76th Regiment of foot in Waterford

[tim_a]

This is a bit of a long-shot, hope someone can suggest something.

I have an ancestor named Francis Dalton, who was born in Portlaw, Co Waterford, in about 1847, and got married in St Mary's Mulberry St, Manchester, in 1879 (his wife, Catherine Dooley, was also a native of Portlaw).

The family story is that he joined the British Army, and possibly in the process changed his name from O'Sullivan to Dalton.

Now I've learned that the 76th Regiment of Foot was stationed in Waterford in 1861 (when Francis would have been 14 or so). The regiment then moved to Scotland, then England, before being sent to Madras in 1863, then Burma, and then back to England sometime between 1871 and 1876.

I haven't found any sign of any other obvious regiment being based in Waterford at about the right time.

So, my (admittedly wild) surmise is that Francis joined the 76th in Waterford, left when they returned to England in the 1870s, and made his home in Manchester. Can anyone suggest just how wild a guess that is, and how I might be able to go about confirming or denying it?

Tim

[Valda]

Relatively easily if you have access to The National Archives at Kew. You could check the muster rolls (quarterly paylists) for the 76th regiment while in Waterford to see whether a Francis Dalton/O'Sullivan enlisted and if so track Francis through the musters till he left the regiment.

The National Archives research guide for muster rolls.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=16

Regards

Valda

[tim_a]

Thanks for that pointer, that was interesting to read. It does sound like the information is at least potentially all there in the archives; the muster rolls for the 76th for the relevant years are listed. Unfortunately, Kew is rather a long walk from where I am (Sydney), so I doubt I'll be making the trek very soon.

Short of being bodily present at the archives, is there any other way to get details of who served where and when?

[Valda]

Thousands and thousands of men served in the many regiments of the British army. Recent indexes are only usually constructed for various events e.g. men who fought at Waterloo or the Crimea for instance. The War Office had their indexes through the muster rolls and there seems no real incentive for someone today to index the 76th Regiment's muster rolls or make an electronic version (since the quarters are repetitive lists).
So unless anyone knows differently I would have to say no for now and also for the foreseeable future. It would however be a relatively easy task for a researcher to check the muster rolls for you.

Regards

Valda

[Prussian1874]

My maternal ggg grandfather - Charles NASH- was in the 76th Regiment of Foot and traced his service record on Ancestry Library Edition in UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Admissions and Discharges, 1715-1925. That search took me to the Fold3 website which happened to be free recently and downloaded the record. I also found the 76th Foot stationed in Glasgow, Scotland, c/o Forces War Records, in the 1861 [military surrogate for the Census] Worldwide Army Index, which was compiled from musters contained in WO12/8237 (WO 10-11-12 War Office Pay Lists) and held at The National Archive (TNA), Kew.

Charles married an Elizabeth supposedly (per 1911 Census) from County Wexford, Ireland but have been unable to trace their marriage in the UK or Ireland.
https://www.myheritage.com/site-298095651/crispgordonfryarnorman-family

[jennyparry]

Hello there,

My name is Jenny (nee Grundy). my Mother was Susanne Margaret (Adams), her Mother was Ryan and her Mother was Margaret Dalton. Looking back, Catherine, her Mother was Catherine Dooley who married Francis Dalton as you talk about. This is all so very interesting.