Genealogy Chat

Hi Tracey,
In order to guide you I was trying to find out if Thomas was Killed in Action, Missing in Action, Wounded in Action or died as a result of other causes.
There are people on the boards who will do military look ups on service records but it does help and saves a lot of time if known circumstances, including the service number, are provided. The other difficulty is that there were so many men with either the same or similar names serving at that time. If you want to find the information for yourself this is the source:


Web ResultsBritish army World War One service and pension records go ...
23 Feb 2007 ... Although five million soldiers from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales fought in World War One, around 60 per cent of the service records ...

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/150.htm - 17k

Also the regiment will have a website and to trace just type the name into your search engine.

If Wistow Hall still exists and is in the ownership of the same family records may exist. There is no hard and fast rule. Try researching Wistow Hall up to current date.

Edit after supper:

I have just finished reading "The Great Silence"- 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War by Juliet Nicholson published in 2010 (on Amazon) which explores the social consequences of that dreadful war. Not for the faint hearted but it really does explain the impact on families of the early aftermath of war and may give you an insight into the life Thomas's widow and children faced.

Hi ya you guys ......sorry got taken to the realm s of english and science home work......I am slow now on all fronts since starting the day at 4.00am.

Perchino, Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire is correct for his widow and off spring, I already know of his regiment...............its how to trace his record of service that I'm interested in, i know his enlistment, and death, not the journey in between.....can you refer me to a relevant body that may be able to enlighten me?

With regard to a servant going from Surrey to Cornwall, it would be worth checking if there were any family connections in both places, ie relatives of either the servant or the employers living (or having been born) in that location.

Have a look for the two families in the previous censuses and see if you can spot a connection, maybe a member of Ethel's family had worked for the family before?

Please clarify your posting. Where is Swanbourne? Buckinghamshire?
Do you have details of Thomas's birth and what was his surname? What year of death do you have for Thomas?
Many of the WW1 records were destroyed but it may be possible to find some information.

Gwyn,

What a lovely thing to do, however I believe something more is at work here.......
As a loyal servant why leave your job and go to Dorking Surrey, maybe the titled did too, but was it commonplace to take their gardener?

Some employers were kind to loyal staff and were interested in their general welfare. Perhaps they kept in touch with the family and wanted to help when they fell upon hard times.

We still have lovely table linen within the family that was a wedding gift to my mother by a titled lady employer. She also requested that Mum attend her funeral, - the only one of her younger staff to do so.

Gwyn

I'm hoping I'm on the right 'board' here if not could you please send me i the right direction as Genesreunited message boards has changed a great del since I was here last. Thankyou.

So therefore my questions are thus:-

Would it be logical to see from the current owners if Wistow Hall and The Old School House, Swanbourne retain any records to servants and date of employ? And would it be feasible for a servant to move from Surrey to Cornwall??

Latterly where if possible could I track Thomas' journey during WW1??

All suggestions recieved gratefully, many thanx for your time and thoughts.

We have a conundrum in the family, as to why a titled family would dedicate a tree to a gardner( previously in their employ circa 1909) for WW1, albeit we know they opened up the hall for injured parties.
And why did they when they move give his widow a large school house with a position, espescially as her offspring were girls._ However the gardener married 1909, by 1910 he was in Dorking Surrey with family. Aug 1914 signed up for WW1, in 1915 Ethel gave birth to his youngest in Illogan, Redruth Cornwall,by the time of his death his wife and offspring were housed in Swanbourne in 1919.