Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know of a site or someplace that I can identify a Military shoulder badge from the Boar War. I have a photo of my grandad taken wearing his boar was medal and do not know the regiment he was in. The only clue is the shoulder badge. I cannot make out what is says but might be able to if I had something to compare it to. The medal has long since disappeared. Margaret

Have seen something about this somewhere but you will have to bear with me and I will let you know tomorrow night. Sorry but am working tomorrow. Know there is a service, just need to find it... Maz. XX

Try this site http://www.cwgc(.)org/ remove the brackets

Jean Looked at that one, it only shows cap badges mostly and this is a shoulder badge Patricia cwgc.org is for graves and I know my grandad wasn't killed If there is an "expert" out there that I could send a copy of the badge to, albeit not a very good one, I would appreciate it Margaret

Hello Margaret Try http://homepages(.)tesco(.)net/~medals/ksam(.)htm its a website that sells medals and they have some info on medals from the Boer war. Shirley

Shirley Thanks for the website, unfortunately it seems to be just medals. Barbara I had thought of that, we live in Staffordshire, not far from Whittington Barracks, home of the Staffs Reg. I wondered though, if they might only be able to identify their own regiment. I might try that though if I can't find anything else Margaret

hello margaret, I'm no expert, but you could try www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/ or www.iwm.org.uk in that order. Dependant on the age of insignia, will depend on above site. Have a look and decide, best of luck, Derek

Margaret Try typing 'Military Insignia Identify' into your search engine and you will have lots of options

Helen Have already done that, Got thousands of results, a lot of them American forces and didn't find anything that helped. Derek Have had a quick look at the sites you suggested. Had already looked at the Imperial war Museum. I will look at the first one again tomorrow. Didn't see anything at first glance though. If I could e mail someone at a military museum with a picture maybe? The trouble is which one as I don't know the regiment. Margaret

I have a book,Discovering Military Badges & Buttons by R.J.Wilkinson Latham Shire Pubs Ltd. Don't remember where I got it from now but you could try your local library. Ray.

Hi Margaret, there is a web site called www(.)capefam(.)freeserve(.)co(.)uk It has alot of information on it and there is also a link to look for badges. It may take some time looking through them all. There is also a book called Discovering military badges for £5.95 Hope this may be of some help. Jo

Joanne and Raymond Thanks for the suggestion of the book, I will keep that in mind. I have looked at that website before, as you say there will be a lot of searching as I have no idea as to the regiment, although I do remember seeing other photos of grandad and there were stables and horses in the background. Would this suggest a cavalry reg, or would they all have had horses in the boar war. Margaret

Hi on the militarybadges(.)org(.)uk you can go to the cavalry section and select the years the badges relate to. That might help in cutting down the time looking. What does it look like? On the other web site I said you can ask for free look ups too. Jo.

Jo I have emailed someone at the site you suggested to ask for help. The problem with the pictures on the site is that they are cap badges and the badge I need to idenify is a shoulder badge. It is initials or possibly a name, beginning with either K or N or even an M Margaret

No luck on emailing the military badges site, the mail was just returned to me Margaret

Thats a shame having the email sent back. Hope you have some luck soon. Jo

just found this on the site. Chris Coogan has many years experiance in British Army uniforms. He might be able to help, or put you on the right track. The address given is [email protected]

Maybe you have already done this, but when you use Google, use google(.)co(.)uk and click 'UK websites only'. It should stop most of the American military insignia pages from popping up.

Kathryn Yes, have done that, there are still 1000's and I seem to keep getting the same sites over and over again. The one's that do show pictures are cap badges, not shoulder ones Margaret

Hi Margaret, sorry not to get back to you before. I am really mad cos I can't find the blooming article/advert or whatever it was where I read about this man who you can send photos to for ID. HOWEVER, have found a bloke who specialises in Boer War info advertising in fam hist mags. You can e-mail him at robert(.)base(put an 'at' sign here)virgin(.)net Also Family History Monthly always has a lot of old photos featured and some of them have been soldiers with the regiment identified by the 'expert'. Will make a note and promise if I find the original thing I thought of, I will let you know asap. Good luck. Maz. XX