Genealogy Chat

thanks snowdrop

have established that the somerset light infantry were there and that is the most likely regiment that he joined

will keep at it

Bev

Bev

Another very good BW site

http://www.angloboerwar.com/

On his marriage cert does it mention his rank and or regiment.

Men enlisted to which ever regiment was recruiting in the district - it doesn't always follow that because he was in Somerset he enlisted into the Som LI.

Kevin Asplin is a great guy - email him and see if he can help you - his email addy is on his site. A quick email may save you loads of time looking in the wrong area.

MB

Thanks to all those who mention Kevin Asplin's site - I think I've had a bit of luck on there and found who I was looking for.

The site has developed enormously since I first looked on there some considerable time ago, and I would urge anyone who couldnt find who they were looking for before, to have another look.

thanks again everyone.

Jac XX

I had 2 great-uncles who served in the Boer War. Fortunately I have correspondence kept from them by their father, so I know which regiments they were in - 2Bn Worcesters and Pay Corps. The one in the Worcesters joined up under age. One of his letters, though not very literate, has his Army Number on and is precise enough to allow the action he was in to be identified from the regimental records. The last record of him was that he was entitled to the Queen's South Africa Medal and "To England" with a 1900 date. He does not appear in the 1901 census nor in any of the lists held at the Family History Centre in London. His older step-brother seems to have had a safe time in the pay office and finally retired from the army after WWI. Try looking in the Family History Centre - though my recollection is that their lists were of casualties, so would not help with your rel as he survived and later married. If he saw service in S.Africa, he would be entitled to a medal, and records of these are at Kew - you could probably then trace his regiment/unit. But Army records, while often explicit with names of officers, do not usually list names of "mere" soldiers, so you need the unit name/number to trace battalion movements or actions. Only when you get to WWI do you get better records of 'men' rather than 'officers', via the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Boer War casualties (deaths and sometimes also wounded) were usually memorialised by a town or village, so these records are harder to trace.
Try the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 - you need a reader's ticket, so probably have to take forms of identification.

i have emailed kevin asplin, as my rellie does not appear on the site

i not even sure he was in the war

just he disappears 1891-1908

and on his daughters marriage cert he was down as army pensioner

he is not on the pensions list on ancestry though

thanks everyone for all your input it has helped

Bev

i have had a reply from Kevin asplin

and it seems the only way to trace seward is to go to the Nat archives

apparantly the foot guard and the marines recruited heavily in somerset, so he wont ness be in a som regiment

well

it wasnt going to be easy was it

i mean that would be too much to ask of my lot

lol

Bev