Scottish soldier

[sharronjury]

Can anyone help me or point me in the right direction. I have a Scottish ancestor who was in the military who had a child in Dublin in 1812, one in Guadalupe in 1814 and then two in Barbados in 1817 and 1819. Was it common for wives to travel with their husbands and what units would have been involved in all those places?

[GR2]

In relation to the first part of your question, a certain number of wives were allowed to follow the army. I have an ancestor in the 10th Regiment of Foot who had a son born in Sicily in 1808 and a daughter born in France.

Although he was a native of Aberdeenshire, both he and his brother served in an English based regiment. There is no guarantee that your ancestor would have actually served in a Scottish regiment. Lots of Englishmen served in the Scottish regiments too.

[KGarrad]

Info re the Invasion of Guadeloupe here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Guadeloupe_%281810%29

Which states:
"men belonging to the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th West India Regiments, the 1st Foot, 15th Foot, 19th Foot, 25th Foot, 63rd Foot, 90th Foot and the Royal York Rangers, as well as 300 garrison artillerymen and various militia forces."

Presumably, some of these stayed on until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814?

[sharronjury]

Thank you both for your help. I have a photo of this man in a kilt, with a gun at his side so I presumed it was a scottish regiment. I wonder if it is possible to identify from the photo?

[bleckie]

Hi

If you post the photo on the armed forces board on this site someone will probably be able to identify
the photograph

Yours Aye
BruceL

[terianne]

Have you tried the Archivists at the Museum at Edinburgh Castle.  Worth a try - their knowledge is very varied and extensive regarding Scottish regiments, etc

[gortonboy]

hi,,what is his name?  when and where was he born?

[sharronjury]

Thanks for the suggestions. His name is John Isles. He was born in 1776 in Clayworth Nottinghamshire and died in 1841. The latter children in the family were born in Leith.

[Forfarian]

If your man died in 1841, he cannot be the one in the photograph.

Wikipedia says that the first photograph of a person was by Daguerre in 1838; he photographed a street scene with an exposure time of about ten minutes, so most of the people and moving vehicles in the street were not recorded, but one man who was having his boots polished stood still long enough to be captured in the image.

Portrait photography was not really practicable until the technology had moved on to the point that exposures measured in seconds rather than minutes became possible.