Genealogy Chat

Can anyone advise of a good site for the Crimean War. I've been having trouble trying to find a Soldier who was supposedly killed in action. Any info greatly received Jenny

Jenny Not sure about this, but I think info about the war would be held at Kew. I've had a look in their index without success. Bernard Cochrane's death should have been registered - have you looked in the overseas deaths? That would at least give his date and place of death and possibly when you have found that you might be able to find out which regiment he was in. Then you could find the regimental museum/website which may help further. nell

All Crimea war records are at Kew. Not indexed on line or at Kew so you must know the regiment and then search for the enlistment papers. Can maybe shorten search by looking at medal entitlements but again at Kew not online. Once you have enlistment papers then you can search muster records to find out where your ancestor was and in which battles he fought and maybe trace to pension a widow if he was killed in Crimea. I have done this work myself at Kew for my Crimea Ancesto and I would suggset it takes about 2 days to do the research. Janet

Thanks Nell & Janet for the advice. best wishes Jenny

There is a Crimean War Forum on Genealogy.*com you could try this site as well. www.suite101.*com/welcome.cfm/crimean_war

There is a great website that has all sorts of service and casualty lists . . hang on while I find it. Lots of military sites on this just scroll down and find the Crimean War. Christine in NZ found 2 rellies on it last night. www(.)angelfire(.)com/ga/BobSanders/ARMYLINKS.html Veronica in Canada

Janet How hard was it to find the information in the Muster Rolls. I have had an email from TNA and they want to charge me 60 pounds to search for the info. This is my brick wall and can't go anywhere without information about my guy from the Royal Artillery 1854. I have some information Veronica in Canada

Thanks Peter & Veronica will look at both of these sites right now. Much appreciated Best wishes Jenny

Veronica Initially the muster rolls are tricky to understand as you go after the regt, which may be for example, the 39 foot and you get lost as part of the regt may be in Ireland, Part in India, part in Crimea War and you feel all at sea. Then you start to appreciate that the musters are in Quarters like the 1837 and you find your ancestor on one of the quarters and realise that his part of the regt was in the Crimea so you then keep with that part of the regt searching each quarter for your ancestor until you reach a point where it may say transferred to another regt or another battalion India or whatever and you suddenly get the hang of it. Once you have sussed the idea, you are then on a roll and it becomes quite easy. I went through the musters for mine from 1854 to 1872 and have got lots of places in Ireland he went to from this exercise, and as I have Irish Family History Interest this has been useful to me. I have built up quite a lot of minutiae from his time in the army which ran to about 30 pages of A4. Some of the others on the way were amusing, those who were fined so much for being drunk and imprisoned for so many days. Those that did not return from leave and so on. Once you have the minutiae you can then go after the history of the times and build an even bigger picture of life in the army at this time. If you have a partner who is also interested in this, then you can do it together and it is easier to do that way. My husband and myself did it together, he took the later years and I took the earlier years and we met in the middle. It took the two of us a whole day to do it and well worth it. It is time consuming so I am not surprised that TNA would want to charge you £60 but all record office research is very time consuming. I hope I have made this reasonably clear to you. I think in the end I decided to go after the records I knew he was in so started with the Crimea and once I had found him in a quarter it was easy to stay with him but finding him initially in the Musters was the difficult part. Janet

Janet thanks for the email and the reply on the thread. I think its looking quite reasonably priced to have the TNA do the looking for me. I have had a reply from one researcher recommended on TNA site and he charges 20 pounds per hour plus copying charges. I won't be in UK again until next year and I can't wait that long so probably will pay the 60. Veronica in Canada

Veronica If you are getting a researcher to do the work from TNA archives, I would say you are wise to get a TNA researcher to do the work for you, as they know what they are looking for, and may well do the work quicker than an ordinary researcher, so quicker will mean cheaper in the long run. Janet

Hi Bernice sorry I can't help with Canadian Army Records, I know I have seen it somewhere and there is a very knowlegable canadian guy comes on the threads every now and then called Gordon Henman. Why don't you try posting a thread with Canadian Army Records in its title and see what comes up. Veronica in Canada