Was he Dennison or Johnson ?

[Bertieone]

No doubts and progress made from initial enquiry, we will have to wait and see if SuffolkSandry has any luck with the Holdsworth contacts.

John Johnson, Ship Officer still eludes us, dare I mention the number of Scandinavians bearing that name who are seafarers.

[AndyJ]

I have a different certified copy of the marriage certificate. It is written in a different hand and it reads quite clearly " Rgt. at Aldershot". Make more sense ?

From that I would assume that the 2nd battalion KLR was in Aldershot at that point. I've checked the war diaries for 2/10 but unfortunately the ones for the majority of 1916 do not appear to be available. Up to Feb 1916 the battalion were stationed in Maidstone. Prior to that they were at Oxted, Surrey. Would you like copies of the war diaries that I have: Jan-Feb 1916 and Feb 1917 to July 1918? They are pdfs.

[Martin-46]

That would be nice Andy, I'm trying to build up as complete a picture as possible. You never know when one thing might lead to another. Is it possible to see if the SB or LR had any special interest in gas. I think they sent him on a course to Trinity College Cambridge to "learn all about gas". That at least suggests that they thought he was the right man - confirmation that he was a reasonably well qualified analytical chemist.
I am currently going through various maritime records. The Canadian Archive does have a lot of crew list for many of the Lusitania sailings but also many are missing. None of them are on line.
Also found that the Pacific Steam Navigation Company started sailings from Liverpool to South America around 1906. They started up on west coast of S. America but ran into financial and other problems so switched a couple of ships to the Atlantic. There are a few crew lists available but not turned up anything yet. Did he really go "up the Amazon"?

[Bertieone]

Forces records,

[AndyJ]

Martin, pm me your email address and I'll send the pdfs over to you. You won't find any references to individual soldiers in the war diaries unless it concerns their death or capture.
Bertie, yes that clinches the fact that the second battlion and hence JFDJ were in Aldershot at the requisite time. We move forward in small increments!

[SuffolkSandry97]

Unfortunately I have not made any progress in finding out more about Lilly Holdsworth and what happened to her after she became widowed in 1909. Of the messages I sent to 3 other Ancestry members who feature Thomas Thornely Holdsworth in their trees, one has replied saying she has no information, one person has read my message but not replied and the last has not yet read my message. If any new information is forthcoming, I will update. As to researching Lilly's subsequent life through potential marriage or death certificates, with so many possible variables of her name (both christian and surname), year of birth and area of living or dying, it would be prohibitively expensive applying for the various possibly relevant marriage and death certificates after 1909, unless I just got very lucky early on. When I get time, I might try looking through the probate records to try to match to some of the possible death records previously mentioned, to see if I can eliminate some of the options. Otherwise, we might just have to wait patiently for the 1921 census to be published next year, so that we can search through that for any signs of Lilly/Lillian/Sarah. Patience is a virtue! It's just a shame I don't have much of it!

[MaryA]

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