Genealogy Chat

I have the Military record of an ancestor but cannot find what happened to him after he was discharged. Does anyone know of a record that was kept when a solider returned to civiilan life? he was youngish so was not a military pensioner.

He was discharged far from where he enlisted I have tried local records but no luck.

Cheers
Chris

You do not mention the time period so it is difficult to advise 100%.

If within the period where census information is covered and available then check for him on census records. Check also amongst marriage and death records.

No specific records will have been kept by the military once he had left the service and returned to civilian life.

Just because he was young doesn't necessarily mean that he wasn't discharged to pension - he could have been discharged through injury or illness and consequently received a pension. When was this and where did you get the record from? Depending on when it was there are records of payments of pension and his death should be noted but this is only up to about 1862 and you would need to know the town he was living in.

Once a man is discharged from the services, unless he has a pension, the military keep no records.........if you think about it, you'd realise that it would be impossible.

As you took the trouble to look for this man's military records, one must assume you have a connection..........so how did you work back to him, without knowing where he was, at least?

Thanks to those that repiled to me. I have done a lot of work tracing this man back to Aryshire in 1750 where he became the father of an illegitemate son. Form that sone we now have hundreds of decendants all over the worls.

I had a military reseacher find his record but have been unable to place him in the town he enlisted in. There is a line of thought he came form Idle but we cannot prove it even though the family names all fit.

I will check the census for the period he enlisted in thats a geat idea. I tried all sorts of other records no births or marrige. He was in his 20's when he enlisted.
He was discharged and was on the casuals list in 1783. I wil ltry cencus for that area as well. Thanks for the ideas.
Chris

Christine,

I'm afraid that you will find that there are no census records going back that far.

You will find that most men didn´t enlist in or near their home towns, nor did they necessarily join a regiment connected with their home area. Even if they did, they were often transferred to other regiments to "make up the numbers" especially in times of war where some regiments suffered large losses.

Which regiment was he in?