Genealogy Chat

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

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 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.

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

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 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

As this was pre-conscription (which was introduced during WWI) he would have joined the army voluntarily.

He could be a long serving soldier (as was my G Granddad) or he could have signed up for the duration of the war.

Most long serving soldiers signed up for 15 years, serving 7 with the colours (that is on active service wherever the regiment was at the time) and the remaining time spent in reserve (this means they go back to their everyday life but can be called up in times of war - as happened with my G Granddad).

He could have enlisted anywhere and served with whichever regiment he wanted to - for instance my G Granddad lived in Worcester but joined the Leicestershire regiment.

At Kew the records (for that period) are held by regiment and then alphabetically (I think, from memory) so you would need to know which regiment he was in.

A good start would be to google regiments which served in South Africa at the time to give you an idea of which ones it could be (I was lucky I had a photo and could identify the regiment that way) then you could possibly start to narrow it down from any online sites such as Kevin's.

It could be the medal rolls are now available to search at Kew for that time - again, I don't know as it's a few years since I researched mine. If they are you could try to narrow it down that way.

The best advice really is to keep trying all possible avenues and google like mad, ask questions of the experts (such as Kevin) and don't give up - you'll get there!

I found it on Ancestry (I think it's newly listed) and a kind soul from here gave me all the details that could be accessed (as I'm not a member of Ancestry).

Might be worth a name search on there for you.

Jac XX

jac

wheres the pensioners lists????

i just found that the somerset light infantry were at the relief of ladysmith in africa in the second boer war

so he might be there

Bev

Hi Bev - I've looked at the site before and couldnt find my grandpa either. I guess it's a trip to Kew for us lass, armed with nowt but a deep seated desire to find the beggers!

I know mine was a pensioner in 1915 cos he's on the Pensioner's lists - have you tried that aspect? My grandad was a long-serving soldier I believe and too old for actual fighting during WWI, so was on a reserve list or something similar. I would like to find out where he was between his birth and his marriage though!

Jac XX

i know nothing about this war

where would men have to enlist

what regiments would they belong too?

Bev

Kevin's site is great and will give you a good insight into the Boer war if you are only just beginning to look at it.

He is very helpful and will advise you where he can, but the site doesn't hold a complete list of soldiers who fought in the Boer war (he is only looking at certain regiments).

The records for this era are at Kew (they may be online by now for all I know though) and are well worth getting - I got my Great Granddad's from there and it was certainly worth the trip to do it.

ok

just looked

no Rabbitts listed

back to the drawing board

Bev

ok keith

thanks will try the second link

Bev

Have been on the site, it is ok, its just hometown aol that has been targeted before and signed as bad, not individual sites within hometown.

I wa just quoting what he said when I googled

Asplin Military History Resources
This site may harm your computer.
Compiled by Kevin J. Asplin. 1st Edition was a 100 limited copies. 2nd Edition now available from DP&G Publishing, PO Box 186, Doncaster, S. Yorkshire, ...

i googled it and got a whole spill from badware, the site has been reviewed for malicious contant apparantly

whatever that means

Bev

I just looked at that site - and can see nothing malicious on there.

just tried that link keith

not found

i might just google kevin asplin

thanks for the tip

Bev

Or try this one

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/kevinasplin/home.html

Just got on there.