I've recently discovered that my 5 x gt-grandfather was a farrier in the Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons or North British). I've had lots of helpful info from the curator at the Scots Greys' museum, and I've been matching up info here and there (FindMyPast, Ancestry, FreeREG) and following up clues. Putting this altogether chronologically:
William Jones was baptised in Warblington, Hampshire in 1787 (or possibly 1786). Note: his Chelsea Pensioner records give his birthplace as Westbourne "near Havant, Hampshire." Westbourne is in Sussex, but it's right on Hampshire border, next to Warblington. There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of people between the two parishes.
1805: He enlists as a private in the Scots Greys, as a farrier, while the regiment is at Colchester (as per his Chelsea Pensioner records).
1813: He and his wife Isabella baptise their daughter Susan in Peterborough (Susan is my 4 x gt-grandmother - it was finding this baptism which has a note specifying that William was a farrier in the Scots Greys which has led to all this research!)
1821: He and his wife Isabella baptise another daughter, Jane, at St Martin's in Birmingham (we know that the Scots Greys were in Birmingham at the time, and it specifies that William is a private in the 2nd Dragoons)
1827: Chelsea Pensioner record says that he was discharged due to ill health following 22 years of service.
He disappears!
Isabella is on the 1841 census in Warblington (Emsworth, a village in the parish) with Benjamin Jones. It gives her birthplace as Scotland and tracing her in the 1861 census specifies that she was born in Glasgow (yes, living on the south coast of England so as far as she could get from Glasgae without falling into the sea).
She is also with Jane, which led me to tracing that Birmingham baptism. Isabella's death certificate (1870) says she was the widow of Benjamin Jones "Master blacksmith", so she must've married him following William's death (I haven't found the marriage yet, or William's burial). There is a baptism for Benjamin in Westbourne, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's William's cousin (of some stripe, whether 1st or removed I don't know).
There is a marriage in Warblington in the 1830s for an Isabella Jones to a John Payne. On the censuses, she lives next door to Jane and near the older Isabella, and it shows that she was born in about 1810. The birthplace for this younger Isabella is Ireland. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this Isabella is another child of William and Isabella.
I've found out from the helpful chap at the Scots Greys museum that the regiment were in Ireland from 1808 until 1810. So it seems possible that Isabella could've been born in Ireland because her father was stationed there at the time.
I've search Findmypast in a vague way for Irish records, but I know very little about them. I have other Army family born in Ireland later in the 19th C and found their birth records on Ancestry, but I'm not having any luck with the Joneses.
I wouldn't be surprised if Isabella was a camp follower - that she had gone to Ireland from Scotland with her first husband and that he died and she married William Jones. But that's hypothetical! (she's about 3 or 4 years older than William).
My question is, what's the best way to search for British soldiers in Irish records? The Joneses weren't Catholic, so how do I search Protestant records? What churches did the non-Catholic soldiers attend in while they were posted to Ireland?
I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Ireland section of the forum or here in the Military section. I was hoping that by posting in the Military section I might find someone else who had had a similar family connundrum to solve!
I do know where in Ireland various troops were stationed and when, which should help... hopefully.
(I'm sure there's more children as there's that gap between 1813-21! I'm going to use the info on where the regiment was to target the appropriate county PRs. And I'd love it if my ancestor had a sibling born in Belgium while their dad was shoeing horses at Waterloo!)
Thanks,
Helen.
