationship for their posterity. The two women became treasured friends and helpmates as they lived in close proximity but in separate dwellings. Their husband was a kind and generous man who treated both woman equally with love and tenderness; and, their families were raised with total concern and respect for one another. Edna died first, on 28 March 1896. Warren Ford passed on 10 July 1900, and Christina died at her South Cottonwood home on 1 August 1901. Her funeral was held at the South Cottonwood meeting house on August 3, 1901 at 3 p.m.