Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi,
Got a newsletter the other day from FMP telling me that Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records were now available. There are approximately 289,783 records of men who were pensioned out of the British Army between 1883 and 1900.

Having sought for years, without success, a maternal g.g.father missing from the 1881 census, I finally found a clue on a birth cert that said he was a soldier in 1877. That was over 5 years ago and I hadn't been able to find his service record. A friend even did a search at Kew for me without success.

Until today! Used FMP's new Chelsea Pensioners database and after a fruitless search with his real age, widened the age span and BINGO! There he was, with all of 11 [!} pages of his life from 1876 to 1988.

What a great start to the weekend!

Dickiesam

PS: Perhaps an Announcement or a Sticky would be appropriate re the availability of this important new database?

Dickiesam.

Your feet must be floating inches of the floor & Head in Clouds!

I just got the FMP mail myself (hav'nt done any searches Yet!), hope I am so Lucky!

Great news Dickiesam, it's always exciting having a find after years of searching.

Had an email 3 hours ago from FMP saying the Chelsea Pensioners records had been added.

Must look into how much their subscription is, have got Ancestry, just wonder if I can stretch the pension a bit

Happy reading

Cheers
Erika

Wow Dickiesam, that is brilliant! Just goes to show that with patience, one day something will turn up and there he is.

Head up an announcement for all to see on the Not Genealogy Board - I know it is genealogy but not connected with a place, so you know what I mean.

dickiesam wrote:Hi,
Got a newsletter the other day from FMP telling me that Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records were now available. There are approximately 289,783 records of men who were pensioned out of the British Army between 1883 and 1900.

Having sought for years, without success, a maternal g.g.father missing from the 1881 census, I finally found a clue on a birth cert that said he was a soldier in 1877. That was over 5 years ago and I hadn't been able to find his service record. A friend even did a search at Kew for me without success.

Until today! Used FMP's new Chelsea Pensioners database and after a fruitless search with his real age, widened the age span and BINGO! There he was, with all of 11 [!} pages of his life from 1876 to 1988.

What a great start to the weekend!

Dickiesam

PS: Perhaps an Announcement or a Sticky would be appropriate re the availability of this important new database?

Brilliant.... success like that really spurs you on so pleased for you..
Ann

Congratulations. I'm still looking for at least one lost Chelsea Pensioner so it's given me new hope. Enjoy the sweet smell of success over the weekend
Barbara

Fantastic... that sort of story has to inspire everyone else...

steve

steve p wrote:Fantastic... that sort of story has to inspire everyone else...
steve

Inspiring indeed! And then you start examining the Records closely. From elation to puzzlement to bewilderment........

The enlistment was for 12 years, being 8 years with the Colours and 4 years with the Reserve. On enlistment in 1876 the man concerned, Robert,....
A) Lied about his age. He 'lost' over 5 years, bringing him from 32 to 26!
B) Lied about being single. He had married in 1865 and had 2 children.
C) He lived and worked in Liverpool yet enlisted in the Royal Artillery at the Fort in New Brighton.
D) Lied about his next of kin. Named his mother, "but address unknown". She was actually in the West Derby Workhouse where she died in 1881.
The record has been later amended to show Next of Kin as "Mary, wife with husband". Whatever that means? In 1881 Mary was by then living with another man as his wife using his surname and had a son by him in 1879! Remember this notable birth!
E) A daughter was born in 1877 with Robert named as the father, occupation Soldier. He was in Fermoy, Ireland when she was born and had been in the Army a little over 6 months. He was then in India from 1879 to 1884.
F) His Discharge Papers show an amendment as to his 'marital condition'. Says he married Mary Hanmer on the 27th of March 1885. That's exactly 20 years later to the day he did actually marry her. The 1885 is very clear! But, in 1891 Mary is not with her legal husband, is still using the other man's surname she used in 1881 and calls herself a widow, presumably because her common-law spouse of 1881 had died in 1884.

Anyone reading between the lines? Does the phrase 'Can of worms' spring to mind? That son born in 1879 was my maternal grandfather and Robert couldn't have fathered him despite my wildest hopes!
It's so true.. there's nowt as queer as folk!

Dickiesam

"Mary, wife with husband"

Usually means that the wife was with Him (in Married Quarters or living nearby'Off Camp' ), maybe He had A.N. other Mary living with him as his wife?

Pegasus wrote:

"Mary, wife with husband"

Usually means that the wife was with Him (in Married Quarters or living nearby'Off Camp' ), maybe He had A.N. other Mary living with him as his wife?

Oh Pegasus!
Did those people ever think for one minute about us folk a 130 or so years later trying to unravel their lives? If Robert did, then he's leading me on a not-so-merry dance. He's no longer my maternal g.g.father.... I least I don't think so!

Dickiesam

Dickiesam.

One of the 'problems' for people in those times was that Divorce was (nearly) unheard of, other that in some well publisized Upper Class cases!

Also, soldiers quite frequently (if some published historians are to believed) did'nt think anything of having one (or more) Women in every Camp/Port!

This as You say makes it even harder for us to 'trace our roots'.

Oh dear Dickiesam, I'm loving every minute of this - and so are you!!

MaryA wrote:Oh dear Dickiesam, I'm loving every minute of this - and so are you!!

Hi MaryA,
Glad you are enjoying this saga. Not sure if I am.... Having spent so long tracking down a very elusive g.father whose forbears I thought I had tracked back to the 1780s, finding him hiding under another name only to discover his gene pool is from a totally different source.... *X?!

Now I am faced with finding a surname that seems to change spelling every time the wind changes or the enumerator knocks on the door! McAnaspri, McAnasprie, McAnaspie, McAnaspy, etc. Can't even be sure of the Mac bit. Got the first one in 1881. That's where my g.father Thomas was hidden. His father is James McAnaspia in 1871 and he claims to be a Lancastrian..... So where are you, James, in 1861 and 1851?

I have so far found a Charles in 1881 [from Liverpool] and a Thomas in 1871 and 61 [from Ireland], both the same trade as James, plasterer, but no connections apart from that. Hey ho! Must press on regardless!

Dickiesam