battle – Page 2 – The Nosey Genealogist's: Help Me With My Family Tree

06/10/2013

Early Militia Musters now on TheGenealogist.co.uk

Wow, I’ve had a busy weekend, some of it spent looking around an old graveyard.

I couldn’t help but notice the number of military men that had been remembered in the words written on their headstones. Some listed the battles they fought in and some just their regiment, or ship in the case of those who served in the Royal Navy.

I did get to spend an hour, however, on the computer looking up the names of branches in my family in a new set of records just released by TheGenealogist.

In my Devon lines my family tree often gets stuck, when I try to push it back into the 18th century. But this week, using the new Militia Musters, just released online by TheGenealogist, I have found some promising leads. And shock horror…some of my Devon kin, especially the ones from Plymouth, may actually be from Cornwell as I note the names appearing in Musters in that county, while others are more definitely Devonian.

For the first time you can search early militia musters for all of England and Wales. The collection includes over 58,000 rare records of these part-time soldiers for 1781 and 1782. This is the largest number of surviving records available for this era.

This joins the largest collection of Army Lists available online establishing TheGenealogist as a major military research site.

The militia men were offered a bounty to transfer to the regular army and some did decide on a regular military career. If youâ€™re struggling to find out how your ancestor started their military career, the answer could be in the militia records!

In the troubled times of the 1700s, Britain faced a threat from the European powers of France, Spain and Holland at various times. All â€˜able-bodiedâ€™ men were considered for the militia and put on a â€˜militia ballot listâ€™. The chosen men then were required to meet or â€˜musterâ€™ at points for training. Four musters were taken over the time covered by the new records on TheGenealogist.

The records cover people from all walks of life who made up the officers and men, from M.P.â€™s to landowners, from carpenters to labourers, if they were physically up to it, they could be selected for the militia!

Regiments covered all of England and Wales and are represented in the new records. The records are from The National Archives series WO13 and feature the â€˜muster and pay listsâ€™ of all members of the militias. Men received â€˜Marching Moneyâ€™ when the militia was mobilised and were paid expenses for local meetings.

The new militia lists can further help track the movements and lives of our ancestors before census and civil registration times.

In an easy to search format, itâ€™s possible to search for an ancestor to see if they served in any of the militia regiments of England and Wales. Search by name and any relevant keyword, or use the advanced search to narrow it down to â€˜Corpsâ€™ , â€˜Companyâ€™ or the actual â€˜Rankâ€™ of the soldier.

Mark Bayley at TheGenealogist comments: â€œThese unique records really enhance our online military collection. Not all our ancestors served in the regular army and the part-time local militias were an essential part of the national defence, as was seen in the â€˜Battle of Jerseyâ€™ at the time, when the local militia fought admirably against the French and Dutchâ€.

Disclosure: The Links in the above are Compensated Affiliate links. If you click on them then I may be rewarded by The Genealogist.co.uk should you sign up for their subscriptions.

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05/11/2011

Military Records and Family History

I am just back from a visit to a shopping centre and I could not miss the veterans and young cadets selling poppies on every street I walked down. It is, of course, at this time of the year that we, as a nation, pause to remember our fallen servicemen and women.

As a family historian I began to think of the records that are available to us and came across a press release from TheGenealogist.co.uk that lays out what is gathered together on their website. To begin with there are the Rolls of Honour.

Rolls of Honour

The Roll of Honour collection on TheGenealogist.co.uk contains over a million records and is included within all Premium and Personal Plus subscriptions.

Original images and full transcripts are available. Some of these are very detailed and include a portrait photograph.

De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918

This online database includes biographies ofÂ over 25,000 men of the armed forces whoÂ lost their lives in the Great War. Many of the entries have linked photographs. The level of detail given varies due to the variety of sources used but all include the persons regiment, place and date of death. The families often lodged the biography with the publisher and these entries go into great detail about their lives.

The National Roll of the Great War

A tribute to the men and women who survived and died in the First World War, with 14 volumes in total, and contains over 110,000 records. This includes a collection of biographies of those who served during the Great War (1914-1918) and also includes brief accounts of how they joined up and demobilisation date. Many of the entries refer to combatants who survived the War and the National Roll of the Great War is the only detailed information available.

Bond of Sacrifice

Contains an alphabetical biographical record of all British Officers who fell in the Great War, from August 1914 to June 1915, with details of rank, regiment and date of death. Also includes portraits.

British Roll of Honour 1914-1918

Records can include detailed biographies with portraits and information on birth date, birth place, father’s name, education, career, and circumstances of death.

Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Memorial Register 1914-1921Includes over 25,000 biographical records of officers and men of the Royal Navy who were lost at sea and were not recorded in any cemetery or on any battlefield.

The memorials were erected at the three home ports which are the manning ports of the Royal Navy. As well as listing the names of the dead, they also serve as a â€œSea-markâ€ or â€œLeading-markâ€ for ships entering the ports.

These printed registers contain more detailed descriptions than are shown on the panels on the memorials. Each biography contains information on name, rank, ship, age, date of death, immediate family including address and photos.

The Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order records 1857-1923

This database includes nearly 25,000 biographical records of officers, non-commissioned officers and men of his Majesty’s naval, military and air forces who have been awarded these decorations from the time of their institution, with descriptions of the deeds and services which won the distinctions and with many biographical, and other details.

So as we get closer to the 11th of November perhaps it is a time to take a look at some of TheGenealogist’s records online.

Disclosure: The Links in the above are Compensated Affiliate links. If you click on them then I may be rewarded by The Genealogist.co.uk should you sign up for their subscription.

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15/04/201110/05/2015

Researching family in Jersey, part 8: Military Records

Being rather close to the continent as it is, Jersey has had more than its fair share of unwelcome visitors. The French invaded in 1781 and the brave Major Pierson beat them back but died before the end of the battle: the artist John Singleton Copley painted the scene (some years after the event) and the resulting picture is one of Jersey’s iconic images.

The years that followed this were uncertain ones, and the uncertainty became worse after the French Revolution. There was a real concern that the French would try again. But at the start of the 1800s, General George Don was appointed as Jersey’s Governor-General.

General Don put in place a massive programme of fortification works and new roads, and alongside that he carried out two censuses in 1806 and 1815 to track where the able bodied fighting men were. In addition to this, the censuses recorded the sizes of the households and the number of women, girls and under-aged boys.

Transcripts of both censuses are kept at the Archive. They were originally transcribed in the original format, names by parish and vingtaine, but there is also a single combined list of names for the 1815 Census. It gives an indication of the position of the listed man of the household and whether he was an ordinary soldier, or a drummer, or providing a horse.

Alongside the local militia forces, the British army maintained a significant garrison in Jersey right up to the Second World War. Its main sites were at Elizabeth Castle and Fort Regent, and regiments rotated in and out regularly. The Army doesn’t maintain a single definitive list of which regiments served when in the Jersey garrison, but there are partial lists compiled by CIFHS members in the Archive. There are also a small number of baptism, marriage and burial records which were kept specifically by the garrison rather than the parish of St Helier – and these may be worth a look.

Nearly at the end. The next post looks at what you can get from books, newspapers and photographs – until then, à bientôt!

Guest blog by James McLaren from the Channel Islands Family History Society

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25/07/2010

On-line Historic Casualty Lists Reveals Horrors of the Boer War

Ancestry.co.uk DISCLOSURE:Compensated Affiliate — DISCLOSURE: Compensated Affiliate of Ancestry.co.uk

Ancestry.co.uk has published online the UK, Casualties of the Boer War, 1899-1902, detailing 55,000 British and colonial soldiers who were killed, wounded, captured, or who died of disease during the Second Boer War.

Highlighting for us the horror of the conflict by detailing over 20,000 deaths of British soldiers along with the injury of a further 23,000. Typically each record details the soldierâ€™s name, rank, force, regiment, battalion and date and place of death, injury or capture.

Most of the other records are of capture or disease, which was rife in South Africa during the early 20th century. Dysentery, typhoid fever and intestine infections were among the most common contagions and account for around 12,000 deaths in the collection.

As well as death through sickness and battlefield injuries, the collection reveals some unusual â€˜fatesâ€™ met by soldiers. These include records of 86 British troops who were killed or injured by lightning, including a mysterious case of two soldiers struck dead within moments of each other when a lightning storm swept their base in Stormberg near Cape Town. One soldier is even listed as having been eaten by a crocodile at the Usutu River.

As the number of deaths recorded in this collection correspond with the fatalities noted in other historical sources, this archive can be considered one of the most comprehensive resources of British soldiers in the Second Boer War available.

Anyone trying to find out more about an ancestor who fought in the Second Boer War will find these records invaluable, particularly as most British soldiers who fought in the conflict wonâ€™t appear in the 1901 Census of England and Wales because they were fighting in South Africa.

These include a number of famous men who were awarded with the Victoria Cross, the highest honour for bravery, upon their return from Africa:

Sir Walter Norris Congreve â€“ Congreve was a hero in both the Boer War and WWI, attaining the rank of general by the end of his 30-year military career. He was awarded his Victoria Cross for defending an abandoned gun emplacement during the Battle of Colenso, where he rescued a fallen comrade under heavy fire despite suffering from gunshot wounds
Charles Fitzclarence â€“ Fitzclarence was decorated for three separate actions of gallantry and became known as one of the fiercest soldiers of the Boer conflict. Major-General Baden-Powell himself even remarked on Fitzclarenceâ€™s bravery and importance to the cause. During several sorties Fitzclarence showed â€˜coolness and courageâ€™, defying insurmountable odds to defeat the enemy
Henry William Engleheart â€“ After completing a mission to destroy Boer railways behind enemy lines, Engleheart led the extrication through the Boer defences – even stopping to rescue a fallen comrade despite being outnumbered by more than four to one

Following on from the First Boer War, the Second Boer War was a dispute over territory in South Africa, fought between the British Empire and Dutch settlers (known as â€˜Boersâ€™ â€“ the Dutch word for â€˜farmerâ€™). The catalyst for this secondary conflict was the discovery of gold in the Boer-controlled South African Republic, also known as the Transvaal.

The resulting gold rush encouraged thousands of British settlers (known as uitlanders) to migrate to the republic. Before long the British numbers exceeded those of the Boer, prompting tension around â€˜uitlander rightsâ€™ and which nation should control the gold mining industry. When the British refused to evacuate their forces in 1899, the Boer declared war.

The so-called ‘Boers’ were farmers who were used to riding and hunting for survival and were therefore considerable opponents for the British Army and claimed the lives of around 8,000 British soldiers. The Boer themselves lost 7,000 troops.

In an attempt to cut off supplies to the Boers, a ‘scorched earth policy’ was introduced. This resulted in the destruction of Boer farms and crops, and subsequent introduction of concentration camps where the Boer and African women, children and workers were interned. Thousands of Boers lost their lives here, primarily through malnutrition and disease.

Ancestry.co.uk International Content Director Dan Jones comments:Â â€œThese records are a stark reminder of the atrocities of a conflict that is often eclipsed by wars that took place closer to home. They detail a dark and regrettable period of history, but one that should never be forgotten.

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